You said it will cost more but not whether you have the money. What do your husband and kids think? Does the ugly really bother them? A lot? Like they're embarrassed to bring people home? Most families are happy when Mom is happy, and most families are happier when Mom cooks, especially if Mom cooks happily.

You don't say what part of the country you're in or what your culture is. Is there a premium on reception rooms? Would you lose serious social standing if you didn't redo the "seen" parts of the house first? Or are you just creating anxiety for yourself when your friends and family all realize that it takes time to beauty up a house and care more about being with you than what your house looks like?

I'm trying to find out what's stopping you from just getting the kitchen done already! I get doing the kids' rooms and family room first because they grow up fast and you want them to be comfortable, but see my first paragraph for my thinking that redoing the kitchen will make your family vastly more comfortable than nicer floors in the front of the house.

Also, since the kitchen/DR redo is going to be such a big mess, why chance wrecking your new floors and decor with construction mess?

I think doing the kitchen first makes so much more sense (unless you have some cultural need for a showy home) that I'm having trouble understanding why it's even a question!

Go for it!

Go for the kitchen, of course! :)
Imagine both scenarios...
1. You remodel the foyer, etc... and your home looks beautiful when you walk in, but you are miserable in the hub of your home.
2. You remodel your kitchen and you are content and can share the baking/cooking goodies with your family and friends! They will forget how the foyer looked as soon as they begin to taste the food and socialize!

Maybe it makes more sense to do the kitchen first, since it is a larger project, and requires more change. Then, the other rooms can be done to coordinate with the changes of the kitchen, little by little.
Good luck!
Oh, how I love not having to deal with the little annoying nuisances of the kitchen in disrepair anymore!!!! so I can empathize!

I agree with pllog, for all of the reasons stated!

In my (extended and nuclear) family the kitchen is the heart of the home. We waited to redo ours and I regret waiting. With my (soon to be finished) new space, I'll finally be able to cook and bake with ease and to entertain more. Everyone gathers in the kitchen and eating area, so the entry isn't much of an issue.

Good luck with your decision!

I am a person who waited .. seven + years. I had to wait because in the interim we had to redo a roof and redo our center hall after the ceiling fell, etc. Now that I have the kitchen, I wish I had done it sooner but I am also glad the house was dry and my center hall and stairs were safe. You are really the only one who can decide what is best for you and your family. I did do some small things to get me through the wait including install cheap but nice looking and more importantly clean laminate countertops and paint the cabinets (mine were wood). I also bought a new but relatively inexpensive range (replaced in the reno) that allowed me to cook a lot of great meals while I waited.

Kitchen!!!

If your hubby doesn't understand, then have him read your OP!!

Start ripping out the magazine pictures and bookmarking kitchens in the FKB!! It doesn't sound like there is any good reason to NOT remodel your kitchen but lots of good reasons TO remodel!!

If he still doesn't get it, then let us talk with him! LOL!

I agree - kitchen! We have waited 5 years to do ours and I am glad we waited (I have had 2 very well-regarded GC's tell me they were excited to give me a great estimate - they need the work) So if you have the money, I think it's a good time to dive into a project like this. It's the heart of the home - Good luck!

Especially if a kitchen remodel will make it likely that the kitchen itself becomes a reasonable entertainment locale--

It's isn't necessary to justify a remodel even if not so, but so many kitchen remodels improve flow, add casual seating or ability to have guests circulating and snacking in the kitchen( at least small groups), and make cooking and serving more appealing--more sanitary, even--

So I would agree with above posters about looking at how you would like to be living and do those parts first, aside from essential structural type stuff.

Plus, with kids, if you've already have a nice family room, then the kids and you will get more out of a kitchen than a LR. Cooking projects, after-school snacks and homework, holiday baking--all that memory stuff.

And powder room--come on. When you go to visit someone, you are just as likely to encounter the ancient wallpaper and fixtures as to find brand new powder room decor. (What is it about powder rooms anyway--they're the first thing to look dated, and I can't stand the decor a lot of "new" ones, anyway-- ). So no one you care about cares about that.

