We moved after 1.5 years with our new kitchen remodel. The move was unexpected and I would have remodeled less expensively had I known. It is four years later and we are now just finishing up our new kitchen remodel and it is so much better than the last! We did live through four years of a grotty and dysfunctional kitchen but I kept my eyes on what I would eventually do with the space.

Your next kitchen is not your last kitchen. Try not to dwell on what you miss but on how you will eventually have a better kitchen than the last one.

I don't want to find out but may in the next few years! It's taken me 32 years to FINALLY get this house the way I want it, but age will probably force some sort of move in the next few years. It all depends on my ability to do stairs (which I know do, even if a bit breathlessly!). It's a 3 story house for all practical purposes - basement garage (will not leave my car out in the driveway in front), washer/dryer in basement - no possible other place for them, first floor with small guest room, 2nd floor with large MRB with fireplace. Can't use the first floor BR as master - very, very small with small closets. So, no stairs, no live here. I dread it...

My husband and I spent many years buying crummy houses( long before it was popular), fixing them up while we lived in them and then selling. The children changed schools a few times....I've always said I could live in a cardboard box with my husband. Kids are well adjusted adults now with families of their own. We're retired and we finally bought MY house. One we never sell unless I want to. I love all aspects of my new home in the country on 36 acres. BUT....it's not really that important in the big scheme of things....You'll get another kitchen that you love...breath in breath out.....

I know this can be tough! I had completed remodeling a kitchen in my previous home, when I decided to buy my current house. The location and views were great. But I couldn't afford to do the kitchen, nor finish everything I wanted! Plus the house had been abandoned for 10 yrs! It was a filthy dusty old 1970's bad remodel job mess. 5 yrs later I am still working on it!

I originally decided to tear out the kitchen and put ikea in to get me by until I could afford the kitchen I wanted (henrybuilt). I even went down to ikea and bought the kitchen and counters! But then I thought that was a waste of money if I was just going to tear it out eventually. I returned the whole kitchen(!) (still in the boxes) and they were gracious enough to refund my money. I ended up going through with the kitchen remodel when I found that custom cabinets were more affordable than I had anticipated, although I lived with it partially finished for awhile. In retrospect, I moved too fast on the kitchen. There are some things I might have changed had I lived in the house long enough to see the functionality of it all.

So, are there positive things about this new house that you can focus on for now? In other words, does this new house have some positive attributes that you do like besides the kitchen? In my opinion, it's better to wait on a remodel until you've lived in the house a little while anyway. Also, even if it's a smaller kitchen, I bet you learned some things from your previous remodel. I bet you will be able to make it into a spectacular kitchen when you are ready.

It's sad. I did it in our last house. Gut remodeled, loved the result, sold the place about 18 months later for a job related move. We lived in rentals with crappy kitchens for about four years. Then we bought a house with an ancient, tiny kitchen and I worked in it for three years before we had the money to remodel

And we are about to do it again. Finished the remodel on this place just over a year ago and here we are getting ready to move again. The new house is totally new so the kitchen isn't terrible, but I am quite spoiled and it lacks drawers and it doesn't have induction and the refrigerator is up against a wall . . . This is both better and worse. Better because the kitchen isn't awful and worse because there's no reason to remodel it (at least until the crappy builder quality cabinets fall apart about in ten years). I am so going to miss my stages 45 sink and my induction range. Sob.

Two days after moving back in after a kitchen remodel my spouse started discussions for a new job opportunity that is now happening. It'll require us to relocate a short distance about 6 months after. If all goes as planned we will move to a rental and build. It's easy to say if only we had waited on the remodel or we should have spent less. We don't use the word "forever" when talking about most things for this very reason.

Thanks for the stories you've shared and I'd love to read more!

We are starting to discuss moving to bigger home/nicer location. As we look, however, I'm getting hung up on whatever the kitchen lacks (and so far they all appear lacking). I'm trying to focus on the potential, knowing we're open to remodeling eventually, but still I'm getting hung up.

We are outgrowing everything about our current home except the great kitchen ;-)

I completed a kitchen in a house I thought I'd stay in for awhile. Put in fairly expensive things--inset cabinets, new floor, soapstone. But life happens and for various reasons I ended up moving to a home immediately after that kitchen was finished that is MUCH better suited to me but did come with a small and dysfunctional kitchen. However, I took a loan and started on the kitchen right away. Now it is done--same materials like oak floor, soapstone, inset cabinets--and I'm thrilled. The one advantage I had was that I knew what I wanted in materials and appliances from my earlier experience; also knew good workpeople (I was my own GC). So the process went much, much more smoothly.Also, the new kitchen in the previous house sold the house for full asking price to the very first person who walked in.

