Hi all - thanks for even more input!

Ok - I went and checked out HD's in stock laminate, and once that's all priced out, we're looking at $850 (DIY install). We'd have to get a sink as well - but that's minimal. So...approximately $1500-2000 cheaper. My big concern is that it will be $800 spent in vain - is an improved laminate going to be a selling feature like granite would be?

Looking again at houses in our city, with 3000+ sf, we're still looking at mostly (80%) new builds, all with granite. The older houses are not updated, and I can't imagine that they're going to sell any time in the near future. Most have been on the market well over 100 days. We'd like to avoid that if at all possible.

I talked to a realtor friend who lives in my neighborhood, and she agreed we were competing with new builds. She's coming over early next week to give me her feedback on kitchen and bathroom updates.

Lascatx - if you're helping stain, come on over any time you want!! Heck, I won't even make you help if you just want to come over and check it out. ;) We are just north of Austin, and the housing market here is bad. The only saving grace is that we didn't pay that much for our house in the first place (relatively speaking), so I don't think lose money unless we sink a ton into updates.

My brother lives in Round Rock. I haven't seen their house yet, even though I've met them in Austin when DS was on the UT campus. They put in a wood laminate, have peeled wallpaper and painted a lot. I don't think they have granite.

There was a story on the news yesterday that home sales in the Houston area generally are up for the last month. Looked like the hottest areas were close to downtown and foreclosures made up 20% of the total. From what I've heard, foreclosures may increase before the and the housing market return to normal. Do you have a lot of foreclosures on the market? Have you studied the online listings of all the homes in your area? Have you actually gone looking at the houses? Condition is often hard to assess in a photo and foreclosures often have been stripped down. They are also generally sold as-is, so selling your home in good condition and offering a home warranty may help put you above the foreclosure market and buffer some of the concerns about pre-existing vs new construction.

Trying to do some math, it sounds like you can get granite in there for about $2800-$3000 (will you have to pay extra for a sink cutout? Tax on that amount will add a couple hundred more. Make sure you have all the costs factored in.

You haven't included any names or photos of laminate. In my book, there are very cheap looking laminates and laminates that most people will have to touch to figure out if they are laminate or stone. I think which you are getting bids on would make a difference in deciding whether granite was worth more.

Have you gone to a fabricator directly? You might be able to get a better price on the granite too.

I'd love to come play with stain -- I don't sit and watch very well. LOL My timing may not work for you though. I'm in the middle of a school project and then marching band takes over the month of October. Don't know if I could find a day in between. Would be fun though.

As soon as you posted the close-up of your scratched cabinets, I had the same thought as scrappy25, which is to find a stain to match your existing cabinets and do touch-up, and I wouldn't even fool with a top coat. They could look brand new in maybe an hour's time vs. several days (weeks?) of a dark gel stain job. (It took me 12 days to do a 7' length of bath cabinets.)

In the picture that includes the backsplash, look at the granite directly to the left. Wouldn't that look pretty with your existing cabinet color and floor tile? See if there is a cheaper version of that color. You asked: "is an improved laminate going to be a selling feature like granite would be?" My opinion: No.

I agree with everyone who suggested redoing the lighting.

Finally, have you considered leaving your existing tile and coloring the grout to a lighter color? mydreamhome mentioned the dark grout lines detracting, and I agree. It reminded me that grout can be painted, and in the interests of time and money, you could get a lot of bang for your buck with very little work. See examples of before & after grout lines at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Grout Paint

So I guess I'm somewhat torn with the cabinets:

Option 1: touch up with lighter (honey oak colored) stain. Cost and time: minimal.
Result: 90's honey oak cabinets in better condition. (To me as a buyer, this would still be a huge turnoff, but again - I could be in the minority on this one).

Option 2: restain with darker gel stain.
Cost: under $100
Time: significant, but doable (we're not selling for 8 months, we work from home and can go out and apply coats whenever).
Result: updated cabinets. Darker color may turn off buyers who are more drawn to honey oak or painted cabinets (not sure what percentage that would be).
Someone asked about about staining the (possibly laminate) sides - the cabinets are solid oak custom (not builder grade), so no worries there.

