I can see why it might be advisable to remove the left/rt portions of tile, but I would be inclined to wait until ithe kitchen is completed before deciding. If, as your gut tells you, it "needs" to come down, nothing is really lost except a little more time with it up. Perhaps knowing you are not "locked-in" or committed to it, will help give the perspective to view it more objectively while deciding for sure. This way you will not only have the chance to see it with everything else in place, but you will also have the opportunity to get used to it, before deciding if you truly dislike it, or just haven't gotten used to it being there. As subtle (in color) as our tile is, after months of looking at white painted Sheetrock, it still looked "different" and stood out when we looked at our kitchen. Once we became accustomed to it, we couldn't imagine our walls without it. That's how I am with many things--after living with a blank wall or empty space for any period of time, even a long awaited piece of furniture or decor item jumps out at me, and almost seems like too much, until I get used to the vacant space being filled. Thanks for the compliments on our backsplash Laura and andreak100! It's the Opera Glass tile from Artistic Tile (Stilatto pattern) in Wolfgang White. It does read greenish-blue(-grey) in certain lights or times of day. We had to think about that one while deciding if we wanted to use it, and obviously decided to go for it! Good luck Laura! Honestly, whatever you decide will look terrific!

For me, redoing the floor is not in the picture. I just don't have the budget for it. I also can't replace the cabinets even though I don't like them either; but maybe someday I can reface/redoor them. I hate all that 6" white tile. It's so.....white and dated. Since the countertops are the only thing I can do I'm trying to think of something. the floors really don't match the countertops as much as it looks like. the counter is pure white. the floor is an off-white with grey motelling(?) through it and blends into the tile floors throughout the rest of the house. and PS: please don't mind making negative comments - i asked because I wanted opinions.

What a bunch of hooey. Your DH is right. Anything can be moved and you've got a lot of leeway in that wall. Yes, your wires should be stapled so someday they're not drilled thru, or a nail put into them because they're resting against the back of the drywall. There doesn't seem to be any reason at all that the cabinets should come down. This is a lateral move, not vertical. My electrician God has done far more difficult spaces than this, crazier applications, and remedied a lot more bad wiring than that little thing. I hate a whole bunch of outlets and switches all over the place. Throughout my house, I've consolidated into larger switch/outlet boxes. Simply to streamline. Doesn't mean it's necessarily easy for my Electrician, but he just does what I want. In my kitchen, I have light switch panels on either side of my sink. Left: peninsula pendants, and 2 outlets. Right: over sink light, garbage disposer, and two outlets. Also Decora, BTW. What he had to do to get them into one box seemed like a big deal to me, but he simply said, "With the proper equipment and tools, anything can be done." He also said he's taken a lot of my ideas to use in his own house. So there. Your fellow is pulling that figure out of his bummmy to put you off. The thing is, he loses nothing if you say, "go for it," anyway!

So we finally decided and the tile went up earlier this week. We are living about 40 minutes away from the house right now, I stopped by the house last evening. We ended up using the suggestion of taping up paper with pictures of the tile - thank you for that suggestion!!! I tried to do photoshop, but I wasn't doing a great job. Seeing it in person helped. We ended up tiling the area above the range and then the 18 inch area between the uppers and counter. In the open shelf area the 18 inches below the lowest shelf are tile, but then above the shelves is paint. Sorry for the poor quality cell phone pictures. It was dusk and the electricity wasn't on. I was also holding my 1 year old at the time.