Renovation revelations

Who's having the party?

99 bottles of wine on the table....

We are. 

Its a knock-down-the-wall party. We took out all our wine to prepare.....and to move our wine rack into a new spot.

Either way.  It's starting to look like a party over here.

We met with our contractor as soon as we were back in town and we are ready to get this party started.

We finalized our plans, measured the cabinets, picked our finishes, sketched our plans and settled on a timeline.  

My photoshopped vision

No project can officially start until I map out the project with blue painters tape.

Technically, this is the first time I've done this, but this is also our first renovation project, so I think it will be my "thing" going forward.

It kind of reminds me of a chalk outline of a body, but instead, it's a tape outline of our new island/peninsula. 

In case you have a hard time visualizing it, I blacked out what is getting knocked down.

The counter tops will come out to the blue line on the floor with the stools underneath

New cabinets will be where the wall is, with a big counter top

In case that also doesn't help, here are my before and (sketched) afters.

Current view:

Kitchen, wall and dining room

Sketched view:

Side profile, looking at the kitchen wall

Current view:

Kitchen wall, dining room is behind that wall

Sketched view:

No more wall, dining room is in the empty space

Current View:

Looking toward the kitchen

 Sketched view:

Kitchen is in the blank space

Here is the run down of what we are planning:

• Knock down the existing wall
• Install a header across the top of the knocked-down wall
• Install new hardwood floors throughout the kitchen and den to match existing ones in the dining room
• Get custom cabinets built with wine storage on the end cap
• Get matching granite to existing counters
• Install can lights in the kitchen ceiling and header
• Install new chandelier in dining room
• Install new glass subway tile back splash

This is the project I have been waiting to do since we moved into the house (more about that here). 

We closed on the house on March 1 of last year, and my goal is to be finished with this project by March 1 of this year.  Instead of toasting to our new home, we will toast to our first major renovation.

I can't wait.