I have no desire to paint. After painting numerous bookcases, desks, etc - I've come to the conclusion that painting would be more work than gel staining, and look worse too. I am probably just a crappy painter, but dealing with brush strokes and drips is just downright annoying. I agree that it would look fine though, and I will be painting our bathroom builder-grade cabinets for sure.

Love the idea of the grout paint! Is that something that HD or Lowe's might have as well? I'll do a search...but thanks for the idea. That might be worth a shot before we retile.

I have no partiality to the grout-paint product posted; it was just the first one that came up on a google search. Surely, any hardware store would have something similar.

Before you do anything to your cabinets, get a bottle of Old English Scratch Cover and try that. You may be astonished at how much better your cabinets and woodwork will look-super easy to use, too. Our previous house had old dark woodwork that looked dinged up and dry, and it looked MUCH better with a quick wiping of the scratch cover stuff.

There is a great little book called "Dress Your House For Success" that gives tons of other ideas like that to inexpensively prepare your house for selling quickly.

I was just on redfin last night checking out houses in my area that are for sale. I am in the midwest and my area may be completely different from TX, but I figured I would give my thoughts to the mix. :)

The houses I was looking at are between $330,000 - $375,000. Most are around 15 years old. I was very surprised that most of the homes on the market in my area have the same honey oak cabinets that you do (not necessarily builder grade, but the same color). Many had changed to stainless appliances, but did not do anything to the cabinets. And most had plain white laminate with the 4 inch backsplash as well. In other words, all these kitchens looked the same.

The homes that stood out were the ones that updated the kitchen. By me stained wood is a lot more popular that whtie cabinets. Those that did put granite in put new venitian gold or something similar.

While that wouldn't necessarily be *my* choice for my home, all my co-workers that were looking over my shoulder were ooohing and aaahing over the updated kitchens.

The updated kitchens got noticed and they stood out. I agree that you have to price your house at the right price, but you want to stand out as well.

If you have the time to gel stain, then I say it can't hurt. I'm not a granite fan, but so many people are. If the new homes have granite, and you have the money to do it, I probably would. You could also put butcher block on just the island to make it stand out as well.

The average homebuyer is not GW obsessed. They just want a home that doesn't need a ton of updating.

I think you need to develop a budget for the whole house spruce up before you decide if 3K worth of granite will be an expenditure that would be worth it. You don't want to blow the whole thing on a single element. And that budget will tie into exactly what pricing that you think the home should sell for. Cleaning and painting won't involve hardly any expenditure, and that should be your target while you do your research. Open houses, new construction viewings and scouring the neighborhoods can give you a general idea, but only a realtor will be able to do a market analysis for you using the prices of the sold homes in the area. I'd start interviewing realtors ASAP with the stipulation that you aren't going to want to list until spring. That's a common situation, and they should be able to provide you with the market specific info you need in order to be able to create your worklist.

Lurker here and first time poster! My husband and I have been looking at houses for the past 9 months and with that said, I would walk into your kitchen and want to change a lot. We wouldn't have the money for a full gut, but I would want to come in and paint the cabinets (possibly with that Rustoleum Transformation stuff), new counter tops, new lighting, and definitely new flooring. Personally I would prefer a white or cream cabinet but I know a lot of people like the dark look too. I would do more of a mid-range color instead of something so dark as the java. But again, that's just my opinion.

You will never please everyone. But granite has a wow factor that cheap preformed laminate just doesn't. The laminate will be better then what you have now, though, but it won't wow anyone. It will look like preformed laminate.

If many of the other houses have granite it probably is worth doing if you can do it fairly reasonably.

I posted over in the Buying and Selling forum, but will add a few comments here, too.

First off, you *are not* competing with the houses in your neighborhood. You are competing with new/newer builds, which feature stainless steel appliances, tile floors, and granite countertops as standard kitchen features. They also have newer heating/cooling units, newer roofs, etc. Combine that with the current super-lower interest rates, and the fact the the vast majority of people do not want to move into a home knowing that they will have to put several thousand dollars into updates, and you have some serious competition.

