Wow. That went from bland and sterile to warm, bright and beautiful. And such a functional kitchen. Love your miles of counter space!

Great job!!

It looks amazing, what an upgrade! Love that counter for sure. Will you tell me more about your pendant over the sink? That is exactly what I want to in my space.

How low, to the bottom of the pendant, does it hang? Do you bump it at all? How difficult was it to exchange the can for the pendant?

Part of my problem is a soffit. Yuck.

I LOVE!

I love your countertops and backsplash. Really nice job It all looks so nice.

Really lovely! As you said, great tile guy...

What a wonderful facelift! It looks so clean & stylish. Great job!

I really like your faucet. What kind is it? Thx!

Great selections, what an improvement! The beveled tile looks well done.

Beautiful! And that bevel on the tile under the sink is such a nice finished look. How great!

My first thought at your "before" photo was "the light fixtures are pitiful". Even though your new fixture is a similar shape, it provides a completely different feel, and the sink pendant is lovely.

Your quartz is beautiful, and the addition of knobs and pulls added so much!

What a gorgeous example of how a few upgrades can transform a kitchen.

What a nice upgrade! And how nice to see evidence of really good tile work. Understandably, we hear so much here about the problem tile installations, and it's nice to see beautiful work.

The counters are really attractive.

Makes me jealous for a kitchen that doesn't need a bulldozer as the first step, lol.

Thank you for the kind words, everyone!

greenhaven - Just measured it, and the pendant hangs 24.5" from the ceiling. I'm 5'11" and there's a few inches between the pendant and the top of my head, but it's centered above the counter (more or less) so I never feel like I'm going to bump it - the cord can also be adjusted to be as long or short as you need. It was a breeze to install, as it's of the "instant" variety and screws into an existing recessed bulb socket. This is the exact one we bought: Worth Home Products 1-Light Brushed Nickel Instant Pendant Light Conversion Kit and Overlay with Halophane Glass Shade

There are a few different "models" of instant pendants; the base units are more or less identical to each other, but the shades can be swapped out with most standard pendant shades, so you can get the exact look you want.

wags848 - Thank you! The faucet is a Moen Wetherly Stainless High-Arc - there are chrome and bronze versions as well.

Thanks again to all of you - it's good to get some positive feedback from other folks, and I will definitely post any future projects. :)

Thank you so much for sharing that with me!

Thank you for the faucet link!

greenhaven - No problem! If you do decide to go with an instant pendant, I just remembered a couple of little tips - one for aesthetic purposes, and one that could save you from a potential... incident.

The first is something that seems to happen to a lot of people (judging from the reviews) - the fixture plate not being completely flush with the ceiling - but the fix is simple. Once you've got the cord at your desired length and the pendant is screwed in, just pull down on the cord (not too hard, but enough to remove any slack), and while pushing the cover plate against the ceiling at the same time, tighten the nut at the base of the cover plate.

The second bit of advice: The cord wraps around a hook on the inside of the fixture, and this hook is made out of heavy duty plastic - it seems to be durable enough, but I've heard that the stress from supporting the hanging light can cause it to snap. Not good! The easy preventative measure I took: After you've got your cord wrapped around the support bar at the desired length, just take some electrical tape and tightly wrap it several times, diagonally from the end of the support bar to the top of the piece, like so:

This will distribute the weight so the load isn't entirely on that skinny little bar, and it doesn't need to be pretty since it will all be hidden inside the light can. :)

What a lovely change. It has gone from bland and sterile to warm and inviting.

The bevel on the tile by the window is a very nice touch...good of your tile guy to do that. It's those little details that truly make all of the difference.

You mentioned about the UC lights looking yellow in photos when other lights are on. What is probably happening is that your other lights are a cooler shade (maybe "daylight at around 5k) and your UC lights are probably somewhere around 3k. Your camera is adjusting the light to read the main light as your neutral and therefore the "warm white" will represent as a bit warmer. If all of your lighting sources were the same color temperature AND you take the photo at night so that only "artificial" lighting sources are lighting everything, you would expect that the light would show the same if it's LED, however with incandescents, when they dim, they become considerably warmer.

Beautiful space--so warm and inviting now! I love the backsplash in particular.

Your kitchen is beautiful- I find the backsplash to be especially stunning! Enjoy your new kitchen!

Is your Moen Wetherly Kitchen Faucet easy to control the temperature? I have read that the handle turns more to the right than it will to the left when trying to control the temperature. Is that true for you? Also, how is the flow rate when filling a large pot with water?

mcdermdj - I haven't had any problems with the handle; it easily turns an equal amount in either direction. I must admit that the flow rate could be better, though - it's acceptable, but it takes longer to fill a large pot than our old faucet, so I usually end up using the sprayer for that.

You did a lovely job. Beautiful!

I also like higher flow rates as well but these faucets seem to have limits put on them these days. I guess Moen has never tried to fill a big pot with water! My current Moen is only 1.5gpm and the Wertherly in suppose to be 2,2gpm. So it is faster than what I have now but that is not saying much. The faster the better is what I like. It is interesting that you say the sprayer is much faster than the spout. At least we have a powerfull sprayer for rinsing our dishes (and filling pots if we want).

Love your new kitchen! W ehave very similar cabinets & I am looking for countertop & backsplash very much like yours. Would you be ok telling me how much the coutnertops cost installed & where you purchased them? We have just started our search.

mcdermdj - Yeah, there must be some kind of built-in limit - I wouldn't think we've got low water pressure, since the sprayer is quite powerful.

catmele - Thank you! We bought our countertops from a local shop in Lexington, KY. The quartz we chose (Walnut Luster by Hanstone) was $81/sq. ft. installed, and the total cost (including sink cutouts, edge beveling, delivery, and removal/disposal of old countertops) was $4700. Interestingly enough, though, I learned that most (if not all) of Hanstone's designs have been licensed to Lowe's and are sold under their Allen + Roth brand, albeit with different names - their version of Walnut Luster is called Kelsey Creek, for example. I'm not sure of Lowes' prices - though they should be the same from store to store - nor of the quality of their installation (which probably varies widely), but I know a few people who have had good results from them. Hope this helps!

Please tell me the name of your backsplash tile. Thanks

Barb Goodwin - It's Tuscany Ivory 12 in. x 12 in. x 10 mm Honed Beveled Travertine Tile by MS International. You can find it at a few different places - mine came from Home Depot (here's a link).

Thank you!!

Can you please let me know how your countertops are holding up at this point? Thanks!

Looks wonderful!

nat_noell - Still going strong! Look the same as the day we bought them.

Great, thank you for the reply!