a good starting point is to go to a home depot or lowes and look at their displays. they have kitchen designers there and if you go during off hours (weekdays) you can often talk to them for a while.

It sounds like you have terrific potential to build on there. Getting a good layout won't be hard; you'll get tremendous help on that right here.

As for the style and details which will make you glad just to walk in each morning, that's a bit harder to settle on among the tremendous variety of selections available. Looking at displays is a great start, but they only show the current-stock-in-the-warehouse look that's being sold. So go to finishedkitchensblogspot.com and start picking out the kitchen you really like. Print out their pictures. Do the same for any old magazines you can get your hands on. Take the Sweeby test. Make a list of must-haves and really likes to help you say no to enticing distractions. Have fun.

Since they were purchased at HD, chances are you will be able to purchase new cabinets to match your existing cabinets. But, before you do that...be sure you're willing to live with them for quite a while. You will be installing new flooring, knobs/pulls, crown molding...and perhaps other changes (new counters?)...so consider what the cost of these changes will be to match a kitchen that you may not really like.

Which leads to...

You seem to really want white. Think about how you will feel about the current cabinets for the next 5-10 years...will you always look at them as something you "settled" for and sigh regretfully when you walk into the kitchen? There are inexpensive cabinet options such as IKEA if you want to replace your current cabinets. (You can donate your existing cabinets to Habitat for Humanity if they really are in great shape.) Many others here have gone the IKEA route and been very happy...they are well-built with very good interior hardware.

If you do go the new cabinet route, it gives you the opportunity to look at your kitchen layout and see what you can do to make it more workable for you and your family as well as configure the cabinets to fit your storage/working needs. We can help you there as well.

See the thread linked below for more information that should help you decide what to do about your kitchen.

We're not going anywhere, so take your time thinking about these things.

HTH!

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: Read Me If You're New To GW Kitchens!

Here as well as on the decorating forum a number of people have painted their existing cabs and they look very nice in the pictures. So if you really want white you could consider it.

Sorry about the loss of your mother in law... no matter what the circumstance it's always difficult.

I urge you to try and post pics. It'll really help us to help you. You also need to decide how extensive ($$$) you want to go on a remodel. That will dictate which remodeling options will be available to you.

Hi Kimberly,
I hope to help also. Any chance you could post some pictures? You might want to consider an L shaped kitchen to get the fridge part of the rest of the kitchen. It would be good to work this out before replacing the flooring. The room at 15' x 14' seems awfully big to only be using one wall (if I read your post correctly). Depending on the budget, it sounds like you certainly have the room to take this kitchen anywhere you want to go.

Again, hope to help and would love to see some pics.

Thank you for your kind words regarding my mother in law. Yes I think I will post pictures. I'm going to guess here but I would say we don't want to put anymore than $40,000 in the house. $40,000 is a lot better than having a mortgage. I might be shocked if we speak with a contractor though. This is a must...
1- Central heating and air
2- Plumbing
3- Adding on a utility room
4- Hardwood floors redone
5- Painting (we can do)
6- Bathroom doesn't even have a shower
7- New floor in kitchen (has old vinyl)
Now that's probably a fortune right there! You see I don't even have a clue.

I went to Home Depot yesterday. Your right about the L shaped kitchen. Although the man suggested putting the refrigerator on the wall to the left which would mean I would lose lots of cabinets. The way he was talking I'd lose everything and I don't want to. I can leave the refrigerator in the other corner if I have to. When you have other repairs to consider I can't spend a fortune on the kitchen alone. I did explain to my husband last night that I do not want the stove/oven in the far right corner. We have the wall to the right of that so I want to put the
oven/stove on this wall with a few more cabinets. Now you have the right corner empty because the stove has been moved. Why can't they add more cabinets in that corner? I'm not even to upset if they can't match the wood exactly. Of course Home Depot would like for me to throw out these perfectly good cabinets and just do a whole new kitchen. That's ok if that was the only thing that needed to be done. Please look above to the previous post, you see there is plenty more. He did ask if I wanted a dishwasher. You betcha. I'm tired of washing dishes. Here again I am going to lose some cabinets because of the dishwasher. Home Depot man wanted me to take exact measurements and then come and see him again. I'll take pictures of the kitchen with me. Maybe we can come to a solution.

Some folks here have done beautiful kitchens where they intentionally mixed cabinet finishes. Often they had white on some and wood on others. That might work for your kitchen to add white cabs. Also, instead of redoing the kitchen now can you just make it workable? When I moved into my house we added 3 DIY cabinets from Home Depot that make the kitchen much more usable (now there are counters next to the stove). This way I can wait until we can afford to remodel.

-Robin

if you are careful, I think your budget should do all of that. the central AC might be the big one, but get multiple quotes (which takes time but pays big dividends usually)

Good idea Robin. I think some white cabinets along with the wood ones would look very good. Then again I don't think it would look bad if the new cabinets are a shade darker or lighter than the ones we already have.