It appears that you learned very well from the informative postings/comments on this forum.

Congrats for a job well done!

Pepper
~ Sheetrock is now being sanded! Yippeee! *achoo*

I love the lanterns above the cooktop. I've always admired that style. Are they difficult to clean?

The moment I saw your kitchen I thought of clergychick's! Her's is one of my favorite's and yours has some of the same touches..the touches of red...the tropical brown granite. I think it looks great! Really nicely done...
KA:)

Drop dead gorgeous, great job!

Congratulations on an amazing "makeover"!

Cj

Layout - didn't change anything. This is where I saved the most money. When we bought the house I had grand ideas about gutting and starting fresh, putting in double wall ovens, a prep sink in the island, etc....then reality struck and I realized I didn't have the money for that kind of overhaul unless I won the lottery. The layout isn't too terrible. No "work triangle" but overall it works. We kept everything in place. No changes in appliances, plumbing, etc.

Cabinets - didn't change them out. Kept old 1989 cabinets and had them painted. I did have professional painters do it, they came in, took off the cabinet doors, drawer fronts and garage door and took them back to their shop and sprayed them in BM Decorator's White. It cost about $1000 to have them do this and come in and paint the side panels in place.

Countertops- tropical brown granite - total cost was $4300 installed and that included the stainless undermount sink and tearing out the old counters. That was my big splurge, but it was still cheaper than most of the other granite colors. I figured if I splurged on the countertops it would make the rest of the kitchen look a little more elegant! I searched GW for granite info and found lots of advice that was absolutely priceless, including a great post by Stonegirl that should be bumped to the first page for eternity.

Drawer/Cabinet pulls - I got these from Menards, a Midwestern home improvement chain similar to Home Depot but less expensive. Total cost for all of them was under $200.

Faucet - got it on sale from a local plumbing supply company - $250

Lanterns above island - Overstock.com - These were only $166 a piece, and I think they also give the kitchen a more glamorous look!

Construction work (replacing soffit lighting, taking out fluorescent light box, leveling out island to one level, labor on backsplash)- I hired 2 guys to do the work at $25/hour. I had seen their work before and they worked with the granite supplier/fabricator on many jobs so it was nice that they all had a good working relationship. I saved money by doing the cleanup every night so I didn�t have to pay them to do it. They worked pretty fast and I�m really happy with the work they did. I would definitely hire them again. I think total labor cost was $1500.

Backsplash - Daltile Rittenhouse Square subway tile in arctic white semi gloss. I looked up many threads on GW for backsplashes and settled on this because of the classic look and cost! $250 for materials, took the tile guy about 8 hours to do it.

Adams Counterstools were from Target.com, not Pottery Barn. I liked the look in the PB catalog but found the lookalikes at Target. I have 2 little boys that are very rough on furniture so I didn't want to spend a lot. Plus, I was on a budget. I think they were $78 a piece.

Kitchen table & chairs from Kmart. $229 for table and 4 chairs. Surprisingly, shockingly well-made. Kmart doesn't suck as much as I thought!

Appliances- the range was kind of a splurge, it was about $2000. But I cook a lot and justified the expense. Fridge was on sale. Dishwasher on sale as well, it's okay, if I had to do it over again I maybe would have forked over a little more money for a better dishwasher. Apparently Maytag and I have different definitions of the word "quiet".

Window Treatment - I think that roman shade from Smith + Noble was about $200. Oh, how I wish I could sew better...

Thanks again! This forum is AWESOME!!!