What Next?

Next might be a strong word in this case. I guess "next big project" might be more accurate. I have several big projects that I would like to tackle, but like most people these days, I have a very limited budget for them. Not to mention, a home that has seriously depreciated since I bought it. So what would have a grand impact with minimal fundage? Maybe what would have the greatest value for resale?

Let's see...

• I have a nice "looking" kitchen that is not entirely (or remotely even) functional. I have six cabinets and four drawers. Seriously, that is it! I like to cook and bake and buy small specialty appliances. Where do you put all that in a kitchen with SIX cabinets?? The garage. So item one on my kitchen wish list is more cabinet space.

• In my first walk through of my house, I thought I had granite counter tops. I am not so naive that I don't know what granite looks like- I guess I just focused more on the cabinets (not enough to realize there were so few apparently). Not only are they laminate, yeah, the lowest of the low as far as counter tops go, but they are trimmed in wood stained to match the cabinets. However, the stain is just a gel stain or something of the like and it looks like this (and did after only two months of being in the house). I have to re-stain it a few times a year:

Yuck!

• My floors are GROSS. So pretty when you first see them, but utimately GROSS. The grout is stained, the tials are chipped and the coloring just looks like dirty tial no matter how clean they may be:

So I would love to re-do my kitchen and make it to my liking, but that would be cost prohibitive at this point in time. So maybe counter tops would be a good first step? Since I don't have much counter space, I could replace them for less than $1,500. These are some samples I was looking at:

Something that would go with the cabinets and black accents I already have:

 Go dark:

 Go light and match the backspash with hints of the cabinet color and black accents:



In the end though, is it worth it to go quartz or stone? Maybe I should just do a solid surface composit. I know it doesn't make sense for me to considerate when I'm not a fan, but it is about 1/2 the cost and I am not sure how long I want to stay put. Hmmm...