My husband and I purchased this spec home in 2007. Most of the house was beige. We needed a change from all the beige, but we didn't have much of a budget. We spent approx. $6,000 on the remodel. I spent a lot of time painting the cabinets. The cabinets had quite a few knot holes that had to be filled and sanded and filled and sanded again before painting, along with many stages of sanding the cabinets overall. I followed the advice given in Woodworking magazine on how to paint the cabinets correctly. Using their method worked well as the paint has not chipped or come off the cabinets and they have been used and abused for almost 4 years now. My husband is very handy and did the wainscoting and trimmed out the windows. He also installed the hood above the stove, removed a half wall, laid the basalt stone floor, built the slider and installed it. The slider goes to a half bath. We added a second sink as we cook a lot we were always waiting our turn to use the sink, now we have two work zones which has worked out very well. We did not have a cabinet for the second sink. We looked around until we found a cabinet that was the closest match to what we had. We had a professional install the marble. We originally purchased tiles for the backsplash, but the professional botched the job and had to come back and re-do it. I lost trust in the professional and my husband and I were tired of living in a remodel zone, so we just left the backsplash marble. I'm not happy with the window covering, but I'm a messy cook and thought I would destroy anything that wasn't durable. We completed this in 2012. Now I see white kitchens everywhere. Hummmm...what to do next?