Live-Wire-Oak, I thank you for your post. I finally do get it at last that it does not matter if the white is perfect but what matters is how everything in the kitchen goes well together giving that elegant pretty look. The recent kitchens posted made me realize this and the new reveals came at just the right time. The KD and I talked when he came by for his sample doors and he had more changes he made but I told him I did not have time to go over them if I had to order only today before the price went up. I needed to do my work as I like to get done right away what is given to me to please my clients. He agreed that if I could not decide which white door but I still loved the Shiloh Flat Panel beaded inset cabinets, then I should wait and pick out my counter first and then decide how the counter, floors and cabinets look altogether. Apparently each change takes him hours as he does it manually. I explained to him that I had told you to leave everything the way it was but take away the blind cabinet and kept the Lazy Susans. He told me he was trying to make the new kitchen better with other cabinets a little bigger but he sees I did tell him that. He is sorry he heard me tell him a 36" opening and saw all my emails and pictures of the refrigerator I wanted but he remembered the one I had was 33" wide so he wanted it to look build-in so drew the lesser space. I felt bad since he looked like he was going to cry and I told him, timing was so wrong and the pressuring was not good for me and if he gave me the designs right way a few months ago, we could have worked together to tweak it to be what I wanted and then had more time to pick out the right white door and counter but I am too busy to do it right now as my clients are my priority at the moment. I guess I would be more comfortable sitting in front of a computer with a designer making changes to show how it affects my room and my budget. I am that much closer to having my new kitchen with new floors as soon as my tax season ends. I am now finally seeing the forest and not lost in the trees. I did reread all the posts above many times and plan to before looking again after tax season. I still love the Shiloh beaded Inset door in the flat panel. I remember when I picked out my home office desk about 19 years ago. I walked in the store and fell in love with the beautiful Scandinavian teak desk that had a big rounded edge in the front to have more room to go over paperwork with clients. I did not like the price but was told I could get a cherry veneer. I ordered it on the spot and I still love it. When I chose my home, I had looked at 10 houses and disliked them all. When I was faxed the layout of my townhouse, I loved it. When I finally decided to be open to a townhouse, I loved the outside as they all look a little different where I live. I loved the inside layout and the way the home office is separate from the rest of the house. I loved how clients did not walk through my living area and have a bathroom to use in the home office area. I loved my private back yard with the privacy fence and woods in the back. I loved the location and how it was only 6 miles from where I was living and near so many highways but still country like. I went home to measure everything and came back the next day to be sure everything would fit. I then knew this is where I wanted to live and I am still happy here even after over 16 years. BUT when I chose paint and floors, I could not see how it would look as I could only see a small sample and I have been needing help. I get lost in the trees like you said which is so true! I was able to pick the BM Bone White color on the wall as a painting designer on the paint forum of Garden Web told me it only looked dark as I had a big spot on a big white wall and it was actually very light and peaceful and I should just go with it. I then thought, I would listen and I love my wall color. I am finally seeing that once everything goes well together, I will be happy and the perfect shade of white does not exist. I just want someone that listens to me and I guess maybe I need to communicate better what I want since I am a number's person and not a spatial person. The kitchen designer told me when I am ready, he is still willing to work with me if I want to call him and gave me another card. I felt bad since he thought I was buying today but I wish he would have realized that I needed to pick out a counter to tell which door color would be for me and he should have emailed me the new changes to have time to go over them to be sure I liked them. I should have not let myself be pressured and told him that it does not matter if there will be a price increase, now is not the right time as it takes me awhile to go through the process of finding what I want. This forum made me realize it was the whole picture I needed to see and not the individual pieces that would make my kitchen come together. I just wish I had room for an island but I wanted to live where I live and you get so much less for the money. I just reread my post and I can't believe how long it is. I type over 100 words a minute on a big screen computer and I eat my meals as I post. I am eating dinner now before getting back to work. I will leave it as I want to be able to go back and read these posts over and over again before I get back to choosing my kitchen when tax season ends. Thank you!

