patty - it sounds like you have done similar renos to what we have done. We haven't listed our house yet, but will be soon due to a job transfer. We live in AZ, so needs are different here. Where I come from, carpet is very common in the FR/LR/DR and bedrooms. But in AZ, tile is the way to go, so we tiled our entire house, but carpeted the bedrooms. We had the entire inside painted, including the ceilings. Walls Dunn Edwards Inside Passage, Ceilings Swiss coffee. New custom window coverings and just had new light fixtures and faucets installed. I got the light fixtures on clearance at a tent sale for a big light store here. Beautiful, for not much money. They were normally $250, I got them for $30. THe difference is amazing. So in all, we changed the flooring, painted the walls, ceiling and kitchen cupboards, new window coverings, light fixtures (for very cheap, but they are far from cheap looking) and plumbing fixtures. We've had compliments galore on the transformation and our realtor expects us to not necessarily get all our money back, but because of the neutral colours and the freshness of the home, coupled with up to date features like light fixtures, our home will most likely sell faster at a better price. It's move in ready and that's what you want. We didn't want to over-renovate for our area either and we're finished. We're not doing anything else. Instead of replacing all the appliances, offer a home warranty which will give buyer's peace of mind if an appliance konks out. Don't go to the expense of appliances. And don't do granite counters either if your area and price range does not support it. I wanted to do countertops and our realtor said it would be a waste of money for our area.

We have a 48" window (plus trim) and we had the cabinets butt right up to the trim. But in our case we only had 6-8" to work with on one side, so we chose to have wine racks (wood, same as cabinets) installed on both sides. I think it looks nice, and otherwise I think I would have felt it was a waste of space if we left it open. And the wine cabs are not as "solid" looking as a regular cabinet w/doors. Since there's not too much room above the window (and we have a valance and crown moulding w/ the cabinets) we plan on putting the same tile up there as our backsplash.

Looking at your floor plan and the 3d mock up of the new space - I don't think you have enough room for the new plan. Given that the kitchen is 11' wide by 18' - you end up using quite a bit of the space for aisles / walkways. And the exterior corner makes a pinch point. Below is how I would envision the space working if it were re-arranged with an island - with ~4' aisles around the island. I wouldn't extend full height cabinets into the breakfast room - I think they're too overbearing for the space. I agree with herbflavor to go half depth - I would space them so they look more like a buffet / console than a giant wall of pantry... but then I'm not 100% sure about your needs. I just don't think that you have enough room to (a) have the fridge stay on the short wall and (b) have an island that extends more than like a foot. Here is a floor plan based on the 3D mock up... on it in red is the current end of the peninsula - you can see that the new plan is proposing to have the island extend past that spot PLUS add a seat. If you have the 2D/overhead view of your proposed layout, that could help clear up some issues... but again, I don't think yo have the space.

LOL -- thanks for those thoughts. We did consider the graspability. That was also a reason to pass on the edge pulls we initially had. These have quite a bit of grab, even with my most well-insulated mittens on. :) (Edit: just realized the picture I posted has them rotated -- they have a significant lip to grab!)