My husband and I have decided to redo our kitchen. I was assured this was THE place to go to avoid mistakes that stare you in the face every time you go in your kitchen.

We have a small L shaped kitchen that opens into our family room area. We do not want an island because we like the flexibility we have to move our table around, and, if we were to do an island, it would have to incorporate an eating area. My husband loves to do it himself, and will build the cabinets himself (he's been looking forward to this for 10 years) as well as install things himself. Building oak furniture is probably his biggest hobby, so I'm not worried about whether he is up to it, or not.

Here are some choices we're working on right now. We just saw a lyptus butcher block counter top and we loved it. We would like to use this for the whole counter top, including by the sink. We saw a composite granite sink at Lowes the other day that can be either under mount or top mount. We would like to do it under mount, primarily because our current sink is a top mount white cast iron sink on top of a white laminate counter top. They just don't seem to go together. The cabinets will be red oak, with a natural finish.

I do have a 12 yo. She doesn't cook much, but she does make Kool-Aid. Dh's first response is that she needs to make Kool-Aid in the sink. Some 12 yo's clean up after themselves. This one doesn't seem to. I have been working hard with her, and I think she's getting better but since I'm not a neatnik (also a problem with any kitchen redesign) I don't expect her to suddenly become one. We don't have any expectation of moving soon.

Perhaps I should add, our back up counter top plan is laminate. Both a similar reddish color. We have black appliances.

Thank you for any help/advice/tips you can give us.