desert, I plan to get out to some showrooms this week to see what's there and I'm really hoping that will help move me forward a lot more. When we built this house, we hooked up a trailer and drove to Dalton GA and came back with all the flooring needed to do the entire house. It was easier to make choices when we were looking at the entire roll and not just small samples. We got terrific deals and then just paid the labor to have everything installed by a friend of DH. For the majority of other items we spent hours at Lowes. lanval, I plan to give the island a new top along with whatever we choose for the countertops and I know that will help spruce it up more. Originally we were told there was no room for an island at all, but our cabinet guy designed the funky shape to fit one in. I wish we had space to redesign it to allow more of a rectangle shape with an overhang to fit a couple of stools, but there is just not enough space around the u-design of my current layout. Anne, DH is assigned the reno to his brother. He doesn't have time to get involved in the work itself. That's probably a good thing since we end up disagreeing on details most of the time. I've learned we just see things from different perspectives because I'm considering details he thinks are not important. And since the kitchen is not really his domain, I don't want to get into a power struggle over the choices I make. I tried to discuss the timing with him yesterday and he sees no problem moving ahead with the April schedule. I pointed out the events coming up that will coincide with the time the kitchen is torn apart, and his basic outlook/comment is "it's no big deal"...he's just a 'get'r done' kinda guy. I tried to remind him this is not one of his empty houses that is unoccupied and the fact there is more involved than just slapping on a countertop and being done. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard, but I can see the entire kitchen torn apart and me being stressed enough over that while trying to juggle our spring busy season and my DD's precious time left living at home knowing the activities associated with that. Plus the responsibilities of finishing up our eoy business details is difficult enough alone, and now I'm sposed to be doing research/legwork to plan a kitchen reno. I'm sorry if I'm rambling, but when I say 'overwhelmed' I'm not exaggerating. If I could just put everything else in my life on hold right now, it might be no problem, but everything else is not going to just stop. I'm glad you see what I'm feeling about the timing of my DD last days at home. Just last year when she wanted to have her after-prom party here, I had some mini meltdowns feeling overwhelmed with my regular daily workload and then adding more to it. This year isn't looking much better... Anyway, to clarify some of the questions you asked: I broke the measurements into 2 sections since the bar seems to separate it into 2 areas. The nook area is 13'x9'8". The kitchen area is 9'5"x13'2" but that is only the actual floor space. The cabinets are 25" deep so you could add that to the width of 9.5 for a size of the actual room. The garage is on the other end of the house. There is door to the backyard patio in the nook area. The original plan called for columns and a more open floorplan. DH chose to change it to large c.o. I posted pics from different angles to try to show this. I measured everything you asked to help clarify; fridge is 35"Dx35"W - cab depth is 25" - MW cab is 29"D - raised bar is 12"D. I checked the face frame of cabs and it appears the only ones sharing is the section to the right of the sink where the raised bar is. The rest are chopped up due to the DW, stove, and corner that leads to the MW cab. I'm trying to visualize the changes you suggested...I guess I need to sketch it out to understand it completely. Since his brother is doing the reno, it actually gives me more comfort b/c I know is fully capable of any little details I bring up. At this point...right now...I'm in panic mode after talking with DH last night and he totally doesn't get my lack of enthusiasm about the schedule. He makes it sound so easy. The ct can be done in one day, the floor can be done in one day... what's the problem??? Arrggh!! happy, Glad to hear of your wp sucess, painted and stripped. I hung every bit of the paper in this house and have 3 baths of wp also facing stripping.

Seems to just be a random post with no return? Scrub it!. We have all lived, well at least i have, in rentals when young. Scrub and scrub. A degreaser with lots of rinsing with water and scrub again. Your friends are hanging in the kitchen because that is where the booze is, lol. A nice thrift store bar cart parked just outside the kitchen in the living room might help social flow. Does your landlord know about the ceiling? Is another tenant upstairs? Or is your bathroom upstairs? A slow leak needs to be fixed. A scrape and paint is just a 'bandaid' solution hiding the festering disease. It could be a simple tub caulking with a bad shower curtain above. And like mentioned could be a serious heath hazard. I would not spend much money. Some landlords will chip in with paint purchase if you do the work. Just ask. It does need scrubbing first. Even the best primer might struggle with all the grease buildup. Visit sites like retro-renovation and apartment therapy for easy low cost ideas. You do not need to spend lots of cash to have an adorable kitchen. Clean, un-cluttered, a fresh batch of solid towels, pale blue, red, orange. Maybe your rent is low but don't be afraid to ask. Or let them know about a leak. If they don't care, just scrape the ceiling and make do with cleaning. Save your money to move on...asap. Move the microwave to the booze counter next to the fridge. Invest in a few things that you can take with you. A nice big cutting board, next to stove. Bon Ami and Bar Keepers Friend are good powder cleaners that do not scratch surfaces. It is such a cute kitchen and tons of storage. And the fridge opens in the correct direction! (so rare, lol) Take a very wet sponge and soak the wallpaper border a few times over a few hours. (in a small test spot). It might just peal off easy, especially if the paint is an old hard glossy oil. And do not paint without telling your landlord. He just might have paint from other projects that he is willing to give for nothing. If your cabinets and walls are greasy and old oil paint, they need proper prep. Primer before an inexperienced latex application. It will peel and be a bigger mess. Relationships and friends are so much more important. Embrace what you have...but at least scrub it! (should take about 4-6 hours.)

I think wedding planning was easier! We started off first thinking we were going to have the cabinets in our "new to us" house repainted, since the off-white paint was peeling off. The granite countertops were in great shape, and it was obvious the previous owners spent a lot of money on these counters. We received an estimate for $4500 for repainting. Then, I figured it would be better to reface, and get a whole new look. I received estimates ranging from $12k- $20k (with one place being very high pressure, "will drop the price if you order today" type of attitude). One place I called, also did remodeling, and I called them in asking for prices for remodeling, not refacing, yet told me remodeling would be "much more expensive" than his quote for refacing. How much more? He would not elaborate. At this point, with particle board cabinets that really were not in the greatest shape and could stand for a lot of improvement, I figured I had to try to get an answer from SOMEBODY about a remodeling price. We were not even trying to change much - just pretty much keep the same layout in terms of appliance placement, but make a few modifcations to get it to where I thought it would be more functional. I finally got one place, when he saw in person that our kitchen wasn't as big as he thought based on the pictures I showed him, to give us a quote for remodeling. Came in around $32,000. Ok, finally! I tried a few other people, both of whom wanted a budget. I explained how we went from spending $4500, to $15000, to now maybe $30-40k? But that honestly we wanted to spend as little as possible to get the look and features we wanted. My DH was not thrilled at the thought of spending $45 (as one quote came in) and the idea of redoing the kitchen fizzled. But I knew there had to be a way.. I called a custom cabinet maker that had done a few kitchens in our neighborhood, and I went to their homes to see his work. Beautiful! I was shocked to find out he came in the lowest out of them all (around $20k for just the cabinets - since at the time we were thinking we would save the granite, and he was able to do that.) We are still toying around with what to do - we have another quote from a friend who has told us that the markup on cabinets and granite is just ridiculous. Some of the quotes I received were more detailed than others. I have been trying to get more specific on other quotes so that it would be easier to compare them - I am so afraid of choosing one, thinking it comes with everything I want, then finding out it will be extra $ here and there after we've signed on.