Kitchen Renovation

I've decided to get new kitchen cabinets and countertops. Do I have money to do this? Yes and no. I have money, but technically, it's not mine (it has to be paid back at some point). I've thought about doing this for a while, but just recently got to where I could justify it enough in my mind. My justifications: this will increase the resale value of my house considerably and it would be great if I could walk into my kitchen and not cringe. Plus, the functionality of the cabinets is nil and countertop space is limited.

Sorry about the mess...I didn't feel like cleaning just for this picture. I went to Lowe's the other day and got a design/estimate drawn up. I also tentatively decided on natural maple cabinets. The cabinet installer also came by last week to double check measurements and make sure everything was okay for the install.

There are a couple of problems I'll have to contend with: as you can see from the picture, I have an old hood. Well, newer cabinets (unless I went custom--which I'm not doing) above the stove are shallower to make room for microwave/hood combos. This means that the exhaust outlet (or whatever you call it) will be too low for a microhood. There's a couple of ways to rectify this--I still have yet to decide what I want to do. Another problem is that these microhoods generally require a dedicated breaker and odds are I don't have one.

I currently don't have a dishwasher and thought about having one put in, but ultimately decided not to because of cost. I'd have to have a plumber come in and do a whole bunch of work. But when we're talking about resale value, I think having a dishwasher would be a big plus. Maybe I should? I remember when I was looking at buying the house, not having a dishwasher was a major turn-off. Now, however, I'm glad I don't have one because it'd be a big waste of money, water, and energy. The only time a dishwasher would come in handy for me is when I have parties. Along the lines of a dishwasher, I need to figure out what kind of sink I want. I'd really like the kind that has the low middle piece so that I can wash pots more easily, but if I do that that means I'll have limited sink depth for dish washing. Hmmmm.....

At any rate, another thing I have to decide on is whether to put in a sink with a garbage disposal. Again, I don't have one currently and therefore don't have the electrical hooked up for that purpose. So if I decide to do that, I would have to hire an electrician to work on that. Which may be the route to go since one of my classmates is an electrician and I can get the microhood on a dedicated breaker as well. In the design we also added a base and top cabinet where the baker's rack is. I'm most excited about that. That's more storage and counter space.

I decided to go with laminate for the countertops. I really didn't have much choice with this actually; I wanted to keep the cost as low as possible and laminate is pretty much the only option. I was not aware, however, that there is low end to high end laminate. I thought it was standard all around. They have this HD (high end) laminate that adds a texture to the laminate. I don't think I'll go HD but I may upgrade from low end and go premium. I also have decided to go with a darker laminate to off-set the paleness of the natural maple.

I meet with the Lowe's guy again today, so hopefully we can get this ball a-rollin'!

UPDATE: I signed the contract, paid for the cabinets, and yes, I did decide to install a dishwasher. :o)