The great kitchen remodel of 2005.

jeffreyp and i spent yesterday at the Ikea in Schaumburg after attending the wedding of debunkshy and bifemmefatale Saturday afternoon. The intent was to decide between our two favorite contenders in the kitchen cabinet race, and then sit down and actually price things out.

I knew a kitchen remodel would be hellish and spendy (one of the reasons I wanted it done before we moved in), but i'm only *beginning* to discover just how much. sheesh!

( Ikea and the kitchen )

( cull vs. nest )

My hope is that we can work on a couple of rooms a year, saving the other pipe dream (turning the full bath/2 west bedrooms into a master suite w/walkin closet) for a few years - or a decade - down the road. I can subsist on microwaved food if the kitchen takes too long, but i loathe to be long without the only bathing apparatus in the house. Some of the rooms need a lot more work than others (just paint vs. ripping up carpets and prettifying the pine hardwoods) so the plan is fluid.

Right now, I'm just going to count down the minutes until jeffreyp is back from the home inspection so i can see what the inspector had to say about the place.

(updated by alyska.)