everyday life: in the kitchen

{I'm doing a weekly "tour" of a room in the house in celebration of one year living here!

You can find last week's look at the family room here.}

In the kitchen we have...
replaced hardware ($1/handle on ebay= $30)
replaced faucet (Lowes= $218) and garbage disposal (Lowes=$?)
framed out windows (used 1 1/4" molding, about $4 each, four pieces total= $16)
replaced blinds (Lowe's= $30 x 3= $90)
painted walls (two walls Lowe's Valspar Green Apple $30gallon, two walls Lowe's Valspar Cottage Linen $30gallon)
painted all the trim (paint leftover in garage= free)
[still need to] paint doors (free)
tiled the backsplash (3 boxes of special order subway tile @ Home Depot= $150)(we have leftovers)(we also already had all other supplies from previous tile job)
replaced light over eating area (Menards= $110)
covered side cabinet w/ sheet metal -we wanted a magnetic space since the fridge is stainless steel- painted w/chalkboard paint (sheet from local metal place= $40, paint on hand)
other decor:
barstools (Ikea, off of Craigslist=$25 for both)
new extra large canisters (Target= $50)(but I used birthday money for that, so I'm not counting it in the total)
new phone holder/cabinet thingie (Home Goods= $12)
all other furniture and/or decor was previously owned or made from stuff on hand (free!)

total: just over $700
This is definitely the most money spent on any room. It's a big kitchen and it was so blah, and kitchen stuff= $. But at least we didn't have big stuff to do like counters or cabinets (although someday...) or appliances.
Still want to add under cabinet (and maybe above cabinets) lights and I would love to remove the microwave from above the stovetop with and put in a nice hood and replace one of the wall ovens with a microwave there. But for now, it'll do!

Before:

(listing picture and when we moved in)

Thiss kitchen is kind of dark since there are no real exterior windows due to the sunroom/florida/our pool table room added on the back of the house. The walls were the same dreary dull yellowish as the rest of the house and while the cabinets (maple), counters (corian) and appliances (stainless) were nice and beautiful, with the dreary wall color, no backsplash, oddly out of place cheap fixtures and details and the kitchen was just dim and blah.

And Now:

here's a shot of the big window before we put our fake trim "casing" on it. also notice how the lighting in there made everything so yellow! (nighttime pic too, so it's even worse, but still!)