I waited almost 5 years, only half intentionally, and my plans changed and solidified, and I saved up money. It was the best thing I could have done. Waiting a little might is not a bad thing at all. My 40s cabinets are like that too. I don't know how well they'd move, since there's nothing to keep them "square" while they're being taken down and moved around. But that's a question for a carpenter. You need to find one who is really invested in giving you what YOU want: informing you of the likely outcomes, good and bad, giving you his honest opinion, that you feel you can trust. I'm lucky that I have that with my contractor. Most of the time he knows I'd prefer to fix something old, even if it may not look perfect, or might be too fragile for some of the families on this site. But he will tell me if something is a bad idea, and when he does, I definitely listen. But some workers just want things easy, or don't have the knowledge to deal with an old house, or know they're going to slave for hours at their craft making something fit and then the homeowner is going to come home and say "But it's 1/8th of an inch off! That's totally unacceptable! Just put in a new one!" I think, for you, it starts with figuring out what you really WANT, and I get the feeling you're not quite there yet. As I see it: You can restore the salvageable 30s kitchen (little reconfiguration, cheapest option), recreate the 30s look with all/mostly modern components (some reconfiguration, middle cost, may exceed budget), start fresh with a new design with the very best of the 30s elements (some reconfiguration/more cost, likely to exceed $10K budget). Or another solution. In the end, the only opinion that matters is your own. Trust your gut.

I love reading this thread! Lots of great dreams. I like the idea of having a beverage and snack area in the kitchen. That would sure make my life easier as a lot of the time I'm just going in the kitchen for a cup of coffee and a muffin or a drink of water and my kitchen is in the back of the house. I would either buy or build a different house with my mega-millions. The kitchen would be the center of the home, not like mine is now, way in the back with no room for anyone to be in there. I'd get a fridge with METAL handles (what's with these plastic handles on fridges these days?!). One of the best things I ever had when I was young was an OLD and small fridge in one of my apts. but it had metal shelves that swung out so you could see what was in the back. Not sure why they don't make fridges like that anymore, but I'd have one custom made! I'm also thinking I might like a prep sink, it might make me more inclined to wash dishes as I go if I didn't have to do both prep and clean up in one small sink like I have now. As it is, I shove the dirty dishes to one side for "later." And I would like my kitchen to open up to a dining and family/living room. Wide open. And I have always wanted a breakfast nook, with a window! And a little desk area with a laptop and small printer and then shelves above for my cookbooks. BUT, my real dream is that dream kitchen above and then a little breezeway/foyer out the back door of the kitchen, leading to a canning/preserving kitchen. That one would have a huge freezer on the wall, a large pantry, and a root cellar. Big prep sink and cupboards for spices, jars, etc. Anyway, you get the idea. And in front of the breezway a huge decorative herb/flower garden, and on the other side of the canning kitchen--the vegetable garden, barn for the chickens and small milk cow, and orchard. That's my mega-million dream. And here in NE PA it would be mega millions. I have a colleague who is living that dream but it is on a farm that was in his wife's family for generations. Over a million to purchase something like that today. Oh, and I want a back porch to store all the weird things I never use except in the summer, and I want a playroom with a bar in it. I want it to be one of those tropical themed bars, lol! And then my own personal chef, so that I could just focus on growing and preserving the stuff, since that would be more than enough to keep me busy.

You can do it. I think the most important thing is to have thought through it all very well and truly have a plan in place. Know what materials and finishes you want to use, or you'll be wasting time and money with "while we've got the wall open" and "let me just see how this tile looks." I tend toward the analysis paralysis" side of planning, so I spent at least six months tweaking the IKEA kitchen planner and picking out cabinets, backsplash and countertop. But once I made a selection, I stuck with it. Ours dragged on a bit, but we're a very busy couple and made the decision to do most of our work on the weekends and not also consume our weeknights with the kitchen. We DIY'd absolutely everything except the quartz countertops and the final plumbing hookup. DH and I would get testy with each other, but we each had our "roles" in the process. We know our strengths and weaknesses and don't play against them. I decide the overall look, he gives input where it's important to him, and I work those things into the plan. I measure, he cuts. He holds, I check for plumb. I hold, he nails/screws. He builds walls and hangs, muds and tapes drywall. I finish drywall and paint. I sweep/straighten up at the end of each day. I assemble cabinets, he builds platforms/bracing walls for them and installs them, together we level them (we had one run of 17.5' of cabinets). Play to your strengths. Spring-fall 2009 - play with IKEA kitchen planner, web search incessantly for the "perfect" backsplash, get fridge and range on sale at Sears that was closing and go ahead and install them in the old kitchen). Buy open box $800 sink for $100 at Lowe's.Buy range hood and Expo that is going out of business (sense a trend here?) October - travel to IKEA to buy the cabinets and hardware during the sale. Order the mosaic tile backsplash on 40% sale. November - Demo the range/fridge side of the kitchen of Thanksgiving weekend and start work on some wiring changes (for range hood, moving microwave into pantry, wall to create fridge alcove, and little pot lights in the ceiling). All of this gets done (to include drywall install and painting) by Christmas and we install the two new cabinets for that area with plywood tops for the holidays. December 2009 - Dad comes back up after Christmas to help us demo the sink side of the kitchen and help install that run of cabinets. From this point we don't have a kitchen sink or DW and use the little bar sink on the other side of the room. I can't decide on a countertop for several weeks and pull the trigger on that on 12/31 to get a sale price. January 2010 - lots of waiting around. Some of the quartz slabs are faulty, and then some of the second batch are cut wrong, so the third batch finally comes in and is installed (this we paid the pros to do, of course) in . . . February 2010 - I pay a plumber to come in and hook up the sink and DW (for a few hundred bucks, we get a guy who has all the right bits and bobs on the truck and it saves us 6 trips back and forth to Lowe's). We DIY the backsplash and range hood install. Kitchen is functional at this point. April 2010 - I finally paint the pantry doors and trim and the kitchen is DONE.

A friend of mine had a garbage hole in her (former) beach house. It was in a huge cabinet, though, and had a large trash can underneath (similar to a fast food restaurant). Her thinking was that when covered, the cabinet could be used for counterspace (though it was higher than the usual 36"). And when they had lots of weekend guests and big parties, where they typically used lots of paper plates, cups, etc., the hole was useful, and they wouldn't have to keep emptying trash during the party. It seemed like a cool thing to have in that setting. But when the house was knocked down by a tropical storm and they rebuilt, I don't think they added that feature to the new house. Love the "outhouse" comment...definitely something to watch out for at those big weekend parties!!