Thank you for all of your comments and compliments... You have reminded me not to rush into changing things. The house has alot of trim work throughout, including on the dining room ceiling, dining room walls, living room, windows, entry/foyer, doorways, etc...In those areas, all the trim has been painted white, but it appears to be the same style and type as what's in the kitchen/family room. I guess I was thinking that the rest of the trim work should be white too. But, I see now that it doesn't have to match and will leave a bit of character to the family room! The wood for the built-ins do appear to be an upgrade over the kitchen cabinets. As much as I love the look of all white trim, the family room has such a warm feeling, as is, so I will probably just keep any furniture in the room light for contrast and accent with color. I will definitely not rush to change to quickly! Some of our main reasons for choosing the new home is because it was custom built, is loaded with trim work and moldings and is in an older neighborhood with lots of large trees and yards. Of course, there is also plenty of shiny brass in all of the bathrooms, door handles and foyer lighting that we will be busy replacing. And, the landscaping needs some updating from the overly manicured large bushes surrounding the front entryway of the home. I may have trouble with interior design/decor, but I am in my element with landscaping and yard work! I appreciate all the comments about the kitchen...My husband and I have done a lot of work ourselves in our current home. He does most of our home repairs too; he hates hiring out! Life has gotten extremely hectic these days, so we have less time for DIY work like the time it would take to do paint the cabinets. But, I think we can easily handle the backsplash and modifying the cabinets with beadboard on the sides, but will find someone for counters/sink and help with whatever we do to the cabinets. It sounds like if we have to hire someone to paint the cabinets, it might put us way over our current budget. While I still love my inspiration kitchen photo, I may entertain the idea of darkening the stain/refacing the existing cabinets, possibly painting the center island as one of you mentioned and updating the counters, sink and adding backsplash and other details. This would buy us time (and save us money), until we can afford to get the wood floors we want and the painting of the cabinets the way GreenDay detailed. I appreciate all the advice.

Lovely home. Please don't paint the brick. The brick is attractive and goes well with the roof color. I would begin with painting the garage door the color of the siding and trim. If you are planning to repaint the siding, consider a shade a bit darker, and paint the shutters the color of the roof. I would remove the semicircular trim on the porch posts, replace the turned posts with 6-inch (or larger) square posts, and either remove the porch railing and spindles or replace them with square rails and spindles. Then I would add landscaping.

Thank you @arcy_gw. It is 1996 :) I am not familiar with houses always gone with builder built ones ready made. And I am now thinking of going from 2010s house to 1996 .... I am doing something out of my comfort zone and maybe can't express it well. I find the style old - it has sunken living, family and basement etc. But it has been renovated from inside with white cabinets, beautiful white stone in kitchen etc. It is not my style but its pretty, sophisticated neat look. In this house - majorly I would like to improve the backyard. Backyard is still ok. You see there is this green level area in the picture. Hmm.. even that has 1 inch up and down...not sure why. Do you see the brown line which is the fence with a deep 2 feet to 5 feet at some place land gone to waste with just useless vegetation. Can't i fill the dirt and level it and get a decent size backyard i am only concern about the backyard.....the windows etc may or may not come... The family room has 2 storey windows..i will change my life style and enjoy quite mornings there ..maybe.

Don't square anything off. The arched window over the door echoes the arched window to the upper right. That mass is asymmetrical. The two arches make it look intentional, give it balance. Without the repeating pattern, you'll have two mismatched windows oddly placed in an asymmetrical mass. The smaller, higher arched windows match. You have an asymmetrical house with good balance. Mess with it and you'll lose the balance. Your landscaping looks uninspired, but it could just be winter, when no landscaping looks inspired. When looking at before and after photos, like the first one you posted, always pay attention to the elements that are not about the house, like house in shade with brownish lawn and dark windows in the before and bright light, green grass, and warm golden light from the windows in the after. The 90s is fine. You house is great. "Updating" and "modernizing" are ways to sell TV shows. Did you know sll the verbiage about openness and "flow" came from HGTV's discovery that men liked to watch sledgehammer scenes? You need a reason to knock down walls other than "it improves the demographics of our viewership".