Kitchen Inspiration-

I have been having an itch to facelift our kitchen.  I'm going to blame our new cable subscription and HGTV for further prompting me to consider this.   I'm having mixed feelings however about this  because our goal is to sell 1434 and move on.  However, the "moving on" has been a difficult and frustrating process thus far (that's a whole other rant) and it is looking like it is a possibility that we will stay in 1434 into 2010.  It all relies upon that special house suddenly appearing on the market.  So if we are going to stay longer I might as well update, right?  Right???  (Reinforcement please!!!)

So above is a picture of my inspiration kitchen.  This kitchen is fab!  I love the Arts & Crafts cabinetry  and color scheme used.  This ad is strategically placed in every issue of American Bungalow so I have been eyeing this beautiful kitchen for quite some time.  I can see myself cooking a gourmet meal for the family every night of the week in this wonderful kitchen.

Our current kitchen received a major facelift in the fall of 2005 when we first purchased our home.  It was in fact the first room that we overhauled, primarily because it is the most used room and it was utterly disgusting and in our opinion unusable at time of purchase.  It took weeks to complete which resulted in total burnout of microwave meals and pizza.  The kitchen floors (hardwood) were painted white with porch paint.  I'm sorry, but who the hell paints hardwood flooring???  I can't even begin to express my anger about the paint on the hardwood floors (yes, the entire upstairs of this house was also painted porch paint on hardwoods).  The painted hardwood floor posed a significant issue for us, as we were completely new to home anything and refinishing a hardwood floor was beyond our scope (or so we thought).  Financially it posed a problem too as we had used the majority of our savings to purchase the home and move to Lincoln.  Through dialogue and considering all of our options and what would ultimately make us (i.e. me) happy in the long run, we decided to move forward and strip the hardwood floors and refinish on our own.  We began the process very early on a Sunday morning by renting a drum sander from the local Home Depot.  Matt spent the entire day working away on that floor.  In fact, he even missed a nice spaghetti/seafood dinner over at S&H's house that evening.  By about 1o in the evening the floor was sanded down to yellow pine, no white paint!  Matt then proceeded over the next week to stain and polycoat the floor.  We were very thrilled with the turnout!  It looks great to this day.

The kitchen had to have all new appliances.  There was a gas stove left in the purchase but it was so filthy and janky looking we immediately just got rid of it.  We had to hire a plumber to move some odd pipes that were in the way of where the refrigerator was supposed to go and had to purchase a new refrigerator to fit the dimensions of the opening of the spot.  The cabinets we painted a fresh coat of white and rehung to fit proper.  Through shopping for the stove we decided to pursue an electric stove and had to hire yet additional workers to come in and remove the gas line and install an electric outlet.  We chose stainless steel GE appliances.  For the color of the kitchen we went with a funky bright granny smith green.  With the white cabinets and stainless steel appliances it pops!  We finished the look with custom made wood shades. 

The kitchen looks great.  My only compliant is the outdated countertops (white with gold speckles).  Countertops are pricey however so I think I will make do.  See pictures below of current kitchen.

So the debate is whether to leave said kitchen as is or pursue an inspirational HGTV facelift.  Matt & I spent some time at Lowe's tonight checking out sample kitchens, materials, and paint colors.  I have fallen in love with a cottage sage green and light historic shade of yellow.  My thought- paint the walls in the yellow and the cabinets in sage green.  Maybe update the faucet to something more modern and add a wainscot backsplash by the sink.  I think these simple updates would look great and make the kitchen feel more Arts & Crafts appropriate.  Of course, as outlined above, the kitchen currently looks good the way it is.  So do I leave as is or let my boredom and constant decorating streak take over?  Hmmmmm.......