I am in your zone and have a clay loam soil that drains well. My Michelia gets morning sun with little root competition. It is about 15 years old and was planted without ANY soil amendments or subsoil treatments to enhance drainage. It has done well, only requiring occasional pruning to keep in bounds. Al

It appears to yet have its original feet. If so, that is great. I assume that the decorative sidewings and top piece are veenered. The grain direction has been very carefully chosen, a mark of a good cabinet maker.

I guess it's personal preference..I see no problem with a kitchen as it is now (except for the wall color that bugs the OP, and the light), nor with high contrast between frames and doors. As for the countertop -I might be mistaken, but the countertop seems white to me too. At least on my monitor. Actually, I like this high contrast look. As I've already mentioned. Maybe it doesn't seem dated to me, because I never had a kitchen like that before, so who knows:) Now, it will be pretty also to make contrast more subdued, as in Olychik's example; or to get rid of contrast at all, painting it all one color; and as a fan of two toned kitchens-I find justerilynn's examples very pretty too. But I don't see any problems with leaving the cabinets exactly as they are, maybe freshening them first. It really boils down to how much time and energy phei89 wants to spend on it (and money too-even though the landlord is very nice and ready to pitch for a half), and what she personally prefers.. I'd just mention that whatever is painted-will stay painted. You won't be able to stain it afterwards; you will be able to choose a different paint for it, but you won't be able to get back to the stained look-painted wood won't take stain well, and won't look good. So it's something to keep in mind. Other than that, I feel that if it stays like that-it's a nice kitchen. and if it gets worked on, in either direction suggested-it will also be a nice kitchen:) So I'm back to my original line lol-start small, change the light, paint the walls since they obviously don't make you happy, not only in the kitchen but around the house-and then you'll decide what look rocks your boat more, and whether you're ready to invest in it a bit. Keeping in mind that these white appliances are most likely to stay there.

The circled ones were plump and fat like the one in picture 2, I thought maybe the roots were rotting so I pulling out the roots of the one left just to make sure the roots weren’t getting too much water. The third picture is what the two seedlings from this original post look like now.