Second, don't follow the mindset that says that since you plan on selling you can just go ahead and put in the cheapest crap possible and buyers will "look past" it. I know people are giving well-meaning suggestions, but really. I was house hunting just last year, and I could sure as heck tell when someone had done a thoughtful update using a mix of old and new versus a cheapie Band-Aid fix. Putting $5,000 towards upgrading/repairing your kitchen is 2-1/2 percent of $200,000, hardly a huge outlay; if your sell price is higher, the percentage is even lower.

Flooring: Go with the new tile. It's pretty much standard in all new builds in your price range, and it's the first upgrade most homeowners with vinyl in their kitchen and bathrooms do. You can get lovely tile reasonably priced at Lowes or Home Depot.

Cabinets: The dark gel stain can look lovely if done well, but it may contrast too much with your laminate flooring in the adjoining rooms. Forget that you don't like honey oak; a lot of people really do love it, or at the very least don't mind it. Your kitchen has great bones, it's your laminate and flooring (plus the light boxes) that is really dating it, not the cabinets. And with new countertops, backsplash and hardware they will pretty much read neutral and look great. Not "custom kitchen" $50,000 remodel great, but "we've taken care of our home and reasonably updated it" great.

I would first try the Howard's Restor-A-Finish in the original cabinet color and see how that looks. Another (a little pricier) option is to look at just replacing the door and drawer fronts.

Countertops/Backsplash: Get the granite. There's absolutely no competition between it and laminate, even the better quality laminate. My granite fabricator told me that he's putting granite in new builds that start at $135,000. And I'd install the tile backsplash, too. You want your kitchen to look finished, as if you upgraded it for yourself.

I just sold my house which was adjacent to a busy road in a market where DOM is about 90 and sales price is about 85% of asking. We asked 10K higher than the realtor suggested and sold in 25 days for about 99.5% of asking. The house had a busy road and a large retirement home next to it.

That said the realtor told me our wow factor was the kitchen. We spent 7K redoing it 2 years ago. We moved the island, had our honey oak cabinets professionally sprayed with cream paint, added beadboard and SC granite and travertine backsplash and refinished the hardwood floors. We also had some cabinets cut for glass.

before

after

The house across the street that has better views and no street next to it had no updates. It is 600' larger and is still on the market for 40K less than we sold ours for. Your appliances are nicer than mine were.

My opinion after looking at houses is that if you are a smart shopper it is better to do some upgrades. For $180 I painted the bathroom vanity black got a remnant of granite and added a vessel sink from Amazon. It was another inexpensive update than made my house stand out.

Remember, not everyone wants a brand new house, there are huge expenses associated with putting in landscaping and window treatments and other items need in a new home.

I'm definitely not an expert, but we just had to go through this with our house in Virginia. We had been renting it out and the tenants left unexpectedly. The house needed a lot of work thanks to it being a rental for many years.

We had planned to replace all the flooring - it needed it. But the kitchen was in good shape - just very dated. We had green laminate counters and pretty much the same oak cabinets that you have now.

I opted to put in granite from Lowes. I did that because, as in your case, it was only going to be a few hundred dollars more than doing another laminate.

I know that most GWs would see the cheaper style granite from a mile away. But for many people, the thought of buying a house with granite in the kitchen says a lot.

We didn't do anything to the cabinets other than clean them and change the hardware. The flooring was a newer upgraded vinyl.

Honestly, the biggest change in the house was the fact that we updated the flooring throughout and painted the entire interior and updated all the light fixtures. It made it look and feel like a brand new construction.

We listed it for a little more than our realtor suggested and sold it in a few months. We would probably have sold faster if we listed a little less, but I was happy with the results.

It's a tough market. Buyers are expecting to get something for nothing and desperate sellers and practically giving that to them.

Good luck to you. It's definitely not an easy thing to balance!

