It's time for an update!

 Well, it's almost time for an update... of my kitchen!

First I have to do all my canning. But it's kind of fun to think about anyway, so I've been thinking about it.

Bruce helped to stimulate the economy (??) by getting new appliances as they went on clearance at Lowes. The appliances are now in my garage, waiting for us to get our act together. I would love to have this all done before Thanksgiving. So we're not rearranging everything—although I did come up with one design that included moving the kitchen sink. I discarded that idea.

I thought I had a drawing of the kitchen as it currently is, but I can't find it. So here's the remodel idea:
 At the top of the pic, you can see a closet on the left; this is currently the weird, unused kitchen bathroom. We are removing everything that has to do with water, then making it about 18-inches smaller (as shown);
this will become a coat closet. With the closet a bit smaller, the ovens can move to the left about 18 inches, which will allow us to move the cooktop to the left so that it's not smack against the corner. Yay!
The refrigerator currently sits directly across from
the bathroom/closet. We will move the fridge diagonally down and to the right, as in the picture.
The plant shelf will go live next to the fridge.
Now we can put a floor-to-ceiling pantry on most
of that left wall. At the end of the pantry, on the bottom-left, you see a closet that will hold my
vacuum, broom, mop, etc. (right now they
live in the weird, unused kitchen bathroom).
And, in the center, we'll add an island.
This will give me 1. an open work-space and,
2. a lighted work-space. How would that be?

I'd like to replace all of the main-floor flooring: the living room, the entry hall, and the kitchen/dining area. If the price is right, I will do this; we'll see. Eventually I will replace the countertops, but for now I will most likely paint them (just like I did in our old house ten or so years ago). And, of course, I will paint the cabinets, too.

Because our kitchen gets so little natural light, I want to paint at least the upper cabinets white (or an off-white that makes you think "white".) I've been toying with making the lower cabinets a super dark—almost black—blue. Or making upper and lower cabinets white and the pantry dark blue...  I don't know yet. The only thing, color-wise, that I'm completely determined on is my blue wall in the dining room, which I love, and light-colored upper cabinets.

So here are some color ideas I've been tossing around, and I would love your opinions! Keep in mind that the kitchen flooring will also extend to the living room. 

Of the flooring choices I've seen, I like these two best.
I do lean toward the Eucalyptus... I think.
It might stay cleaner looking.

1.  Here you see the Hickory flooring, Chocolate countertop, white cabinets, and super dark blue as the maybe-maybe color. (Really undecided on that.)
I scanned the paint-chip for the dining room wall; that is the color.

2. Hickory floor, black countertops—
all the rest remains the same.

3. Hickory floor, Sand countertops.

4. Eucalyptus floor, Chocolate countertops.

5. Eucalyptus floor, Black countertops.

6. Eucalyptus Floor, Sand countertops.

So, these are my current thoughts. Mostly. I've also toyed with adding a little brown to the Sand counters to make an in-between kind of color. Or making the pantry some kind of complementary color to the blue—or the cabinets under the island. Or... I don't know what!

What do you think?