Thanks everyone for your replies and great ideas. You aren't supposed to put hot pots on granite either, less risky than quartz but can still damage it. I've had granite for 20 years and never had a problem putting hot pans on it. I don't cook with cast iron but everything goes straight onto the counter, from the cooktop and the oven. I have a small marble baking counter and don't feel safe putting a hot pot on that, but never think twice about granite. I'd install more kitchen lighting before giving up on soapstone, if that's what you have your heart set on. The kitchen will be well lit but I'm trying to avoid having to put lights on during the day. I'm really hoping that it will look brighter with the primed drywall. We'll see. Corian rain cloud is pretty popular, I think. This blog post has photos of her rain cloud slab and install. I love that Corian! I think it would look perfect in the bathrooms too. It would look great in the kitchen, but I really do like to put hot pans on the cooktop. Old habits die hard. I am tempted to find a work around though. It would look perfect! We put a solatube in our middle-of-the-house kitchen and it's been wonderful. Believe it or not, there is a path where through which we could install one or two but I was worried it would be like a spotlight. Do they spread the light well?

If you want to keep the curtains, then they need a wider curtain rod. Or maybe your existing rod can be extended. When they are open, the curtains should cover the wall beside the window, not cover the glass. As it is, the open curtains are covering about a quarter of your window. Depending on the direction of the sun, the mirror may be reflecting light into your room. I'd leave it. And I would never paint that lovely ceiling. Add more lighting.

I'd leave the cabinets alone right now not because they're OK but because you want to eventually remodel and painting is NOT an easy quick fix. It's a ton of tedious work for the homeowner with probably poor results and/or $$$ to have it done professionally. A DIY paint job can result in textural probs, paint wearing off, cracking within a year or so depending upon the finish, the prep, the products used and the technique/exp employed. I've done my share of painting cabs including our current one and I'm OK with it but it's not a pro finish so I try hard not to stare too hard! I will say I've never painted NICE cabs such as yours and I probably wouldn't. We wanted to gut our current kitchen but a new heating system and several other more critcal redos bounced it out of our top 5 projects so we settled for DIY new cabinet doors/drawers and paint. My second comment is based on the fact you just moved in. You're going through the normal "I want to" thing we all go through initially after moving in. Your wife is in the dream stage because she's already thinking of gold rose hardware...lol. But, please take it from someone who's lived in and remodeled/gutted 6 homes. If possible I have never redone a kitchen or made major paint decisions in the first year of living anywhere and it's always, ALWAYS been the right decision (unless I throw some white paint on a crazy color wall) What I think intially is much different one year later and a lot of that has to do with exposure. Do you realize right now, that June is the darkest this kitchen will appear? It's the summer solstice and that means the sun is high...therefore not coming in the windows as much as when it's lower. Decidious trees will also shade the house. Concentrate on the cosmetic and take some of the advice already given re: lighting, the backsplash perhaps (I wouldn't bother to replace with tile though...go cheaper) We supplemented our undercab lighting with IKEA inexpensive LED tape lights that plug in so you might try that first if there's none currently. And congrats!

Thank you I will try......I'm not good with this stuff:). Let me try tomorrow during the daylight. I will send them then. Thanks Much