When we priced the Ikea cabinets for her kitchen they where considerably more expensive than the Schrock ones and we did not have an Ikea close enough to go to see them in person. She wanted painted cabinets not thermofoil and schrock cabinets have wood drawers, dove tail construction. So for the $ they really are nice cabinets. Another line that is fairly inexpensive is Mid continent cabinets. The dealer in our area for the mid-continent is difficult to work with so we passed on them. Steph- the flooring is from lowes the allen + roth brand, pretty inexpensive and it is individual planks. It looks nice the planks had a foam backing attached to them. I have a vinyl plank flooring in my basement and I love it. I do daycare and it is very nice looking and cleans up easily. I would not hesitate to put the vinyl floor on cement.

It's looking like some shade of aqua/turquoise will be a winner. Dianalo, the tile on recyclingthepast.com is going to be my new obsession! Amazing stuff. I wonder if it's just coincidence that they have such a large selection of Belgian stuff right now. Belgium is a favorite travel destination of ours, and in fact, the artwork in the kitchen and dining room is mostly Belgian prints. I think we really need to work in some sort of accent with that tile! I'm also in love with those big sinks with attached drainboards -- always on the lookout for one, never get lucky. It would necessitate bigger changes to the cabinets than I was thinking, but it would be so worth it. I will definitely try the hot iron approach to removing the backsplash. mama_goose, it's true - the worst that can happen is that I'm that much more motivated! fori, you are right, the peninsula is innocent! It's a bad relationship between it, the fridge, and the neighboring cabinet. That countertop where the microwave currently lives mostly functions as a clutter-magnet, so I could certainly live without that counter space. It does provide good storage below, though. After doing some measuring, I'm not sure how much recessing the fridge and/or removing that cabinet would do. The pantry wall on the left of the fridge limits how far I could push it back and still get the freezer door open all the way. I'd get 2 inches, at best. Not sure that's worth the work of breaking down the wall there. Forgetting about that base cabinet for the moment, the diagonal measurement from peninsula corner to fridge corner is only 30" and the diagonal from the opposite corner of the peninsula to the laundry closet wall is only 33." Since the fridge can't move much, and the laundry closet is not changing, I think that area would still feel cramped even if we took out that base cabinet entirely. paintergirl94, I am blown away by your drawings! I hope my kitchen looks so good in the end! I am really liking the microwave shelf idea -- had never even heard of that before I started reading this forum. Your plywood counter is so cool, I never would have thought of something like that. DH actually came across a local cabinetmaker the other day, so that and you all are spurring me on to consult with some independent guys here and see what they can offer. I'm getting optimistic that we can get some combination of new and old to blend well here.

I am always in total amazement of those who are DIY'ers (CEFreeman who posted upthread is my DIY hero) and this kitchen is beautiful. I've painted our kitchen cabinets twice and changed the hardware but never thought to use gel on them. Your counter slab is so pretty and on that long uninterrupted counter space it must be stunning. Great updating and a good decision to remove the scallop trim.

Thanks for all the replies. I really appreciate the good advice. The cabin is located about 3 hours away from Toronto (Canada). There are a couple of independent building stores a 40 minute drive away - so access to building materials is a bit hard and more expensive. I got a couple of quotes on quartz from up there in the $5-6K range. Laminate (a higher grade) was $985. There are very limited options / businesses so the prices are high. I can buy quartz for less, closer to home ($2K maybe), but need to measure myself and transport it up there - likely in a rental minivan without kids in the backseat. So the logistics are a bit more challenging (and the gas + rental is an extra cost). I think we'll likely go with the suggestion to use butcher block on the island ($428 for birch at Home Depot with free delivery) and add a laminate counter ($80) to our Ikea order. We may upgrade to quartz in the future. Thanks again for all the suggestions.