We bought a 1990-built house 2 years ago. Here’s the original kitchen:

What we disliked about it:

1. Darkest. Kitchen. Ever. It had only 3 can lights in the whole thing, and even replacing them all with the brightest LED bulbs possible left it feeling cave-like. The small north-facing window didn’t help much.

2. The carpet, especially the curved border. Curved borders bug me.

3. The cabinets: doors instead of drawers on the lowers, small upper cabinets due to the soffit, with insufficient space for tall bottles, stiles on all of them. Generally not enough space and a pain to access.

4. Double sink with small bowls, no disposal.

5. Deep pantry where things get lost.

6. General tired look and feel, some doors and/or hinges starting to deteriorate.

7. Zones: I cook and Mr. Weedy cleans, and when they happened at the same time we bumped into each other.

We are 100% DIY, and decided to do the following:

1. Replace the tile and carpet with wood throughout the entire great room. I did this initially, before we moved in. We pulled the lowers, put down the hardwood, and set them back in place until time to tackle the full remodel.

2. Remove the soffit and replace the window with a much larger 4’x8’ one. We did this over last Thanksgiving weekend. Vinyl siding on the outside, so pretty easy to do.

3. Add lots more lighting. Mr. Weedy did this in December.

4. Replace the cabinets, counters and backsplash. We installed the cabinets over New Year’s (they were supposed to arrive before Christmas, but were delayed), counters in mid-Feb (a couple weeks delay from promised date), and backsplash went on backorder until July.

Now it’s all done, and ready to reveal: Let there be light!

Details on materials and costs:

Cabinets: Medallion Eagle Rock, $15,500

Counters: Hanstone Aurora Snow, $6800

Backsplash: Ivy Hill Tile Magnitude Gris, $500

Appliances: Whirlpool, Whirlpool, Bosch, $4500

Vent hood: $300

Window: $600

Sinks and faucets: Kraus and Delta, $800

Cabinet hardware: $300

Lights: 400

Plumbing Supplies, including disposals, air switches: $700

Electrical Supplies: $300

Ceiling drywall repair/tie in: $435 (hired a pro)

Other: $600

Total: A smidge under $32,000

Our house is all electric, so we couldn’t install a gas range. But we did get a double-oven range. I toyed with the idea of induction, but the price scared me off.

We have pantry storage in 12” deep cabinets on the backside of the fridge/stove wall, in our mudroom. That’s where we keep unopened dry goods.

The flow works a lot better for us. I know it doesn’t look a lot different, as far as the basic layout, from what we had before. But the prep/dish put away conflict is gone. Now all the dishes and prep ware are stored in the perimeter cabinets, so I can stand at the island and his dish putting away is in his own zone. I've got a secondary prep area between the microwave and stove, which works great for baking prep. And his-and-her sinks = life changing! :-)

This is our third kitchen remodel in the past 13 years, so we knew what we wanted on a lot of things. But there were a few new things people here recommended that were firsts for us. Now that we’ve lived in the kitchen for 6 months, here’s my read on those:

1. Kraus sinks: They are fabulously nice and deep. The clean-up sink holds massive amounts of dishes. I like the grids, to let things drip dry off the bottom (and dirty dishes don’t block the drain), but grids are kind of a pain to clean. Also, the sink bottoms are a bit too flat, so while water flows down the drain fine, food needs a little help.

2. Prep sink: I was trepidatious about breaking up the solid island, which is my main prep space. But this is the new thing I love the most. It’s so nice to rinse off veggies right next to where I’m prepping, and wipe the counters right into the sink. No need to carry food or dirty rags across the aisle. And if Mr. Weedy is a bit slow on loading the dishwasher, it doesn’t impact me at all.

3. Dish drawers: This one’s a “meh.” While having them in drawers helps with our Sunday kiddos being able to set the table on their own, for us adults I think I prefer taking them out of an upper.

4. Corner seating on island: You guys advised to not put the chairs only in a “diner” row, but the corner seat isn’t life changing. We tend to sit next to each other.

So there she is. Thanks to all those that helped with design suggestions up front and implementation questions along the way.