My intentions were good to get back on here after I settled back in, but day before Thanksgiving the transformer to our house and 8 others blew, no power for almost 24 hours, finally came on Thanksgiving morning, thankfully (in more ways than one) I wasn't cooking. THEN found out we had no internet, just got it back Monday after a lot of false promises and lies from AT&T, still not working as well as before, but at least I'm back on the net. Don't ask what else happened, it was a crappy week. Anyhow, wanted to jump back up on here and reply and update. We had the first inspection on Monday, replied with a list of things I want the sellers to fix prior to me having the pest and chimney inspectors called out. Nothing too major, which was good, and surprising to the inspector for a house of this age. Just waiting now. palimpsest- thanks for the links, they'll be very helpful and I've put them in my favorites. I would never have known that the style of the cabinet is considered French Provincial (Rockler) though I can't find it as such anywhere else. You've really got a lot on your plate with that kitchen - wow, I think that's about the worse I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot looking over this past year. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with this kitchen should we get the house, so many people say paint the cabinets and I've seen a lot of photos on the web with painted cabinets, but I'm having a hard time finding pictures from those who have just cleaned up the natural looking wood cabinets and possibly just put the varnish, or whatever else the clearcoat is/was back on. Does anyone know of a site that will allow you to upload your own pics and put solid surface to see what it looks like, similar to the paint sites they have where you can see how a color looks (BTW, I can't figure out the one on BM for some reason) Should I paint the soffits above the cabinets or leave them as is? They seem to be a darker color than the cabinets. Any suggestions on what color to do the walls that will compliment the cabinets? I'm thinking about a solid surface countertop in the brown/tan tones - not in to white, grays, blues, etc. Maybe something on the "dark side" or would lighter look better?? Backsplash suggestions? I think tile, cheaper and I think too much solid won't look good. Knobs will take me forever to pick out, no idea what would be complimentary and it's hard for me to make a deicision. Flooring, thought about the Trafficmaster Alurre in the darker slate - not sure if that would look good or not. Whatever I do, have to tie it in to the eat=in area. Not sure what to do about the lower half of the wall where the wood is - leave it, or paint it? If I paint it, will have to paint tha backside of the kitchen cabinets. Any thoughts of how to "enhance" that back area? I really have never had "color" in my home, so I'd like to keep it a bit subdued - I'm sort of scared of the unknown! I'd love to move the stove as suggested, but that would be a problem with what to do with the wall oven and the opening it would leave as I wouldn't have a cook top on one side with the oven on another, or would one? Also, the exhaust vent is vented to the outside and I don't want to have to move that either. I don't mind the layout, really. I'd like to try and put in some pullouts for the blind corners and cabinets underneath, any suggestions who has the best price out there? There's a comfortable feeling about this home for me. The wood cornices remind me of my Grandparents cottage in Upstate NY and the whole house has a familiar feel ss it's almost the same layout as I have now. It has so much potential if given time (and money) As much as I'd love to have a totally brnd new kitchen, I know in reality, I can't afford it and I can't put myself in to debt over a kitchen. I know there has to be others out there that have done what I'm thinking, I'm just not finding anything in all my searches, which is driving me batty! Thanks to Palimpsest I know that, at least where Rockler is concerned, the cabinets are considered to be French Provincial? but as I said above, I can't find anywhere else that they are considered to be that style. I haven't found but one pic with anyone else having cabinet doors like this. Thanks again to everyone, truly appreciate each and every reply!

The Wedgwood vase is very pretty - it reminds me of the startup silhouette on the Kindle app. But the Beagles Biscuit tin is perfect! Raboo - my Lab chooses to spend part of her day and every night in her crate. And we haven't closed the gate in over 4 years. It's right in the kitchen where she feels like she's in the center of all the activity. She loves it, it's her den and her favorite snoozing place. We have dog beds in the study and family room too - but she still prefers her crate.

Just want to add that, in looking further, I did find the following remote (see link below). I haven't finnshed researching it yet, but it appears it will do what I want---and much more. It also costs much more than the other remote I was looking at. The concern that prompted my first post here was simply being able to control turning on the TV, changing channels, and increasing or decreasing the volume of the TV when the cable box is in the cabinet, behind closed doors. My understanding is that I need an RF remote to accomplish that. The remote referenced at the bottom of this thread apparently will do this. It's also approximately $180 more than the first remote I found. So DH and I will have to determine whether it's worth laying out the additional dollars to decrease the number of remotes we need to use. Probably going to have to table this decision until we get further along building our home and see how many and how expensive unexpected expenditures we have. I certainly don't expect you to make the decision for me, but can you confirm that the two Harmony remotes I have linked---one in this post and one in a post above---will enable me to communicate with at least some of my components within a cabinet with the RF remotes and the hub that comes with each of them? LINK---Harmony Remote 915-000201

I can't comment on those particular pieces, but I do have a cherry bed and dresser from the Grove collection in my kid's room. It's pretty nice quality--good wood, good assembly. It's solid wood, so if you're looking for bookmatched grain, this isn't what you want. In other words, it's as nice as it looks in the catalog, with no surprises. :)