Thanks,
@Dicey glad to be of help. Good description of your HD experience - I feel ya.
I did a re-design on our kitchen a few years back. It made no sense to replace solid, custom made cabinets in a good layout.
But I made a ton of changes to make it more efficient and pleasing to the eye.
I'm short, 5'1, and our kitchen window above the sink, while a nice size, was one block too high for me to see out the window.
Can't begin to tell you how much I hated that. I was ready to chisel myself:)
First thing I changed:) - couldn't wait to cut down those block walls and add a new kitchen window - lovely view opened up.
I call that an asset uncovered.
Hardly cost a thing to do, cousin did the work and we needed new windows anyway, but oh the difference it made.
It was surprising how much more natural light we now had coming in too - bonus.
Another one of my favorite things that made me squeal with delight was the addition of a spice drawer. Finally - no more spices on the counter or getting old and lost in the cabinet.
Imagine one huge under cabinet door with one shelf - useless for efficient, organized storage and would you believe we had only one kitchen drawer?
Enter other cuz who converted this one cabinet space into three different height drawers and one big pull out space for access. Perfection:)
Did you know that Ikea has drawer inserts for all sorts of things for cheap and better yet that you can just cut them to fit with those little handsaws (forgot what they are called).
Oh and did I mention the cray cray lady who stood in the drizzling rain with the guy out in the granite yard - telling him what parts of a particular granite I wanted cut out so it would look like a riverbed?:)
Some old Polish dude who spoke heavily accented English showed up to measure the kitchen later and OMG did he ever have a few design tricks up his sleeve.
It pays to be nice and listen and not assume anything, just because he doddered in with a cane.
Have fun with your kitchen Dicey - I'm sure you'll have plenty of tales to tell when it is all done.