We have walls!

Today was the long awaited day for our drywall guy :) to put up our kitchen walls.

Drywall. Such a messy job!  Plastic wrapped the entire eating area in preparation for the job.

Here he is, Mr. Drywall himself, checking out his handiwork.

Just minutes ago I took this picture of Dad and Jim, doing some clean-up work.  On the far left you can see the added portion to the old wall.  This now allows it to be deep enough (on the other side) to slide in the fridge.

And here you see the half-wall, where the counter will go. 

Maureen and I spent this morning looking at tiles that will go behind the stove and used as a backsplash as well.

We thought we were only looking.  You know, just to get ideas.  I had an idea of what I wanted (pretty much from day 1) but knew it best to "window shop" in order to choose wisely.  Besides, the thought was to get the kitchen done, step back for a day or 2 or more, and then decide.

So.  I found exactly what I knew I had wanted from day 1. Exactly. 

And when I saw it I had no desire to look at anything else.  My only vacillation was between subway and square tiles.  What I wanted came only in the larger squares (too large for the area) but I wasn't at all disappointed about this;  I fell in love with the subway tiles as soon as the woman (who was helping us) laid them out.  

We also wanted something to break up the pattern of the tile work, especially behind the stove.  We found it! A small piece of glass tile (saffron/straw color) that plays beautifully with sand/tan/butter color of the tile itself, which I picked (from day 1) to add warmth to the white and black of the kitchen.  

 A hint of it here and there - not a pattern but a random placing - and you have little jewels in the kitchen.  Maureen and I (and Dad later, when I brought the samples home) had also loved the blue glass.  So pretty against the warm tile. But our lady helper advised that this would stand out a lot, almost to the point of competing with the black counter. 

I brought all the samples home and Dad was immediately sold.  Which is GOOD because this particular tile is on sale until next Monday.  

So all along we'd been thinking we would wait until the end of the project to select the tile. But sometimes a girl knows what she wants.  And this girl definitely knew what she wanted.