Finally...Professionals!!!

We're finally at the point in the kitchen remodel, where the pros can get in there -- marking the end of my serious sweat equity in the project.

New lights & Painting
We had some electricians come out, remove the old fluorescent lights in our kitchen, install recessed lighting, install a light for our pantry, move some outlets up by 4-5 ft., and prepare the cabinets for cabinet lights.

Once that was done, painters came in patched where the electricians did their work, painted the ceiling, and painted the rest of the walls in the room.

Painted walls, painted ceiling, and new recessed lighting!

I'll miss using my phone's flashlight in my pantry to find food, but onwards and upwards I suppose...

New* Cabinet Install
When we were first talking to vendors about this project, I noticed one day that the floating island we had, looked like it could be a natural extension of our existing counter tops. The guy building the rest of our cabinets agreed, and came out last week to fix that sucker in place saving us some decent coin.

Our old kitchen island being reused

Getting Ready for Backsplash
Removing the backsplash last week was key in a) getting the electrician in and working (we couldn't have raised the outlets that needed raising nor prep for the under cabinet lights without it being gone), which b) got the painters in and working and also c) allowed the cabinet to be affixed with the outlets moved to their proper place.

It also allowed our tile guy to come during a time it would be easiest (and cheapest) for him to do prep work for the eventual backsplash install. He removed the old (emphasis on ooooolddddd) plaster, and installed new backer board that our backsplash will eventually be tiled on to.

Backer board installed!

Next?
This week's "big" task will simply be picking out the sections of marble we want to use for the cabinets and our new island!

So much better than sweaty Khaner...