Demolition Has Begun!

Goodbye old 1960s kitchen!  Well... almost.  We started to clean the slate for the new kitchen over the weekend.  With the help of Jeff's dad some of the dreary brown particleboard & plastic cabinetry is now gone.  It wasn't going down easy though--it put up a pretty valiant fight when we ran into some problems.

For the cabinet surrounding the sink Jeff had to turn the water off, but the valve didn't work.  They had to make 2 trips to the hardware store to buy a cap.  They also made 3 trips to his dad's toolbox back at home to get this started.

Another cabinet almost came down, but something was catching and not detaching.  There was a hard-wired under cabinet light that we weren't aware of.  Thank goodness the bulb didn't break!  The rest of the cabinets should come out this week and then onto the harvest gold printed vinyl floor. 

We have an appointment to look at flooring and discuss the backsplash options this Friday.  I want to get something that won't compete with the granite.  I'm starting to see how this kitchen is gonna look, and I'm really liking it.

I've also been shopping for the little details.  I bought 3 of these mini pendant lights to install over the island:



Photo from Estate Lighting store Ebay.com

 They look like little mini chandeliers.  They were hard to find!  I have ecclectic taste, and don't care for the ultra-modern choices that are popular in the stores right now.  I enjoy vintage-inspired pieces, so these were perfect.  And I got them on Ebay for a very good price.  No one else likes them though:-(  But we do:-) 

They remind me of childhood happy memories.  Ever since I was a kid I was completely obsessed with chandeliers.  Most of my family had them hanging in their dining rooms.  On special occassions I was always captivated by their beauty and the way they throw spectrum light all around the room.  I remember my mom preparing for holidays and taking hers down from above the dining room table and washing it piece by piece in the kitchen sink.  Then she hung the strings of crystals on a wire hanger in the window over the sink to dry.  When the sun shone through them, it was absolutely gorgeous.  It always made me happy to watch her.  I always said, "Someday I will have one of those crystal lights too."  Now I do:-)  I think they will look stunning reflecting on the white granite we selected.

Photo from beltrame.uk.com



Photo from Ikea.com

 Thinking ahead to food storage we stopped at Ikea to check out glass storage for dry goods.  We bought the Burken Canisters.  



Photo from Ikea.com



I'm already using them and they are great--I can open them with one finger with the little handle on top, and it is air-tight to keep the food fresh.  We also bought the Rajtan Spice Jars. 

These will come in handy since I grow and dry my own spices and make my own various spice rubs.  They didn't have anything that I could use for 5lbs of flour or sugar though, so we went to Bed Bath & Beyond for The Anchor Hocking Heritage Hill Gallon Glass Storage Jar.   



Photo from bedbathbeyond.com