I think it looks great, but if it bothers you....

i suppose it would be wise to not fool with it since we are only staying there a few years?? i don't know how i'm going to restrain myself to not change things to my liking

I'd leave the crown alone. With such a short tenure planned, he only thing I'd attempt to remedy is that horribly unsafe island cooktop. With kids, all I can see are trips to an emergency room burn ward. Fixing that wouldn't be cheap, so the likely temporary solution to that would be just gating off the kitchen when meals were being prepared.

I would not touch the crown molding since it works well with all the built-ins. If you want to make a major change, paint the beams, but I would never put money in a temporary home (which looks great) when I'm making plans to build new. There are ALWAYS hidden costs when building and remodeling so I'd save every penny to go toward the new home. Believe me, if you have a set budget, you WILL go over it.

Regarding the kitchen cabinets: the only thing that bothers me is the veneer on the island and the left side of the lower cabinets.......... it looks like plywood. I would probably paint the end section the same as the wall and if you want a spot of teal, then paint the island the teal color. Because of the grain, oak cabinets don't always look great with paint.

LWO, what's wrong with the cooktop?

I'm a little concerned about the cooktop too. There's no vent. The kitchen is waaaay too narrow for an island. It's one of those situations where the trend overruled the function. But I don't know how to remedy that. It would be too big of an undertaking.

the grain of the cabinets hurts my eyes, so I'm thinking I will have them sprayed by professionals. would that cover the grain? maybe cream on the perimeter and a muted turqoise on the island. the teal in the pic i posted is a little too bright.

There's not enough safety zone to one side or the rear of the island for a cooking zone there. Pots and pans full of hot stuff have handles that are as long or longer than the space around the cooktop. Passersby can brush against them in two directions and pull them off, thus burning themselves. People who want to socialize with the cook can put a hand down to lean against the island and even burn themselves directly on the burners.

Not to mention, it's a downdraft, which sucks because it doesn't suck. And it's a barrier island, which blocks the path between the sink and the refrigerator, meaning you have to run circles around it to prep. And there's not enough clearance between it and the fridge for one of the higher traffic locations in a kitchen. Cooking a meal in this kitchen is going to be a lot of walking and work, and you have to be very very careful while you are doing it.

If this were anything but a temp residence, I'd have to say that a kitchen redo should be one of the first things tackled. Especially with kids around who want to congregate in the kitchen. It's just not going to work very well for them to do that. With this being temporary, you still might want to tackle it because temporary has a way of lasting a lot longer than you plan it to. And a fresh budget kitchen redo could add to the resale appeal when that has to happen. If you're handy, you can probably do a makeover shifting the cabinets around and maybe finding some more at a Habitat ReStore and then tying everything together with paint. You can probably keep it under 10K if you're willing to be the one to do the work.

i will definitely leave the crown. thanks for encouraging me to do so.

one other issue with the kitchen is the fridge. they are taking the fridge. should i replace it with a black fridge since all the appliances are black? or should i go stainless? i'm leaning toward stainless since the future buyer will probably want to upgrade all of the appliances to stainless??

Ahhhh, I see now what you mean l-w-o. Ya, it is a little close to the edge!

You could paint out the crown the wall color to minimize it.

Don't touch that LR (crown, beams or otherwise). It looks fantastic, and will be a selling point in only a short 2 years.

the kitchen though... I can see how that grain would bother you. BUT, instead of professionally painting the cabinets, which would cost you thousands, I'd consider Gel staining them myself (there is a wonderful thread on the kitchen forum on how to do that--look up celticmoon gel stain and you'll find it). Those cabinets would be fine with that. AND, then, spend the rest of those thousands saved to remedy that dangerous barrier cooking island. You have 4 kids! You'll save the $ it takes to "fix" that issue with the prevention of 1 ER visit and hospitalization.