Glad to hear you're planning to move. I remember other posts of yours and how frustrated you've been in that home. I hope you find something you love!

Boy, does this resonate with me. I am mourning my wonderful, quirky old home, even though my rational mind tells me this is better for us economically.

We sold our beloved old cape at the end of August, to the first people who saw it just 5 days after it went on the market. We were completely unprepared for such a quick sale.

Even though the economy is still sluggish in Maine, we live in an area where the housing is in short supply, and we just couldn't fine anything we liked in our price range that worked. I was adamant that whatever we bought would not have a "redone" kitchen because as you folks all know, too often that means slapping granite counters atop builder grade cabs with a dysfunctional layout! We saw way too many of those....

We ended up purchasing a large ranch with a daylight basement MIL apartment with the notion we'll rent the MIL apartment and when we find a house that works for us, we'll buy that and rent the owners apartment. DH agreed that we'd make sure to earmark some kitchen improvement funds, so I'm able to paint and put in new flooring, I swapped out the horrid double sink for a large single, and reconfigured the island which increased functionality.

Long winded story, but the gist is, keep your eyes of the prize, and if it is feasible, plan on some low budget improvements you can make right away that will ease the pain. Good luck!

Six years ago I completed a kitchen remodel with the help of the GW kitchen forum. After living for 17 years with a tiny 1950's kitchen, I had a beautiful, workable space - http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2442519/mostly-finished-creamy-white-before-and-after-pics?n=39

We sold that house 3 months ago and moved to a house with a crap remodel done by the PO. The new kitchen is twice the size of my old one, and barely holds what my little kitchen did. The cabinets are bottom of the line, with center stiles and cheap drawers. The original builder's layout that none of the POs addressed, is still bad. I miss my pantry everyday. I miss my drawers. I had to buy an Ikea work area to make up for the bad floor plan. I have twice the number of drawers, but none worked well for utensils. Go figure.

But, I'm now 20 mins away from my family (and new grandbaby). The ranch style home we bought works better for DH than our colonial did. We back up to a nature preserve. While I originally thought I would redo this kitchen, the hard fact is that I will learn to live with it.

We moved eleven years after we did my dream kitchen remodel. My new kitchen is perfectly functional and has a beautiful view but the cabinets, appliances, etc are not the high end caliber of our old kitchen. I did buy new appliances and they're nice but nothing like what I had.

We also have a second home that has a nice enough kitchen but nothing like our remodel. I'm actually fine with my "regular" kitchens vs the dream kitchen. I can cook anything just as well as I did before and my current homes are wonderful in every way.

I realized after my TKO remodel that I can be perfectly happy with a much less grandiose kitchen.

We moved less than 6 months after we finished a complete remodel of our last home. Our last home was a rancher that was cute but the school district was not so good, so we bought what was billed as a "tear down" in a better neighborhood with a great school district. We did the remodel of our last house in phases and the kitchen was first, so we used it for about 2 years before selling.

After selling, we moved into a home with original kitchens and baths from 1957 where most of the appliances didn't work and the plumbing rattled. We lived there for almost three years before starting our current remodel. It was hard to give up new appliances and all the other luxuries in our last house, but the location of our new house was a huge upgrade. While living through two big remodels in 5 years has taken its toll, it's been worth it. This time we moved out and are doing it all in one bang, instead of dragging out a big remodel in phases.

About a year ago I moved from my remodeled dream kitchen to my dream neighborhood. There are days I still wonder if I did the right thing. Truly miss my old kitchen and the house. My new neighborhood is much safer and more charming, I am closer to many of my family and friends, so I am trying to focus on the good reasons that I am here. Overall the house is very nice, although the star of the property is really the outdoor space rather than the interior. My current kitchen is small but the biggest problem is the lack of counter space. Unfortunately it is unlikely that I will do a large remodel of this kitchen, it take remodeling much more than the kitchen itself and be very pricey or the time we will be here. We will probably will move again sometime in the next 10 years, we have already decided that we will want to downsize the size of the property before we retire. So I will need to make peace with the current floor plan. However, I do hope to update the kitchen space a bit, have the hideous pickled cabinets painted and the mural/back splash changed out. Trying to decide about the granite, it is a green that I have never have liked but I feel just awful discarding granite, so I am not sure what I will do. Hopefully the next house I will either get to remodel or it will be fabulous from the get-go.