Hill Country House Progress - Mid-April

We have been having computer problems, so I haven't been able to post easily! I have a little catching up to do now on our progress. 

We're at the stage where we have gone into a perfectly good house and demolished it! I know that it will be nice when we finish, but I really dislike this part of the process. Here you see some of the rubble after removing cabinets and walls. We have also removed the appliances, which we will donate. We will reuse and repaint the cabinets, so we really worked carefully getting them down instead of taking a sledge hammer to them. 

 We have a plan to rearrange the kitchen and add a "dirty kitchen" (I know, most of us already have one of those and WHY would you want to ADD one!!!). Other names for this special room are "butler's kitchen" and "working pantry", not to be confused with a butler's pantry which is between a kitchen and dining room. This is a large pantry with a sink, dishwasher, counter for crock pots, toasters, etc. as well as storage shelves for food items. The idea behind it is that you do all the "dirty" work in there before company comes and the kitchen area will stay clean. We have a very open living space, so the idea appealed to me and I had the space, so why not? The extra dishwasher is for dishes during a party. Since we will get a free dishwasher when we buy our range and we have a dishwasher to use already, we thought this was a useful idea. The cabinets had to be removed so that we could cut a door through to the former laundry room (which we will move to a room near the bedrooms)  beside the kitchen. This 8' x 12' room will become the "dirty kitchen/pantry".  We have taken extra cabinets to the future quilting studio and will use them in there. (I have that planned out also! I'm big on re-using things!)
Here is what I am wanting for my countertops around the perimeter of the kitchen:
                     

    It is a grayed white "leathered" marble called Crema Marfil. It has the look of honed limestone, which is what we have on the outside of the house. The Texas hill country is on a limestone bedrock and there are outcroppings everywhere. I love the idea of something so natural decorating my house. Although marble is porous, it is not as porous as limestone! The honed marble is supposed to be a little easier to keep. (I haven't finalized my choice, but I LOVE this!) My dad is going to make us a mesquite wood countertop for the island. 

Here is a sample of a mesquite countertop. This  link will take you to the website of the Texas company who makes these!

We haven't talked to a fabricator yet, so this is not a "done deal", but after walking through row after row of glossy granite, I just wasn't falling in love with any of it. I told Doug I would know it when I saw it - and I did. It isn't anything like what I would have thought of on my own. I'm the same way with anything I buy. I have to have an emotional reaction to it before I want to part with my money!

I know that you can't really see yet what we're going to do. I wish it were all finished so you could see that we haven't ruined our house! (Phooey! I wish I could see that we haven't ruined our house! ) The floor guy can't put in the floor until the kitchen is finished. We are getting some bids on help with the kitchen, but one carpenter can't even start until late June! The other hasn't found a chance to come out and give us a bid! I guess we are in a holding pattern as far as the kitchen goes. 
If you didn't see my last quilted wall hanging, I posted it last week HERE for the Superpower Blog Hop. The birds I appliqued are two of the hundreds common to the hill country - mockingbird and scarlet tanager. 
                                                

A Glimpse of the Before - My Kitchen.

It was too cold this weekend to go to the new house. The hill country had snow and ice! We knew really cold weather was coming and turned off the water and drained the pipes. Since we had a wedding to attend on Saturday, there just wasn't time to go and make it worthwhile. We'll be there this coming weekend, though. 
In the meantime, I thought you might want a peak at my kitchen as it is now.                        
                                             BEFORE:

Here is the 29" cooktop. It will be replaced along with the backsplash. The wallpaper border will be removed. 

Looking into the breakfast room. We plan to reconfigure this peninsula.

(Don't know what the "rust colored" stuff on the front of the fridge is, but we're guessing maybe it is glue left from having either wood, wallpaper, or something else on it.) The ovens will be removed since I plan on a range with two ovens. The archway that barely shows leads into the dining room.

Island looks a little out of place, but probably looked fine when the kitchen was all furnished. I'm going for a bigger one or maybe two islands! This is a big kitchen!

Now, I know that this is not a bad kitchen. Some people would love this just as it is. BUT, we are going to be making this a dream kitchen. We plan on replacing the 18 year old appliances and doing a little reconfiguring. The cabinets are really nice, so we will keep them. 
Remember, we have to replace an entire household of furniture. We will buy a few quality pieces and fill in with second hand findings. So far, the only piece of furniture we have is a nice leather sectional from Ethan Allen. (Found in the clearance room, but brand new and more than half off!) Since we will not be moving into the house for about a year, I have time to search for just what I want.

 Here is the one wall I didn't show above. It is a desk area. We plan on removing all of the cabinets and the pantry from this wall, lengthening it some, and using this as the "setting" for a nice 48" gas range, flanked by cabinets.
 That's pretty much it for the kitchen. I'll give an update about removing that tile. Hopefully, it will not be a frustrated rant!
 I LOVE making a house my own. What a blessing to have this opportunity. I can't wait to show you progress on the kitchen. (Actually, I can't wait to MAKE progress on the kitchen!)
I'm working on some ideas for some quilty artwork. Hopefully, I'll have something to show you soon.)