Don't know if there are inexpensive cosmetic things you can do with the front portions, or if you just have to relax and say, Rome wasn't built in a day and let it go. Bit by bit, it sounds like you have a plan to end up with a marvelous home, but you can't let yourself get discouraged.

Also, once you do nice updating in one area, it always makes the other areas look worse by comparison--no way around that, it makes you depressed to look at it and impatient to do it, but you just have to relax or you will forget to enjoy the rooms you've re-done.

I agree -- kitchen first!

We were faced with the same question and decided that doing the kitchen first would mean the rest of the house would still be peaceful and a known entity while we had that chaos, and once it was done and we started on the rest of the house, we'd have a respite in the kitchen where we could continue our daily routine with less disruption.

Being without a kitchen is hard, but doing it first means you won't have as much burnout. You won't already be tired of making decisions, and kitchen decisions are the hardest in the remodel process. I keep saying that the rest of the house is going to design itself once our kitchen is done. (I may eat those words, but I really believe it will be nothing compared to this!)

Definitely the kitchen first. I'm doing the same thing. I feel like we'll be able to start living again when the kitchen works and is pretty. I would rather have shabby rooms and a functional, beautiful kitchen than pretty rooms with an ugly kitchen that doesn't really work for us.

I hate to be a wet blanket, but this is the kitchens forum home of the TKO. Nobody will be voting frontroom floors and staircase over kitchen. So if you're trying to convince DH, well this vote is a bit biased.

It's really easy to be spending other people's money, so I too vote kitchen, not knowing how much $ you have to work with. I will say that with today's uncertain economy I would hold off on the kitchen if that meant going into debt to pay for it.

If the money is there definitely kitchen, and it sounds like you could pretty up the front rooms with some elbow grease and paint. Stripping wallpaper can be a bear, but if you do it yourself, it's zero cost.

Wow, I am overwhelmed and appreciative of such quick and thoughtful responses. Thank you.

To answer a few questions: no, we will not be going into debt for a kitchen remodel, it will just take a much larger chunk out of the savings than the other project. We live near Pittsburgh, in an upper-middle class neighborhood, there is not a "premium" on foyers here; actually many people here are kitchen (and decorating) challenged, so much different from the south (from where we moved, talk about beautiful interiors). But, the area where we live can give the feeling of "keeping up with the Jones's"--usually with SIZE of house, brands of cars and competitiveness with kids' achievements.

Yes, I figured everyone would vote for kitchen, I just needed all of your opinions as to WHY. My husband isn't a hard to convince person, I am the one who needs to be convinced because doing the kitchen before the other project was not in the original plan and I felt guilty for wanting to deviate from that plan.

So, when I start, you'll see me on here a lot. (Though I do already have a Miele DW, won't need any advice on that! Love it, love it, love it.)

I really like the reason above based on fatigue and decision burn-out, so that you dive into the kitchen before you're used up. budgeting energy may be as important as the $$ budget. But then in terms of $$, for other rooms, you will also have choices--simple paint vs. some designer glaze or wallpaper; some dream hardwood vs. a more routine product. If the kitchen is "later" you might sort of drift into the higher end. Then you'll have to live with the results of those budget choices when you do your kitchen. So the same is true of the kitchen, but if you spend more than you'd planned on the kitchen, I think it's easier to make less expensive choices in the other rooms or wait a year to build up some more reserves. So if you are collecting reasons for your pro and con list, I like that one on the pro side.

We did not start in on our kitchen when we moved 9 years ago and now it's disintegrating and I am trying to build up the nerve and confidence( and lurking for advice) to do it. We did some bedroom and bathroom remodeling, painting, exterior stuff and even that was, sorry to admit, fairly hard for us--we're not good at those decisions and hiring workers. So in a way we were dancing around the kitchen and not dealing with it (although, honestly, what we had was a pretty good tight floorplan that worked well for efficient use, but low-grade materials and surface treatments, so it "worked" for a long time). It is easy to see how many more details and decisions are involved in the kitchen compared to any other room of the house.