A work-in-progress.

Our kitchen has been a work-in-progress ever since we moved into this house 8 years ago. Back in the Fall of 2002, we only tackled "must-do" items. Those items included replacing the broken dishwasher and stove. Our budget restricted our ability to get the desired stainless steel appliances, instead, we went for functionality, and chose to match the existing almond colored fridge. Later in 2006, our almond colored fridge crapped out on us, so we replaced that with a stainless steel fridge, which means we have been in a continual state of mismatched appliances.

So other than appliances, nothing new happened in the kitchen for several years. Don't get me wrong, there was still a strong desire to make improvements, but those desires & wishes just didn't take priority over the other items "must-do" home improvement priorities.
Eventually, in the Fall of 2007, the lighting was upgraded in the kitchen. Three new pendent lights were installed over the peninsula by my handy hubby and my ever-helpful-younger-brother, Russ. The light above the sink and the center light were also replaced. Everything had a brushed nickel finish. However, the original wallpaper and dark cabinets really overwhelmed & overshadowed the beautiful new lighting.
So, we continued to work on the cosmetic aspects of our kitchen in the fall of 2007, including removing all the wallpaper and painting the walls in Toasted Wheat.
The girls were recruited to help with these tasks as well. By Christmas of 2007, Steve & I tackled the time consuming process of repainting all of the cabinets as well as the cabinet hardware. Steve also added some crown moulding to the top of the cabinetry, which made them look completely new.
So this is where we are today with our kitchen. It has basically been the same for the past three years, with the exception of having to replace a broken microwave with a beautiful stainless steel one. Oh, I almost forgot... a year and 1/2 ago, the window was replaced as well. That was a must-do project since the sill was rotted. After three years, we are getting prepared to make more changes to our work-in-progress kitchen.
Our next step is to replace the scratched, cracked, {ugly} cream.with.pink.speckles laminate with quartz. We agreed on this style, which is called Cascade Pebble from Relianz. We won't get an official install date until the computerized measurements are taken next Tuesday. In the plan, we will have an under-mount stainless-steel sink with a brushed nickel finish faucet put in.
Once the new counter-tops are professionally installed {hopefully by mid December}, we are going to put in this mosaic glass tile as a back splash.
Here is what they look like together. Still need to make a decision on what color of grout to use. Leaning toward cream, which is the color of the cabinets, but maybe tan? Not sure yet.
Steve has signed up to demolition the existing counter-top and to do the plumbing work for the new sink and faucet. We will be able to jointly work on the back splash project with a goal of having it complete by Christmas. Rest assured, our kitchen will continue to be a work-in-progress as we dream about replacing the laminate flooring with real wood flooring as well as having a gas-stainless steel stove and dishwasher. All in good time.