kimmieb - What an extremely thoughtful, resourceful and inspiring "refresh" - I am sure you will like it more than you would the 100K kitchen (I do :) because you did it yourself, worked with what you had and made it your own. Not to mention that you used an incredibly fabulous and relaxing color in the kitchen. I say... gray-blue, blue-gray, gray-blue, a little green-gray and maybe something slightly purple-blue-gray - that is where my brain lives these days. My old place was more yellow/beige and fresh greens/blue-greens. I had to fight myself to not make our current place blue-gray inside and out but needed other colors - if only to complement/accent more blue-gray :) It is amazing how color preferences can shift. Believe it or not my horizon's actually expended after many hours on the kitchen and home decorating forum. I even painted a bathroom tomato red! I hope your kitchen inspires more beautiful colorful painted kitchens.

That bow window is a significant challenge because the masonry follows the curve. I would remove the whole wall and replace with a huge window that follows the line of the roof. I also removed shutters and opened that front gable, replaced doors and garage doors with wood, replaced exterior sconces, enlarged the stoop and poured a walkway to the drive, painted the side door casing and downspouts to match the siding so they disappear. Sorry I didn't have time to find a better place for the garbage cans.

Thank for the responses. Not replacing the tile isn’t an option as it is one of the things I hate most. It’s blue, tan, pink, grey and beige with large grout lines. i know it will be a hit to budget, but hope I can find affordable complementary tile. Michelle we are definitely looking at the option of keeping one backsplash the whole way through. We do have marble countertops in the kids bathrown as well as our own for over 3 years and still love it. So maybe I should revise to I don’t mind medium maintenanc, but my big issue is the current floor that shows everything.

Some inexpensive changes: Remove the shutters. They look a bit silly on a window that size. Repaint the white lamppost and lamp black so it matches the new lamps on the garage as far as color. Find gravel that as closely color matches the driveway as possible and completely cover the graveled area. The dark spots aren’t attractive and if that is landscaping fabric, it will breakdown anywhere sun hits it. If need be, remove gavel and fabric, dig it a bit deeper so there is room for a sufficient amount of gravel, and then replace. Once the gravel is dealt with, where Yardvaark has the bright red in his sketch, add a pair of large planters (at least whiskey barrel sized) stuffed full with seasonal plantings. They will need regular watering per the particular plants’ needs and as they age will need periodic replacements. Or add a large, sculptural plant in each. Regardless, it is important the the plant(s) and pots are not undersized. Choose ones that suit your aesthetic and are eiher light enough to move into the garage for hurricanes or are heavy enough that they won’t become airborne. Do research into cost and plant sizes of replacement materials before removing boxy shrubs and start budgeting for all the needed plants and materials. In addition to plants to replace the current plants, you will likely want compost to dig into the soil since likely nothing has been added for years, organic mulch such as shredded bark to reduce weeds (not pebbles or landscape fabric, neither of which belong in a bed with plants), and a deep edging to keep grass out of the new plantings. Think about whether you are DIY enough to do the repainting of the house yourselves. It is best if you wait to replant until both the repainting and repaving are done to avoid damage to new plants. Start saving for some of the suggestions given above: Repainting. I like Beverly’s color suggestion or a sage green. When repaving, modify the walkway following the plan in Yardvaark’s most recent sketch to decrease the clutter and maintenance of the two graveled areas. Replanting