OK, another option instead of the granite--what about a granite overlay? I had forgotten all about that option until I saw a thread posted today inquiring about it. We had looked at the overlay online when redoing MIL's kitchen a few years ago. In the end, an investor friend of the family made an offer on the house before we got to the countertops, so I never got beyond the online info. I want to say I read somewhere that you could do that for around $800-900 for an average sized kitchen. I posted a link to the site we had looked into, but know that there are multiple companies that do the overlay so you might want to google it yourself--search word = granite overlay. May be worth checking out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Granite Overlay

Another suggestion is that maybe you should have your realtor take you to a few of the houses that are your competition. Then you can know exactly what you're up against and can formulate a great plan of attack.

gmp3 the change in your kitchen is amazing! I love how it turned out and it truly is a wow kitchen. I love the corner glass cabinet and how you raised it up to give it that custom feel.

Thanks, Leightx has nicer cabinets than I did...no exposed hinges on hers, plus mine were the dreaded cathedral style doors.

Whatever you do, get several quotes, two years ago quotes for our counters ranged from 8K to 3K, all for the same granite. We are rennovating a house now and we have had the same experience. Just make sure the people you hire know what they are doing.

Great idea to shop the other homes, our realtor did that prior to pricing our home. You also may want to go to the new homes and see what colors, styles they have in the models, they know what is curren and aopeals to most buyers.

And, the biggest reason to shop other homes is to see what they are asking and then the realtor tells you if that's realistic or not. If home prices are way low and there's going to have to be money brought to the table to sell, which has been an extremely common scenario, then there's only so much budget fix money to go around. You've got to have that knowledge before starting out blind planning all kinds of changes.

To:leights
you should not be talking to just one realtor. You need to shop for a good realtor just as you would be shopping for any other important purchase/decision in your life. Just because she is your friend does not mean that she can sell your kind of house.

You need to find a realtor that knows your particular price point, city, demographics, type of house and has demonstrated a good track record.

I see people listing their houses with agents (maybe at the owner's insistence) at too high of price, and the house just sits and sits.

I have been looking and lurking at houses for a LONG time. (decades...) This is really a tough market out there. Unfortunately, the amount of data available to a typical buyer makes your past mistakes "transparent". For example, if you list a house and fail to sell, it is 'clearly' visible to anyone on Redfin/Zillow. It was not like this 5 years ago. Once the listing lingers, the house comes across as a damaged good or has a hidden defect....

Good luck.....

Gmp3 - lovely kitchen! I hope mine turns out half as nice. I have those same barstools. :) I actually do have exposed hinges on mine, but they are a dirty brass so the blend in with the honey oak! I'm trying to figure out if I should paint (???) so they blend in with the java stain, or replace with brushed nickel to match the rest of the hardware. Or switch to ORB for all hardware.

{{gwi:1953727}}

Putting in cheap(ish) granite won't be an issue. This isn't the market that people would be expecting any more than that, or even recognize it if they saw it. There are no historical houses to redo, or custom houses going in. I'm getting more quotes today, but we're looking at roughly $36-38 / sf for Level 1 (which varies between companies). $36 was for 2cm (the rest are 3cm).

I looked into doing the Granite Transformations overlay a few years ago, and if remember correctly, it was more than we're getting quoted for slab granite! Crazy.

There's not much for sale in our neighborhood that's comparable right now, but my realtor friend (who lives in our neighborhood) suggested that we go look at the new model homes. She agrees that we are directly competing with them, and that buyers are looking at both resales and building new, especially given the square footage.

Most resales don't have updated kitchens, and have been on the market over 100 days (or longer, with several price reductions). I'd rather avoid that if at all possible!

I had a countertop guy come out today and he's emailing a quote. Electrician (to replace horrid light boxes) is coming out tomorrow, as well as the tile guy. Can't wait to see the quotes on all that - it will help us decide on the granite as well.

Thanks for continued input!

I think it would be good to do the granite, it's not THAT much of a deal breaker at even $1500 more that's isn't like 3K more. I think a potential buyer might be so grateful for it because it sounds like they might never have it otherwise. It might be an exciting deal "maker" for a buyer. I know watching some of these shows unless it's granite they are so disappointed and most do not have an extra dime for upgrades later. Nowadays they are having to put down large down payments unlike a few years ago. I'd do it and do the gel stain like you planned originally. I liked your original plan but maybe a better match of materials, the colors seemed a little like they didn't match as well as they could but otherwise you're golden!!

