You're in good financial shape. Don't worry about "overpaying" - it happened to us in 1989, and we survived just fine over the long haul. Painful for a while, but it worked out. And besides, we had to have a place to live, anyway. Might as well be twice the room of our old apartment and a free parking space in front as well, LOL. Your best bet to maintain top value is to not over-improve your home, but keep it in absolutely top condition. This includes doing anything structural or system-related that is needed as time goes on. We overimproved our house, but consider it worth it because we have enjoyed the benefits for the last 20 years. What actually makes the house saleable, however, are the structural improvements - a more modern open floor plan, upgraded kitchen and baths, the top-to-bottom electrical/plumbing/sewer upgrades (most homes here have a patchwork of old and new stuff done, not a complete system upgrade). You do not have to do this - in fact, I'd recommend you don't! Home improvement on a full-scale is a seriously slippery slope. You'll love the end result, but you won't necessarily get back that much more money on resale than someone who just kept their home in good condition with modest upgrades. Only you can decide how much a big remodeling project is worth to you. Just don't count on more than 20-30% of the cost adding $$ to your home's value when you go to resell it 10 years from now.

I agree with most of the comments here! I have an aisle kitchen but unlike you I have a large window in front of my sink. We had a huge fluorescent box fixture above the sink and my kitchen always looked dark. We recently replaced the fixture with ( 3) 4 inch can lights and Wow what a difference that made! If your unable to have those installed they have some nice LED track lighting that was mentioned aboe that looks beautiful too! I like your bright accessories on your countertops too as it gives a pop of color.

Thanks everyone !! We just met with our cabinet makers today to order a new island. They don't think they can match the color of the cherry cabinets because it darkens over time, so we will probably have to have the island painted. Does anyone have any color recommendation for the island? Most pictures I see of wood cabinets with a painted island make the island look out of place.

Thanks so much for all the comments! They have been great at helping me think of options I had not considered at all. You all are great to share your thoughts and ideas! I've been trying to get more pictures in better light, which has been challenging. I am also posting a few pics of the side and back of the house. There are shadows in the pics, but they seem unavoidable. The brick is interesting - depending on the light, it can look quite different Sometimes it takes on a pinkish hue, while other times it is more terra cotta and other times more brownish in color. And the brick is darker closer to the ground and lighter higher up. Based on your great ideas, I am now leaning towards a conservative approach and considering changing the paint colors only for now and see how that works (and still replace the roof, which is a necessity). I realize that if painting and making other changes doesn't turn out the way I would like, I can always go back and reconsider more major approaches like painting the brick and/or enlarging windows. I had been riding around town, looking for houses with painted brick, trying to get ideas. I'm including here a picture of a house I saw and liked. While it is a far different (and more attractive!) style than mine, I noticed that its' color isn't too different from our brick. That has lead me to consider the possibility of painting the area between the windows to be almond, matching the windows, and also to use the almond color in all areas that are currently painted the color that was trying to match the brick. And then use black for the trim where I currently have teal If I were to just change paint colors (and not paint brick or change windows), I am thinking of something like the picture below. I would really like to have more of the accent color on the front of the house. I originally felt I couldn't have shutters because of the window placement, but now I am wondering if it is a possibility after all. I would love to hear your thoughts on possibly adding some shutters after all. Sorry that the colors aren't great, but I was trying to best be able to try on some various Sherwin William colors. I'm including one more picture - this one before we took down the foundation shrubs a few days ago. We anticipate having a new substantial foundation planting, just not as straight across as this was and not as overgrown. We will have a variety of different plant types and different plant heights also. I realize that the plants will make a big difference. We do plan to remove the vines currently growing on trellises on the house, once we get the new planting done. Left them up just for now. I really appreciate the suggestion to move the planters down (getting rid of all our big shrubs makes things look very different!) And I like the idea of adding a flower box on the areas to the side of the entrance, but they would only look good here for about half the year, I'm afraid. That did get me thinking about the possibility of having a rectangular accent piece of scrollwork in those areas instead. I would appreciate any thoughts you have about these possible paint colors (without painting the brick, at least for now) as well as possibly adding shutters. Also possibly adding scrollwork pieces on the two sides of the entrance. Again, thanks so much for all of your great input! It is so much help to me!