Thanks to everyone on this forum for all the great ideas and discussions.

We're getting ready to start on our kitchen renovation. We have a 19-year old house that we had built, and while we don't want to make major changes - we really like the kitchen, it's a pretty big project for us. Here are a couple of as-is pictures (I already posted these to the kitchen island thread).

The big decision for us is if we want to go to a 30 inch oven from our current 27. We're definitely replacing the single oven with a double (probably Electrolux). In order to get the 30 inch oven, we need to move the pantry wall (behind the refrigerator approx 3 inches. It's a lot of work to get a 30-inch oven, but we're still leaning that way. If we don't move the wall, we'll go with a new 27-in double, and everything else is the same as the other plan.

Other changes will be to replace the Sub-Zero Refrig-Freezer with a Sub Zero All Fridge. We have a side-by-side in the pantry that will be replaced by a freezer. We plan to move the microwave into a built-in cabinet next to the fridge. The DW, sink and trash compactor will move down one cabinet space to the left, and that cabinet will move to where the TC is. We might replace the gas cooktop with induction, but right now, that's in the nice-to-have category.

We're going to replace the formica countertops (in amazingly good shape) with granite. We're thinking Jup Bordeaux or possibly Russian Sable (still looking).

Faucets, hardware and lighting will be a combination of copper and oil-rubbed bronze - somewhat difficult to find in contemporary styles, but they're out there (I'll probably have more posts on that subject).

The cabinet fronts all need to be refinished, and no matter what we do some new cabinets will need to be made (at least new oven cab, and fridge enclosure). The riser on the island will change, but we're not totally sure how yet.

We're thinking of replacing the pendants we have with a monorail system of pendants and spots.

We've interviewed two contractors, and feel like we could go with either one. One is Interior Designer/GC who comes highly recommended from several folks we know. The other is design/build firm that is rated tops (although not a lot of ratings) on Angie's List.

Even though it doesn't look like a real big job, I've identified 35 discrete items that need to change, and I'm sure we haven't quite thought of everything yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: More as-is pictures