I'd leave the hinges alone, they are expensive and you may have to redrill holes, I spray painted mine and no one noticed. Yours will disappear with your gel stain.

My new house has a light box and we were planning on painting it white. I didn't mind it, but now I am wondering if I should have the electrician install a few cans! ;-).

I'd leave the hinges alone, they are expensive and you may have to redrill holes, I spray painted mine and no one noticed. Yours will disappear with your gel stain.

My new house has a light box and we were planning on painting it white. I didn't mind it, but now I am wondering if I should have the electrician install a few cans! ;-).

I have another point of view. I know no two people's tastes are exactly alike, so why try to redo a kitchen you KNOW needs upgraded? You are competing with new builds where people can pick and choose what they want in them. Why not offer an incentive-$5000 or $7000 or whatever you'd budget to do the upgrades YOURSELF and say "Hey-we will GIVE YOU a kitchen remodel stipend" This way, they can do what they will with it-redo a bathroom they'd rather have done, put it into the kitchen and get what THEY want or pocket the money, use it for new furniture. Offering something unique is a HUGE selling point that could easily tip a buyer into buying your house--"Hey, we GET money for upgrades!"

I apologize at the outset for not reading all the prior posts.

But, for what it is worth, I would not do a thing. You can never prove or disprove which would have been a better choice, but save yourself some money and time.

You do not have a kitchen that everyone will say "OMG, we cannot even move in until we gut that." You do not have a kitchen that will make a buyer say "I MUST get that home with the amazing over the top kitchen". Those are the only two extremes that matter. Unless you were going to make it fabulous, which would be foolish, you should let it be.

Make it clean and bake apple pies in it. Save your energy for YOUR new house!

I would do what you are considering: lights; floors; granite; and cabinets. You already have the stainless steel appliances. What is important to many people and a great selling point--is granite and stainless. Most people are not picky or knowlegeable as to the "level" of the granite.

Many buyers do not want to have to remodel. An updated kitchen (in addition to the lower price level of your neighborhood) may tip the decision to buy your home vs the new construction.

As far as a credit--many lenders will not allow that.

Even if the updates are not exactly what the buyer would chose--assuming the house is priced fairly--the kitchen will look nice until the buyer can make the changes they want. That is a selling point.

Leigh, thought of you when I saw this. I was actually researching wood flooring but came across this place that has granite (including prefab granite counters) and laminate too. They are in Houston, but I bet you can either get someone to install in your area or find something similar. You wouldn't be that much further than going to Clear Lake or Galveston. Anyway -- for what it's worth. Hope the plans are coming along.

I forgot the link

Here is a link that might be useful: Flooring/granite center

When my son was getting his ready to sell, he had some blemishes on his oak cabinets....I just took a rag, put it into some med. oak stain , and rubbed it on the cabinets...and low and behold, it did marvels!! Those belmishes actually disappeared...so before you try anything else, give this a try. I understand it is a "trick" that many do who are remodeling homes...and what do you have to lose?...maybe a couple bucks for a little can of stain (it won't take much).

Have you given any thought to a slate floor (or slate-colors)? I have seen the real stuff for a very reasonable price and the variation in colors could pull all the colors of the cabinets backsplash and countertops together. For instance: Java cabs, SF granite, trav backsplash, and slate floor (like earth slate from the houstonflooringcenter website-not toooo busy). I think anchoring the room with a darker floor of any type will keep it from being too choppy.
I also think spray-painting the cabs off-white (BM deserted island?) with rented compressor and spray painter wouldn't be terribly hard either. Liquid sander, primer, paint. It would definitely bring light in and buyers love light! Different countertop (kashmir gold?) stained or dark painted island, and a medium dark floor (slate, walnut travertine color, or such.) This, along with light wall color might raise the look of the ceiling where the dark cabs might not. Darker floor drops the floor too so room feels taller. :)
Also, I love subways, but...in this traditional style kitchen, I might look at putting 6 or 8 inch tiles on the diagonal, (with decorative inserts?) just to eliminate so many horizontal lines; point the eye up. I have seen subways in a herringbone pattern too; kinda cool. There is a phenomenal blog some genius here at GW created that will give you a gajillion ideas. finishedkitchens.blogspot.com

Paint the cabinets. Replace the floors. Replace the lighting. Done.

