Thank you all for your input on the kitchen cabinet color. You all are offering very valid points. I thought I should show you the other side of the kitchen. It is relatively large space.

Obviously the light fixture will be changed, window treatments burned, and the trim will become white. I think we will have beadboard run up the walls about 4 ft with a wide chair rail. The beadboard will run into the 2nd half of the kitchen near along the pantry and side of the fridge. All the floor trim will be replaced with thicker trim and painted white.

So does this change your thoughts on black v. white kitchen cabinets?

Or white like this gorgeous kitchen...

That is the question my friends. Our counter top is a Corian and appears to be relatively new. It is tan with flecks of white, gray, and black. The flooring we are putting in is a dark, real wood that will be carried in from the living room to the kitchen and into the family room. The wood color is similar to the flooring in the picture of the white kitchen above.

Here is the kitchen in all its glory with the original owner's belongings.

What was your first thought? Those kitchen cabinets on the right have to go??? Well that's what we thought too... Day 1 we ripped out the cabinets. Excuse the 2 big boxes we used those to help us hold the cabinets in place while removing all the screws, nails, and whatever else had been holding those things up since 1986.

So what's the consensus....black or white?

We have purchased fixtures for over the kitchen table and the sink, those are brushed nickel and were cheap at Lowe's so the new cabinet hardware will be brushed nickel. We are also set on removing the top portion of the Corian that is used as a backsplash. These pieces are glued on and not a portion of the countertop. This will be replaced with white subway tile with white or a gray/black grout.

So do we go black or white?

* Sorry I do not have links for the 2 kitchen pictures, if you do, please advise and I will give appropriate credit.

** FYI - All the appliances will be replaced. All trim work will be white and all doors are getting replaced with new, white doors.

When it came to registering for gifts, the Hubby was somewhat excited to get to use the scanner but 20 minutes into looking at China patterns, he decided that he hated the whole idea.

#1 He preferred to go home.

#2 He thought we didn't need all this stuff.

#3 He thought who the hell is going to buy us this stuff.

I kindly yet firmly let him know....

#1 I'll take you out to dinner after this.

#2 You don't even know what we have. Plus, most of the stuff is from my college days and its starting to look nasty.

#3 My parents are inviting a crap load of people, they buy gifts. Also, our friends are 27-30yrs old, they have good jobs, we're not asking for ridiculous expensive items. Plus, we can come back and buy stuff at a discount.

Okay, crisis somewhat averted but, still DRAMA city.... We moved fast and furiously, and I said I'd come back myself and do it. Ended up doing the rest online.

We registered at 4 places - BBY, Pottery Barn, Macys, & Lowes. Brent only went to BBY but I let him register at Lowe's online. I learn from my mistakes. But I did show him everything we were registering for, and registered for some items I knew he'd love.

His favorite gift is this single serving coffee maker.

First, we didn't have a coffee maker in our house. #1 I don't drink coffee and #2 he didn't drink it regularly and he like various types of foamy coffee drinks so he buys them at Starbucks on base.

Well, since we have bought this Starbucks no longer. He loves it and all the different drinks you can make. I love the Hot Chocolate, he tried to get me to like the Chai Latte but to me it tasted like a Thanksgiving Candle....

Word to the wise, if you do buy this machine. You can buy most of the beverage discs from Walmart (except in Columbus, MS Brent found out). They are A LOT cheaper than BBY and Linens n Things. But I did have a couple of 20% coupons so I did buy some. FYI - Starbucks does make the discs for the machine as well.