The previous posters made some excellent suggestions -- my only additional comments would be on color and style. Style: What do do with a kitchen largely depends on three things: style, budget and dimensions. Of the three, style is the easiest to change. ;-) So what is your style? Traditional? Contemporary? Country? Transitional? What you have here is a traditional styled kitchen, and if you want to keep it that way, then you're already half-way there. Color: The cabinet color conflicts with the floor color. Too same-same, almost-matchy/almost-matchy. The floor is beautiful, so I'd definitely change the color of the cabinets. The color you choose will depend on the style that you're going after. For example, white could be country or traditional. Green or teal could be transitional or country. Blue could be country. Darker wood or espresso or black could be traditional or contemporary (or in rarer cases, could also be country). If you're doing country or transitional, it will be easier to change the cabinet color, because you could see if you could get away with leaving the frames the same color, and only paint/stain the faces (doors and drawer fronts) as well as the sides of the island and fridge-enclosure if you decide to enclose the fridge. Also, IMHO the pale green wall paint doesn't go with the ochre/mustard granite valance. Just my two cents.

You could try doing it manually, rather than with a power tool, as it will generate far less heat. You can try: a hack saw blade taken out of the frame (you can wrap the portion of the blade you hold with duct tape so the teeth don't cut into your hand, and you can use two pair of pliers to snap off the cutting end of the blade at a 45 degree angle so it has a sharp point (wear safety glasses when you do this). a piece of strong, thin wire (piano wire or a guitar string), to saw through the adhesive. You would need to wrap the ends of the wire around two small pieces of wood for handles, and you would need to have access to all the under-counter areas for this to work. If either of these options sounds like it could be hard work and not much fun, you're right. This could also be complicated by adhesive at the back edge of the granite as well as on the tops of the parts of the cabinets that run from front to back. Then there is the issue of what happens when you stress the granite at any joints and around the sink cut-out when you lift up. In any case, good luck.

I just called my buddy's granite guy today to come check out our situation and prepare to refit the granite. We bought a demo sale kitchen which came with granite countertops. We broke one backsplash when removing it but got the big pieces and the other backsplash sections out without a problem. I had two strong guys who both have lots of moving and construction experience and another helper and it was quite an adventure to get the largest piece of granite (3' x 7') down the porch steps and placed in the truck. Don't underestimate the weight or the difficulty of moving granite. Spend time making your plans and figuring out how and where you will move it before you get it halfway off the cabinets.

Before you do anything else, do whatever it takes to make that mostly dry basement into a very dry basement :-) As far as storage costs go, can't you just leave the granite in the old house until you need it worked on? In fact, can't you worry about the granite after you have a drawing for your new kitchen layout? Then you can call your granite guy and ask him for a quote. It's so early in the process. May I recommend you start a folder for every element of your kitchen (one for counters, one for appliances, one for layouts, etc...) write down all of your ideas and keep them handy so you can refer to them when you need them?