I'm going to start posting here soon - my journey of renovations here and there in my home; so this is my FIRST post! I've received tons of inspiration reading other people's posts, and stayed up waaaaay into the wee hours to do so some nights. I had to reply though, because no one else has suggested it. Here's a pic of my kitchen in progress (note the "bombed out" look of the walls). We got this super easy to install thinner granite from muranocollection.com The cheapest one is $10 s/f, the "Modena". I really wanted that, but it'd look better in a white/black kitchen so I went with the next step up which was $12 s/f "Milano". I have a HUGE kitchen, plus added an island, and spent about $1,600 total, including the slide-in sink. I'd really been eyeballing the formica fx180, but because of my island it would've been MORE than this cheaper granite! That being said, Lowes carries the Formica FX180 in a bigger variety of in-stock stuff, and it looks like you could do a straight run of that in-stock stuff for pretty cheap. Honestly that's what I'd do AND do an inexpensive glass tile backsplash. I just saw some at Home Depot that called out to me - that they'd look great with these cabinets. I really like the pics I've seen of the gel treatments to the cabinets; I think you could honestly do the gel treatments, buy some hardware off of ebay (I DID!), murano countertop and cheap glass backsplash for way under $1K. I included a link to them - not exactly what I saw today but at this price it'd make a beautiful and cheap upgrade! Here is a link that might be useful: Home Depot glass tile

@CE thanks for ALL of the advice! The cabinet boxes are in good condition, but the owner may just say to replace them or leave them be for now. He wants to hear my ideas. & It wasn't set up for a multi person unit, so the only reason I can think of that they designed it that way is because the house is a square. There's not really room to have more than one bedroom on any level unless they made the upstairs a full level. The cathedral ceilings are only over the living and dining area and the bills apparently aren't too bad. Where I'm currently living, it has high ceilings- but it's not as big. My bills are pretty low. anyway, the original builders were just a mid-aged couple not planning to have a family. Their parents lived down the road so they probably didn't plan to have many guests. IDK! & the current owner bought it because all of his kids are in their 30s now. and to your second comment- in a perfect world my husband said we would rip out the staircase and tuck a normal one against a wall somewhere. Then we would close the master and get rid of the empty ceiling space by adding two bedrooms and a bath upstairs. That's probably pretty costly though, and we might as well stick to not buying this house. But it's perfect for us now and we want to do some home projects. @llucy- there is a door to outside from the basement so all of the furniture that goes down there won't be hard to get down there, since we can back up to the door. It will be hard to get things into the master- like our king size bed- but that's the extent of our big furniture. We don't have a big headboard or anything for our bed (yet). And no it's not in a resort area! It's just in mid-southern Kentucky. Out of city limits! There are two creeks in the backyard but not a resort area! @nosoccermom I love those glass boxes on top!! I believe that same size would fit above our cabinets.

That's my..well, cal it "recipe" for kids Go to the paint store by yourself. Pick there two-three versions of darker warm blue(a teal?) and two-three versions of purple. But. Don't take bright, nice ones)) these look best on wood in high gloss, and tend to fall flat on walls and look like Barney etc. Pick bleaker, paler, grayer versions of those colors. The ones that look less cheerful.. more "meh" Believe me on the wall they'll be all right.. Of course you should like them yourself. your pre-approval should happen in that store..or maybe in some secret place where you can try samples on paper.. Then present the chips to the kids and ask them (especially important with your toddler)- "Which one you like more: THIS or THAT?" Here. You get the color you like, that will look sophisticated enough, and that your kids chose:) And I have a feeling these will go nicely with your trim too, given bedrooms have same trim. (don't ask painters-in case you don't pain yourself- how many colors a house should have..huge chance they'll say "people usually use two or three". I have 19 or 20, and my house is 1000 sq feet smaller than yours. True, many of them look pretty similar..lol Painters were very surprized,, Usually the bigger the room, the more open the plan-the easiest is to go with lighter paint. whatver it will be Just mind your colors being similar in terms of clean/muddy and warm//cool. Then it will flow)

I would remove the shutters from the double windows. Paint the others a dark gray like Kitty Gray from Benjamin Moore. I would do either Narragansett Green or Newburyport Blue in the front door in a high gloss. Think about removing the yews from in front of your porch and planting a perennial garden. I would like to see some of the yews replaced with rhododendron, azalea, hydrangea, and mountain laurel. Add two of three ornamental trees out in the yard. Two of my favorites are Eastern Redbud and Sargent Crabapple. Eastern Redbud has beautiful burgundy foliage and striking purple flowers on the stems in spring. Sargent Crabapple has beautiful pink and white flowers in spring and red dime size "apples" in fall and winter. The fruit is not messy.