Reflections and Good News

After a month of opera, I feel creatively revived and ready to tackle some more projects on the house. I have next week back at home, then I hit the road again for another 6 weeks. I've had the luxury of dreaming about the house again, much like when we first put the offer on the house. I've had several "brilliant" ideas.

The first of my brilliant ideas was inspired by a post on apartment therapy.

Not to fear cleanly folks. There won't be any grease spatter besmearing the chef's image in my kitchen. However, while fixing a delicious espresso drink, there might be a little something extra to reflect upon. The built-in residing in the dining room has a mirror above the center portion. I want to create a similar built-in feel with the coffee/wine buffet in the kitchen.

The buffet in the kitchen consists of 2-24" upper cabinets (12" deep) hung over 2-24" base cabinets (12" deep). The unit will be placed in the corner of the kitchen on the wall closest to the dining room and opposite the dining room built-in. It is flanked on the other side by a pantry. The upper doors are glass with divided lights that, bare with me, mirror the dining room built-in.

We already have two huge mirrored closet doors that we removed from the cottage apartment. With a few measurements, a glass cutter and pair of pliers, I'll have a cool and free mirror detail. An added bonus is that the buffet will go in directly across from the glass kitchen door - reflecting sunlight!

Good News - The issue with the hole in the ceiling of the small bedroom, mentioned in this post, has been taken care of. It is only a matter of when I can get the ceiling and wall work scheduled.

Indeed the walls need quite a bit of work as well. What started out as a room with four complete walls and an intact ceiling as turned into a larger project than anticipated. I admit, my penchant for well done details and gung-ho demolition attitude turned the lower half of the room into the unstable environment it is today. When I tore down the wood paneling masquerading as wainscot, I left behind exposed lathe and crumbling plaster in my wake. But that was only the beginning. When the exterior dry-rot work was going on, something not so surprising occurred, an interior wall began to migrate south. Below is a picture of such a corner in the small bedroom. The upper corner sports a hairline crack which has since turned into a 3" gap with the plaster slowly sliding down the wall.