Thank you everyone for all your support and encouragement. We definitely will be enjoying the new dining room for Thanksgiving--only we will be very cramped over the holidays with everyone stuck in the family room. :( I do think the green wall is what is throwing me off. It's more like the first picture. I'm pretty much reconciled to repainting the wall--once everything is in place and I can get some color advice. I was able to get a swatch at RH this evening of the goldenrod striped drape I pictured above and it actually looked nice against both the tan and bone colored walls. DH made it easier as he does not like the red--so better to sneak in color with pillows, rug, etc. The drapes are being discontinued and marked down about 65% per panel which will end up saving me about $1,000 on my drapery budget--and since the roman shades are more than I anticipated, this makes it all the more tempting. I just decided to go for it--as I told DH, if nothing else I could sell it on ebay or return it. One step at a time, I guess.

oldbat2be - We've been gone for a couple days. But, yes, finally, a little bit of progress. Thanks to you, I was able to visualize my kitchen with the granites I was looking at and various paint options. Even though I found the Blues in the Night interesting, I concluded ubatuba provides more flexibility for our situation. And It seems that people on this forum who have it or had it in the past loved it. So....we bought the UT and it should go in sometime this month. Once the counters are in, I'll then select (agonize over) the backsplash. Once that's in, I'll decide on what we do with the cabinets. Baby steps in comparison to many on this forum. I've ordered a single bowl SS sink and am going out now to look at cooktops, range hoods and faucets. One thing I am sorry about is that here in California an air gap is a code requirement. But I did find one on Amazon that is a little more attractive than what's at HD / Lowes. You have no idea how much help you've been. I wish we were neighbors!!

Flo - Dining is aprox 16.5 x 12.75. As much as I like the table, it would have to be down the road a little bit, but would like to plan so that I don't do things twice. I have a hard enough time getting the once done. :) We have way to many necessary projects on our to do list. My $50 dollar table that I have now is a beast. It is great in the fact that it expands to take up the whole dining room, but it requires lots of help to get it there. Ready to not decorate around a couple of large family gatherings a year. I have to share my kids with their in-laws now. Boo hoo. As far as color, I could do a bolder color, but wouldn't want every wall bold. I have heard that accent walls are going out too. Obviously, I don't paint often, so I would like something somewhat timeless, if that exists. When I was picking a paint for the master bedroom, I had many colors up similar to SW Sea Salt. I drove my husband crazy. I eventually went with Designer White from a parent co of SW. I have white washed tongue and groove ceiling that I felt was hard to coordinate with. I love it. It is a bit stark, but feels fresh. It is probably to stark for downstairs. Definitely going to grab a sample of the Natural Choice.

@yourchigirl, while I would like nothing more than to rip out the built in pantry, there is ducting and electrical running in the partition wall by the mud room door and electrical in the wall by the stove. I am capable of tearing those out, but it is not in the budget for this project. I could hold off on the entire project and save money to be able to include it in the budget, but then I would want to install a 48" built-in fridge along that wall, which adds another $11K to the project. I have no doubt it would look amazing but that is more project creep than I want to deal with. On another front, I've pretty much convinced myself that an induction cooktop is going to replace the electric cooktop instead of propane. I am still considering the placement of the cooktop along the wall vs. the island. I know the prevailing sentiment by the KD pros here is that a cooktop does not belong on the island and every time I am using it I am conscious of their advice. However, I'm not yet convinced that the way we use the kitchen island and cooktop works for us and the extra time and $$ required to relocate the cooktop is worth it. I would like to focus more on having the right storage for the appropriate tools in the best locations. I am working on defining my task areas based on a couple layouts and will walk through them with the Minister of War and Finance (Wife) when I'm done with them.