We've lived here 23 years and I've wanted a more aggressive renovation than simply painting the fiberboard doors, which we did twice. We knew we'd be doing a lot of the work ourselves that was within our capability as I've painted cabinets and doors several times. But we took on a new adventure and did the tile ourselves as well.

If I could live anywhere it would be near water.........I like beachy, light and airy. I personally like white kitchens, but wanted a hint of color. So I found a barely "whisper of blue" white paint at Sherwin Williams. You can only tell it's light blue when you see it next to white.

I pretty much acted as my own general contractor, locating materials and items I wanted via online searches, then putting them together.

We removed a peninsula several years ago and missed the storage we lost, so decided to put in a new one.

All of our appliances (I prefer white) were purchased within the past 4 years, so that was a big saving.

I used Home Depot's design center locally to get the countertops. We knew they'd be the largest expense and obviously we can't do that ourselves. The local company that came out was thorough and prompt. They were actually ready before my plumber returned from vacation so the installation was on hold for a few days.

Cost breakdown (for anyone considering a mini-reno)

White quartz countertop in White Silk: $2200 installed, by Home Depot. Around here it's $55 per square foot, installed, and included the removal of the old sink & countertop, installation of new counters and undermount sink, plus $250 to cut the opening for the new undermount

Peninsula cabinets: $300 (Menards) and installation was $500. This was not something we were going to do on our own.

Plumber: $330 to unhook garbage disposal & plumbing before the counter guys came to install the undermount and countertop, then he returned to reinstall everything.

Twenty replacement doors, (from Cabinet Door World) $1440 including shipping. I ordered shaker style paint maple and I painted them.

Sink: $120

Hardware for drawers & doors (15% off at Menards): $40

Faucet: $90

Tile (Ceramica Rondine in White Jungle) $220, grout $35. Caught a sale on the tile, which looks like wood close up, they had about 150 square feet left in stock.

Decor items: $50

Lincane aluminum sheets from Home Depot (the cane look metal installed in 4 of the doors) $60

Sherwin Williams paint (BL-W11 Tinshmith on cabinets & doors, peninsula is Respite)& brushes: $100.

New outlets and hidden screw outlet covers: $120 (yes, my son talked me into getting one of them with USB chargers)

Tool rental: We needed the largest wet tile saw Home Depot had because our tiles were 24 inches long. $80

Dry wall to replace torn dry wall during removal of tiles: $10

Plus about 100 hours of sweat equity to paint the doors and cabinets, tear out the old tiles (330 of them...my son helped us when he visited from DC), repair holes in dry wall behind tile, cut and install new tiles, grout tiles, install new doors.

Kitchen 23 years ago when we moved in. This is a photo of a photo that I keep around to remind me what we started with. The tiles had been dark brown, I painted them white.

"During".....the tile removal.......330 three inch square tiles. UGH!

Another "during"

Close up of the tile. I'm providing this picture because it's hard to see the detail from far away. These are porcelain floor tiles, but I decided to use them for this because of course I love "beachy". The outlet covers are from Menards and were a perfect match.

Lincane inserted in the "glass insert" (how they were ordered) over the peninsula. We keep our pills and other unattractive things in here and needed camouflage. But I like the light that passes through to give us extra sunshine as the window in the front faces west and we get evening sunset.

View from the other side of the peninsula. These are the cabinets we paid to have installed. I attached the beadboard.

View of sink wall from the entry.

Refrigerator wall. The living room is behind this wall.

Stove wall. We live in a quad so you see portions of the upper and lower floor.

I now smile every time I walk into my kitchen. A lot of work, but in our opinion, not too much money for how new it feels.