RE: paint--Ben Moore has a new water based alkyd paint that looks interesting...I'd consider using it if I were painting kitchen cabs. I've never used it...saw it when I was at the store earlier looking for info on their new Full Spectrum line. I find the idea of an Alkyd that is low VOC and can be cleaned up with water (as opposed to turps/mineral spirits) intriguing.

Linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Benjamine Moore Advance Waterborne Alkyd Low VOC

but wait...there's more! these two ideas might work too even more economically. you could try putting gray slate-like floor (laid in that cool brick pattern and it color coordinates with stainless) in and black laminate counters that read like soapstone (not shiny). Repair the oak and add hardware. (and of course change lighting). Paint walls white-ish. Then, if it doesn't pass muster, paint the cabs White too. You could even ever-so lightly glaze them with stain if you wanted, just to give them a little dimension. It would be classic and i think very marketable. with either of these, subway tiles would be appropriate. especially with the floor tile in the same pattern.

gray floor, oak cabs, black "soapstone" or honed granite.
1/3 of the way down this page is the renovated kitchen:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg092042177344.html?41

Gray floor, white cabs, black "soapstone" laminate or honed granite
1/4 of the way down this page, just after the picture of diane keaton at her desk:
http://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/2008/07/beach-houses-series-4-hamptons-house.html

gmp3, what color did you spray paint the cabinets? They look great! Did you spray paint the hardware dark? Which granite counter did you choose since I love it!

I think SC Granite means Santa Cecilia Granite? It looks like from rereading gmp3's post, she did spray paint the hardware. I feel she was blessed in no soffit, hardware already on her cabinet, wood floors, a large kitchen and recessed lighting to begin her project. I have none of these in my kitchen. I love the overall new look and would love to know how the cabinets were spray painted (were doors removed and was primer used first?) and what paint brand and color was used that looks so beautiful to me.

Leightx,

If I was a buyer, your kitchen would be the deal breaker for me and I would not buy your house if I had no time to redo it unless it was priced well below the market and I was given $20,000 toward upgrades.

I would paint the cabinets an off-white color, spray paint the hinges, change the floor to the travertine tiles and do that pretty backsplash or an inexpensive white subway tile. I would replace the counters to one of the three granites you chose since it is a wow factor and has sold homes in my area to have granite counters and at least it will be good for describing your updated kitchen. I would pay someone to do recessed lighting.

If all of this is too much money, then change the lighting to recessed lighting, change the tiles and put in a grout to match the tiles. Use the bigger tiles to have an updated look. I would then gel stain the cabinets in a honey gel so that only the worn areas will be covered.

Good luck and let us know what you do and take pictures of any changes you make to share with all of us.

if i was a buyer that kitchen would be a big turnoff for me too, but if i was a younger DIY'er buyer I would be interested in making the fixes myself and getting the credit. given the conditions of the market i would do some work to ensure it shows well and allows the house to move in a slow market. i would have cabs painted professionally white, new granite, remove lightbox and do floors.

Gel stain the cabs. Use Rub-n-Buff on the hinges. Get new hardware from Cabinet Hardware Designs (I've used their stuff in three kitchens--LOVE IT!) Paint the counters, and give the buyer an allowance for the cost of medium-grade granite. Rip that tile out and put in something that looks nice, but isn't expensive (or hard to tear out & replace if the buyer doesn't like what you put in).

When you talked about updating the kitchen to sell, here's what I thought of, from Emily Freeman's blog, Chatting at the Sky:

"This is where I stood when we walked through the house for the first time and I almost cried because the owner had just told me they had recently updated their kitchen. This is also where I stood when I realized how much I hated it and I didn�t want to pay for their new, ugly kitchen in the price of the house."

