The Before...

 We are remodeling the kitchen/dining room... please know I snapped these "BEFORE" pictures right before the tear out began. This is how it looked on a daily bases.

 

This is our kitchen, we moved in in October 2000. the cabinets were brown, the paneled walls were brown... we painted the cabinets a pale apple green first (it matched the ME wallpaper border.  But, I really wanted them to be white, so a couple years later I repainted them white, and just repainted the copper hardware black to save money, several years ago now. It has a gray laminate counter top and back splash, notice the two layers of counter top... the original was white with gold flecks, very 1970, and all they did was lay the gray counter top.

 The electric stove top, I have been told is from a remodel about mid 80's.

As you can see I don't have a lot of working counter top space, the one corner

 and I am in need of more storage space.  Also its total electric.

Note the aluminum sink and black dishwasher...

 

next to the electric stove top is the built in oven. This is a smaller oven that won't hold a 1/2 sheet baking pan length wise, you have to put it in with the shortest side facing you and push the door closed. Also, the broiler doesn't work. See the door trim...that's from the last puppy we got (Lily) before she quit teething. To the right is the utility room. The previous owners had a door there to separate the two rooms. It made doing laundry very hard, the room is only 35" wide and exits out to the car port. It was one of the first things we took out.

We kept the chine cabinet in the dining room to help with extra storage. but every flat surface allows for constant clutter accumulation.

I am looking for more "hidden" storage.

 The dining room table is seen on the left.

There is a 4" wall on the right side of the refrigerator (the electric plug in is located in this wall)  with a built in corner hutch, which is where I have stored our everyday plate, bowls, etc. I had to add a microwave stand to hold the kitchen aid mixer, the upper cabinets were to low for me to put it on the counter tops.  trash sits out along side the dog/cat food.

The utility room in right inside the back door, entering in from the car port.

washer on the right, dryer on the left, these are Amanda's we are using them until they get 

moved into their mobile home.  You enter directly into the kitchen...frig on your left as you enter and the built in oven/pantry cabinet to your right.

One of the things we already did was put in a new door with a window (that opens)

so I can see out front, who is ringing the door bell, gives a good cross ventilation when the weather is not too hot outside. Note the utility room still has the original panel walls.

My original idea was just to remove the electric stove top and small built in oven and cut out the base cabinet where the stove top is and replace it with a stand alone propane stove. 

As Kenneth said "but then I know how that goes and this want match and that will have to be changed..."  but I was like "NO...all I want to do is replace the electric with propane so we would be able to cook, even if we lost electricity. 

Then Mike, the builder, came to give us an estimate on cutting out the cabinet and redoing it for the stove.  he's like "well, when I cut the counter top its probably going to splinter the edge a little and won't look as nice, had you thought about replacing the counter top?"

and that's how it got started...