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ACK. Reminds me of the kitchen in the first home we bought. I'm convinced it was a major reason the folks hadn't been able to sell it for almost three years. That, and the fact that the cabinets were VEY dark walnut, and the floor was a hideous black, gold, and green vinyl moorish pattern. I lived with it for about 6 months, then just painted everything Arctic White, cabinets and walls. We also put white vinyl tiles on the floor. The place looked half again as big when we were done.

The kitchen wasn't the only gag spot in the house. The hot pink and cherry red shag carpet with plastic runners in the living room and dining room, and the charry red antique satin drapes didn't help much either. The owner offered to let us have the draperies, but we kindly let HER keep them. ;o) Lucky for us; we got a great deal on the house! The biggest bright spot was that, when we tore up the shag carpet, there were gorgeous, never used, hardwood floors underneath.

We have beautiful hardwood too and apparently it was all covered - Talon ripped that out. I get the advantage of moving in after a good bit has been done to improve it.

The living room walls are a bit too yellow-brown for my likes and the kitchen is dark red and needs new counters, but it's a nice little house and I feel very comfortable in it. I made curtains for the living room to keep out nosy eyes, and between that and all the other changes we've made since I moved like adding shelving and re-arranging the kitchen and adding a hutch and a cart there, it's feeling like my place too. It's considerably nicer than anywhere my parents lived in their first five years of marriage. I am glad that being the oldest, I remember the poor years well so I don't expect the huge log home with beautiful kitchen and cathedral ceiling right off the bat :-D