Make updates that don't cost a lot . . . and give your buyers an allowance to make upgrades. Emily's kitchen had brand new cabinets and a granite-topped island . . . and while they still bought the house, it was a close call because that kitchen was so distasteful to her. So, just food for thought.

I painted my 90s oak kitchen cabinet Linen White and added granite counters. I think the total cost, including new oven, sink, cooktop, granite and all painting was around $14,000. The granite was the largest part of the expense.

My house sold last week after 3 days on the market.

Before:

After:

AnnKatheryn, I love the updated look with the paint and granite counters. Your kitchen went from OK to WOW! No wonder it sold so fast! Thanks for letting us know the paint color. What gloss did you use?

My daughter had the same issue, and she put eye-catching dark granite on the island only (got a deal on a remnant piece) -- also had it cut a little larger and put some benches up to it for "eat in " counterspace. Then really "staged" the rest -- no clutter, a few "wow" accessories (maybe covering up stained area of laminate), etc. Sold right away.

pics above annkathryn posted illustrates the Texas version of the SGottaG Hamptons kitchen I linked from cotedetexas. Classic. Besides adding light to the space, white kitchens look clean. Buyers love light. Buyers love clean. If the white kitchen doesn't make the rest of the house look dark or dirty, i think it will sell your house fast. But if it does, then stay with the wood so things flow. Note that annk's cabinets go to the ceiling. If yours are white and the walls are white, it will give the same feeling of lifting the ceiling height. Fear not the white.

lynn2006 the paint was semi-gloss. My painter did an excellent job on everything. The work was done a year ago and it still looks good.

kacy27 I never dreamed I had a SGottaG kitchen; I think my humble kitchen isn't nearly in that league. The granite is cheap ubatuba rather than soapstone, no subway tile backsplash to name just two missing elements. And I'm in California, not Texas or the Hamptons. But my kitchen thanks you for the compliment!

annkathryn, your painter did an excellent job and if you did not live across the country form me in California (I am in NJ), I would hire him! Thanks for letting me know he used Semi-gloss since I like it so so much. Did he prime the cabinets first?

The Ubatuba granite is beautiful!

P.S. AnnKathryn, did your painter spray paint the cabinets or use a brush? Did he prime? Oh how I wish you lived in NJ so I could hire him!

lynn2006 yes, I think he used 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint. He took off all the doors and painted everything with a brush. Like most people who have painted their oak cabinets, there's still a fair amount of grain visible if you look carefully. It doesn't bother me, but some people wouldn't care for the look.

My painter's a gem - I had him do lots of work in the house I just sold and plan to use him for my next house.

Andalee, you posted a link to Emily Freeman's blog about how she updated her kitchen in her new house. It just shows people have different tastes but I hated her black cabinets and loved the lighter ones the previous owners had put in.

AnnKatheryn, I like the look and feel your painter did a great job! I wish he lived near me.

Well, I know it has been a while, but I realized I forgot to post an update! We finished everything in Dec '11, and have really enjoyed it. The house went on the market this weekend, so we got a little over a year in our 'new' kitchen. We got a full price offer today, and our home is priced higher than anything in our neighborhood (the house 2 doors down in 500 sf larger, and priced $5k cheaper). I think it was worth it - total cost was right around $7K.

Granite: NVG light
Gel Stain: Java (General) - 3 coats
Tile: Home Depot
Backsplash: Home Depot

{{gwi:1953730}}

Here is a link that might be useful: More Kitchen Remodel Pics

This post was edited by leightx on Tue, Apr 23, 13 at 12:40

Leightx, I Love the changes in your kitchen and do to the size of it, the dark cabinets with the gorgeous light floors and granite counters looks so rich looking! Despite liking white kitchens, I would have been very happy with your updated kitchen and not changing anything. I also like that you changed the lighting. Thank you for sharing. It was worth upgrading the kitchen to sell so quickly and for a very good price.

Congrats!

It does not even look like the same kitchen.

Your Photobucket link does not work, it asks to login. :-)

Oops! Fixed the link! New one is below as well - there are about 10 more pics with different angles. Lighting is odd in some of them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Redo