I would agree with hollysprings that lighting is very important. Very Important. However, I also think it is highly personal. In our kitchen we have nine sources of light: The ceiling recessed lights (there are several of them but I am counting them as one), the pendant over the sink, the light in the vent hood, the small lamp on the counter, two floor lamps, some bounce lights on top of our big oak piece, the back door entry lights, and the schoolhouse fixture. Why so many? They serve different purposes. Many of them provide pools of light in different areas and this, plus the ability to dim almost all of them, gives my kitchen the warmness that is important to me. The recessed ceiling lights were all we had when we moved in and they weren't on dimmers. Was there enough light in the kitchen? Yes. But it was very harsh and uncomfortable to me. Some people just want LOTS of light. I want to control how much light I have and where it is. There was a recent post about whether to use dimmers. You might want to read it to better understand how YOU feel about light. I don't agree with hollysprings about the strip lighting under the cabinets. I know it is popular today but I like pools of light, and strip lighting doesn't do that. I tried mocking it up with rope lighting and I did not like the effect. There also are some things on my kitchen counter that I'd rather not light up (like my microwave). We always try to mock things up as much as we can so we can see how it will be. For lighting, we use clamp ons and whatever else we can come up with. As I said, I think it's personal. Sometimes I go into someone's house and I want sunglasses because the light is so glaringly bright. Some people come into my house and they want the dimmers turned up. You said you liked my kitchen. I bet it has a lot to do with the lights and the warmth they make. BTW, your choices indicate you ARE thinking it about how it all works together. Good job on that. I think the post you wrote on super white was one of the best I've ever read on this forum; it was so informative and thoughtful and kind. Lots of people have responded so positively to that post that I bet most of us would do anything we could for you.

Better to get quotes for both but I don't think you'd be saving all that much if you plan to resurface/paint and change to drawers. Depending on your cabinets, full overlay vs frameless, that might not be be possible for many of the cabinets. Changing to drawers means you also need new door fronts for them. Afterwards you might want to change the hardware, backsplash, add under cabinet lightning, etc. All can add up to $$$ that might be better spent on a forever home or remodeling from scratch.

vivien - dumb question, are the cabinet fronts just screwed in? I looked in the drawers and that's what it appears to be. The cabinet doors have inside hinges (thank goodness) so those should not be too hard if I want to replace them. The drawers are not tongue-in-groove so I'm not sure if they're considered good quality. I replaced the knobs several years ago and the brushed nickel looks much better than the cheap brass that was originally on them. Jhmarie - I don't think my friend used a water based finished. Her cabinet company recommended a different one that supposedly lasted longer. They said they had to stain the boxes so even though they did the doors at their shop, they still sanded the boxes at her house. I had the company that build the cabinets come out a few years ago to give me a quote on restaining. They unfortunately do not carry that particular stain any more so I was told the boxes would need to be done since it would look off just doing the doors. I was quoted something like $1,500 for the restaining vs I'm guessing at least 10x that for new cabinets. I'll look into just replacing the doors and drawer fronts.

That door has a lot of detail and a lot of crevices - meaning that sanding/refinishing would be expensive and time-consuming. Another option, if you truly want to keep the cabinets, would be to refinishing the face frames of the boxes and get new doors and drawer fronts.