Key West Kitchen Re-Do

I thought the galley-style kitchen was cute when we bought our house in midtown Key West. It just needed a coat of paint to bring out the green and orange accents in the tile, a nice print for the wall, and a cute rug by the sink. It was compact, something that the kitchens in my last two homes were definitely not. Now that I have lived here for more than four years, 'compact' has become 'cramped.' The cabinets are inadequate for our dish ware and pantry items, so the limited counter space becomes even more limited with cereal boxes and drying dishes. And don't EVEN get me started on the two bins on top of the refrigerator! Pull one down to grab the plastic wrap or aluminum foil (and no matter how hard I try to remember, I always pull the WRONG bin down) and get bonked on the head by a plastic container or a box of storage baggies. So my husband and I decided to upgrade and expand. We started by purchasing new cabinets at Ikea. They go with our style and the other Danish Modern furniture in this house. Those are here and ready for placement. All of our food and dishware is on open shelving in the living room, which is actually pretty convenient, I have to say. Kind of like living in a store. The top cabinets are down and waiting for pick up, and the base cabinets will be gone over the weekend. That tile on the walls certainly hasn't cooperated with our removal plans. Even though I've watched countless people on HGTV tap a pry bar to have the tile just pop right off, ours has taken chunks of wall off along with it. Oh well....we will definitely need more drywall replacement than we originally thought. A bonus to this project was discovering an unknown skylight in the attic and that there is absolutely no insulation up there. So as we run our air conditioning most of the year, the top level of the house is just cooking away.....creating extra condensation, which can lead to black mold. That will be fixed. And of course we are dealing with 'island time.' Things aren't speedy here in Key West, that is for sure. People call you back when they call you back, and come by when they come by. Next week the electricians will run the new wiring, and we will face the roughest part of the project - not having a kitchen at all. The kids will love having to dine out every night for a short time, and I'm sure I can use the microwave on some flat surface. Some place. If I can find a clear spot among the piles. When the going gets tough inside the house, here in KW we can just head outdoors. Our trusty grill is under the palm trees, and if we dine on hot dogs, burgers, and s'mores for a few nights, so be it.  :)