Zep, thank you so much for all you time and advise. I truly appreciate it. Can I ask you about the log I posted at 14:41 particularly the double entries? Acrobat.com Acrobat.com Ad-Aware Ad-Aware Adobe AIR Adobe AIR Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 CyberLink DVD Suite CyberLink DVD Suite Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer HP MediaSmart TV HP MediaSmart TV HP MediaSmart Webcam HP MediaSmart Webcam LabelPrint LabelPrint etc? Why are there doubles? I have to log off for the night, but if you have any more suggestions I will check back tomorrow. Thanks again. Carol

I assume an outdated house in disrepair would only sell quickly and for over asking, if it was priced very low and/or in an area without much to choose from. My home was just a standard cookie-cutter 80s ranch, 1400 square feet on .20 acre lot. 5 houses were for sale on my street at the same time -- ouch...some the exact same model. The market is flooded and there is a ton to choose from in the price range. But almost everything comparable was outdated and didn't show well. There are also a ton of foreclosure's and short sales that are priced lower, giving buyers a chance to 'get a deal' that I had to compete with. I watched Designed To Sell, House Hunters, Property Virgins, and Unsellables constantly for months leading up to us putting our house on the market. I took what I learned and just made simple changes for paint, decor, etc. We did a cheap redo of our kitchen to get rid of the original cabs and we put in ***gasp*** Corian counters, haha. Buyers loved seeing solid surface after every other house in our range had laminate. Our Realtor is a top agent in the area for over 30 years and she was very concerned that it would not appraise for the offer that our buyer gave. There were no comparables in the area that were priced near as high. We priced a little high, knowing that we'd probably get lower offers -- never dreamed we'd get an offer for over asking. But every single person that saw our home wanted to buy it. Staging can make a huge difference. It did for us! I really think the only reason it did appraise was because we were there and kind of 'made friends' with the woman who did the appraisal.

I just wanted to share some install photos. We just finished a kitchen of One Sweet Talker. I love how it looks and I love the wider and longer planks. The customer service was again top notch. However, I hate that I have to say this but I feel like I need to share because I wish I'd known. This is our second house with Supercore and we love the company. We just finished the install Thurs. Sunday we had guests over. One of them must have had a rock stuck in their shoe or something. There's now a huge area of scratching. Almost a foot long. It's so disappointing. And I know that maybe other brands would be similar, but it just seems so soon and just under normal wear. 😕 I'll attach pictures in another comment to show how well they show up on this color.

Monkey,,,a few suggestions. Only you can decide if your 20 year old knotty pine cabs are worth keeping as is. It's not like they're made from some exotic wood, so do what you like. You have to look at them everyday. while they may look ok in the photos, perhaps you see more wear and damage than we do. The inspo pics above are gorgeous, but those cabs are a nice oak. has a different tone than your knotty pine. try the other small changes first and see how you like it. you could always install a beadboard backsplash, paint it, and see how you like it. For the record, I don't think a white tile will make your kitchen too bright. for the countertops, there are a few DIY options other than painting them that you can try. One is Ardex concrete. it's a skim coat you can do right over whats there. if you google it, many videos and pics will come up on how to do it. It's not that difficult. you can even tint it black so you get a similar dark charcoal looking counter. The other is to remove what you have and make your own wood countertops out of doug fir beams. Also how-to's online. These are just options for you to consider. I'm not saying any one is better than the other. painting the cabs. you don't have that many to do, so it can be done, if you follow the proper prep instructions. I won't get into here, but if you do decide to go that route, let me know as I have one of the best online tutorials I can give you. Again, I'm only offering you options. People come on here and say, 'do this" or 'my god don't paint those',,, It's your home. Do what makes you happy. here are a few knotty pine kitchens, some natural, some painted. with your black countertop, if you don't want to have white tile, do a natural slate in these black/rust colored tones. they'd be a perfect match. Paint the surrounding walls a light cream to keep things from getting too dark. I think black appliances look great w/pine this is a laminate top and a travertine splash. if you do want to paint the cabs, or even the walls, this color would look fine. natural, glass in a few of the uppers, new lighting and granite. the sage green is beautiful w/your floors. You could always do just the lower cabs in this color, or do the entire lot. white splash, walls and butcher block or lighter countertop, you'd have a beautiful kitchen. below, she did a beadboard backsplash w/some open shelving.