I am so happy to see you here! I will have to go back and see if i can retrieve my posts... thought I would make them into a little book for my daughter, with photos. Quick run-down on the bathroom (not travels, no time) - The kitchen has a rather elegant sliding door with beveled glass panels. Painted white, since this was the original colour. GD's new bathroom has the doors I had picked earlier; i thought of polishing them but decided sprayed automobile paint (on a resin primer) would wear better. Especially since it is such a small bathroom, and she is so splashy. I have this finish in my kitchen and it has lasted 15 years now. A tad chipped here and there, but only needs a wipe down once a week. Same finish for the balcony doors, also split like the bathroom. We have a new wardrobe, a study table with built-in shelves, and a small chest of drawers for her odds and ends. I want to re-tile the tiny balcony, more as a little statement. Currently we are looking at Portuguese tiles, though I did think a mosaic with a funky cat might be nice. Let me see the costing. The room will be painted a neutral adobe, with bright white woodwork and an off-white ceiling. This means she can go wild with cushions and covers. Other changes in the flat; We have changed the glass in the master bedroom and living room from small cramped panes to a single pane for each section with a 1" bevel all round. Doubles the cost of the glass, but looks so elegant! The air-conditioning is being re-located. The compressors were all mounted in the bedroom and living room balconies, which looked terrible and meant the balconies (very narrow, only 30" deep) couldn't be used for anything. Not even plants. So they are being moved so that the compressors can be mounted at the rear of the building. two down, one to go. Now we can put in some nice plants, fishtail palms etc. The kitchen counter on one side came out intact and will be reused elsewhere. I am planning overhead storage, cupboards, and a draining cupboard for plates and glasses. Right now there is no dish washer, though a place is earmarked, but for now I will put in a cupboard with steel racks for cups, glasses and plates, all hidden behind pressed glass doors. This is all in the planning stage.... Pictures in a little while, they are mostly on my ipad and don't transfer well to the mac. They come without numbers... so I have to rename the or something. Somebody tell me how to do this!

1. Keep only what you need or want and avoid duplicates. Ahh. if only life were only that simple. You move in together with a "relationship" and your partner's "stuff" is "nicer" so you sell everything. Well, ladies and gentlemen, if it doesn't work out, if it wasn't "yours" before you moved in you'll have nothing when you move out. Consider all options. Store items of "yours" for a while that you'd like to keep, just in case. :) Store Grandma's antiques that you like that you may regret selling. If you Hate the antiques, sell them. 2. If your new abode is only YOURS.,,.keep only what you love and eliminate duplicates.

Usually when you get side panels you automatically have space on the sides. If you have a full depth cabinet on the top, you automatically have space at the top and in most cases you will have leave at least 1 inch of extra room for the back of the refrigerator, so there is always air circulation since everything is enclosed. In the 70's they use to make a small recessed space behind like Fred said, today you don't have to do that, most Ref have flat backs, recessed wiring, not to mention the supply for ice-maker also comes in a flush mounting kits for the wall... so pretty much everything is recessed and only space you need is for air circulation and 1" is more then enough. In addition, if you make recessed area now and you push ref to far you will never get your doors open so doing all that is a waste of time, in addition most manufacturers starting to make 30" side panels.

I have the same kind of bathroom and saw the same video. I used an angle grinder to remove one of the walls. You have to have hearing, breathing, and eye protection. I don't think there is any way to avoid the dust. I'm going to direct a fan to an open window in the bathroom. My sinks are top mount so there was no problem removing it. I replaced the faucet only for now. I also changed out the drain and stopper. The old one was rusted to the sink. I had to bang on it with my loader from my tractor with the sink upside down to get it off, lol. I have put off removing the rest of the wall and the cabinet because it is such an ordeal. You might check with Daltile to see if they still make the tile. Maybe try cutting away the cabinet while keeping the counterop supported and then dropping it so that the joint gets more exposed? I'll be interested to know if you get to this before me but I'm doing an entire gut job.