We also have a plain vanilla ranch built in 1950. It was never MCM nor any style. It was just churned out as a tract home. The basic layout of bedrooms and living space was ok, but we opened the wall between the kitchen and living room, extended and moved the kitchen so the old kitchen is half of the new one and partly as our new main level laundry room. The rest of the kitchen is part of the extension and is adjacent to the new den we added on. Due to budget constraints, we only cathedraled the new extensions' ceilings and the master bedroom ceiling was vaulted as we extended there too. Where we did not raise the ceilings we added in skylights and a 5ft eyebrow window in the front of the house, boxed in like a skylight (and we have a skylight over the den up high). The greater amount of natural light is fabulous and it feels so much more spacious with the openings for the skylights and eyebrow window. We had hated the all low ceilings when we moved in. Our previous house had vaulted and cathedral ceilings over the living spaces and it was hard to adjust to low and flat. I truly think that being able to raise the ceilings and/or use skylights is one of the best features about a ranch. Since the house was built with little style and updated with no style either (unless cheap and ugly are styles, lol), we felt free to create our own vibe. We went for retro modern with a 40s feel. What a modern person would have done prior to MCM is how I'd describe it. It has some deco feel to it but the lines are simple and not ornate. Crown moldings would not have worked, so we have done simpler ones. We chose modest looking but well designed materials. No one would ever think it is fancy or frilly. We wanted clean lines but not sharp edges. It is supposed to feel homey and unassuming. Like a well worn pair of jeans that fit well. We want guests to feel at home. If you come up with your own style mission statement you can check your choices against it. At one point, we fell in love with white marble and wanted that for our counters. Then one day, we figured out it went against all our other choices and was too elegant. We ended up with Corian in their Rain Cloud pattern, which mimics the feel of a white marble, but is not trying to fake anyone out. It has a softness to the look but with all straight lines and an eased edge profile, it looks neat. We ended up with Carrera marble in our master bathroom for the counter and in the faux rug part of our floor. That space is meant to be more grown up and fancy since it is our private space and not designed for the kids. The veins that make it great there would have been too busy for the kitchen. If we had gone for another look, I'd have loved to use the marble as I usually drool when I see it used anywhere. If I ever do a kitchen again, I would want qs oak with white marble or some other medium toned stained wood. The door style would be different as well. We are happy with our vision and how the look has turned out (the gc screwed us on condition, but that will be fixed, someday). It is not plain vanilla any more! Our house looks like no other in our area and I dare say, it is now one of a kind. Hopefully, you find your groove and your end result reflects your style and vision, and makes you smile too ;)

Congrats on making progress. I second Lake Girl's suggestion, though. You probably should still do what you need to stack things for new flooring--just in case your husband might end up listening to a voice of higher authority, like some guy covered with concrete dust who's happy to help him save money by promising the old tile can be made to work. I.e., bring in your own authority--first--and supplement with properly coached friends and family. Surprising things can happen during a remodel, especially when time issues, even modest money issues, and a gang in agreement coalesce unexpectedly. BTW, in construction, the subs virtually ALWAYS feel whatever goes in fastest and on schedule is what should be done. Also, with the right (wrong) DH, just what constitutes an authority whose opinion outweighs one's own can be surprising. In the case of our tiny vacation home it was the voice from beyond of the previous owners being channeled through an old folding tray table they'd kept standing in the miniature kitchen to hold...absolutely nothing worthwhile. I was emptying this mess to join the mountains of other stuff headed for Goodwill when DH told me we should keep it there, basically because they did. I laughed, but he wasn't joking. Sigh. Unlike your problem, mine (the table, not DH) fit into the waiting garbage bag quite nicely.

We are really pumped up about it. Rayna I will check it out and see. I am glad all worked out ! Rosie , how about Hawaiian Sea Bass...and hibiscus flower icecream for desert that was 2 of the choices last night...with you could come by :). Thank you for the cheers. c

Ok, so no floor plan. Brunch turned into a 6 hour mimosa-drowning. No complaints, but productivity suffered! The more I think about it, the more new paint and window treatments would greatly help. We would like to swap-out some of the appliances like the DW & OTR pretty soon, as they are not so great. The DW sounds like it’s trying to escape when it’s washing and the OTR is visibly cracked on the front. Oh, and the timer doesn’t work when the microwave is heating. It’s amazing I haven’t taken it out with a baseball bat yet. I’m unsure whether to vent this unit (or a replacement) as the future kitchen would certainly have a vented unit. How many holes do I need to cut out of the house? Really, with some new appliances & new paint, I think we could get by for a few years. And then knock it all down & re-use the appliances in a new kitchen. Maybe with the new Ikea kitchen line. Fun! Some tidbit responses (and thanks so much for the advice everyone!): -The 6” to the right of the range is just filler. It’s totally an empty space under the granite. We could move the current range over, but then a granite fabricator would have to come & chop it off & move it over. That sounds tedious. -The range is *pretty* close to that side wall, but not touching. There is something like 2” of space. I could easily mount a piece of glass on the wall as a precaution, but I don’t really fear the wall will go up in flames. @joaniepoanie - Thanks! I think we’d like to keep the breakfast bar even after a reno. We plan to buy some stools and like that guests really use that space while we are in the kitchen. But I like the idea of a pantry. That would be amazing. @mic111 - I hadn’t considered changing the pulls. Everything in the house is ORB, so if they are dark brown circles or squares, I’m not sure it really matters. But I could be wrong. I will say that working on the house is something we really enjoy, so sweating a kitchen remodel is really no sweat. It’s just a question of money and true need. @annkh - Wanda the corgi loves to photo-bomb. Does yours do that too? And she does match the floors! But of course, that doesn’t mean the tumbleweeds are invisible ;) Laundry in the kitchen is no biggie. It’s plenty convenient. We had a combo washer/dryer in the old condo, so the size of these units still astounds me. Just have to keep that washer door open. Mold/Mildew City! Also, good tip about the step-stool. We’ll get that stat. -@cluelessincolorado- Thanks for the shout-out! We do miss that small, cool kitchen! It was nothing fancy & it was a tight space. But it was a fun project and the functionality gained was glorious. Really, that one 30” cabinet of Ikea drawers held more than all the base cabinets in our new/big kitchen. Pics of the old kitchen: