My Mini Kitchen Facelift

The reason I use the word "mini" is because we only changed our cabinets.  I would really love new beautiful hardwood floors and new counter tops.  I would actually love to gut the entire space and redesign the layout but that calls for money that I don't have.  My husband and I decided to change the cabinet color to make the biggest impact on the look of the kitchen.  First we had a free consultation with a very well known Home Improvement store for cabinet refacing.  We fell off of our chairs when quoted $18,000 for the project or they would do it for $12,000 if my husband did all of the work except for the making and hanging the doors.  We had to have new doors made because the old doors were part wood and laminent, which couldn't be refaced.  See ya lady, there was no way we would pay that since we only spent $6,000 in our previous house kitchen where we removed a wall and took all the walls to the studs and redrywalled, put in all new cabinets, counter tops, and floors. So here's my tip...Look for locally owned cabinet makers.  We had found someone who was a retired cabinet maker who still did side jobs for as he called it "vacation money".  My husband sanded and stained all the bases of the cabinets, which I might say he did a FANTASTIC job, and the cabinet maker made us all new doors.  They worked as a great team and completed a beautiful facelift.  The total project cost was $4,000. Let me say I do have alot of cabinets in the kitchen plus a wet bar area. It would have been cheaper if we just refaced but since all new doors needed to be made that increased the cost.  Some important things to do are:  Ask to see other projects that your contractor has done, ask previous clients for their honest feedback, DO NOT pay all of the money quoted before the job is started. Make sure you are happy with the end result before you make final payment.  We paid half before the project to help with the supply purchase and the rest when the project was completed. 
Here are before and after pictures.
                                                          BEFORE

                                                            AFTER