from http://urbangraceinteriors.typepad.com/

Dear Anne Turner Carroll, I LOVE your style. Please allow me to copy you!
The kitchen renovation fordges on- at least in my head. Over Thanksgiving weekend we got these:

   
I know, crazy. I’m really excited about them. Though I’m nervous that I’m not going to like the over the stove microwave. Actually, I’ll be really surprised if I do like it. But we really need our microwave to be more of a multitasker, but even more so we need to get it up off the counter, since counterspace is so limited as it is. In Anne Taylor’s kitchen (featured above) she got rid of the over-the-stove white micro they had and ended up putting a very small microwave up over her fridge! Certainly wouldn’t work with kids. But if you’re like Tom and I and don’t use your micro that often anyway- why not! I’m wondering if we could put ours in our pantry? We’d just have to get electricity there somehow. Hmmm. 
We’ll see how the freezer doors pan out. I like my fridge/freezer quite organized. I like things to be easily accessible, otherwise they get forgotten. I hope the drawers don’t get sloppy. I’m exctatic about the french door fridge however. Talk about translucent organizing. Love it!
I went to Lowes today to get some more hard and fast numbers. It looks like laminate installed with an undermount sink is about $500 less than granite. (The Lowes guy said sometimes they’ll throw in the sink when you buy granite- in which case the laminate would only be 300 less.) So. . . I think we might go for the granite. Probably Black Ubatuba. 
The color of the lower cabinets featured above is called Mouse’s Back by Farrow and Ball. It can’t be mixed at Lowes. I read up on it tonight and learned that, like everything else, there is a large range of paint qualities, Farrow and Ball being at the top. Apparently it’s exceptional. Who knew!
I zipped into Sherwin Williams quick before they closed tonight and got a bunch of samples. They’re hanging on my cabinets we’ll see what I think when the sun shines on them. 
I’m planning on doing beadboard for the backsplash. Like these two examples:

I can’t tell if the paint on the backsplash is the same as the cupboards or not in the above photo, but I think I will probably paint mine a slightly different color then the cabinets. 

Like this. 

I’m still debating whether I should just paint the bottom a darker color or if I should just stick with the cream all over. What do you think? Any suggestions? Ideas? Comments? What sort of kitchen would you be eager to buy?