Home tour: kitchen

As I'm writing these posts, I'm realizing how much I love all the rooms in my home, because I want to start everything off by saying, "Oh, this is my favorite room!"  As I look at these images of the kitchen, though, they seem really blah and boring.  It seriously required some strategic planning to have my kitchen this spick-and-span in the middle of the day, and it just looks so...unnatural!  No art projects spread out over the table, no Luke knocking all the magnets off the 'fridge and spreading cookie cutters over the floor, no traces of Isaac making himself a zillionth slice of peanut butter toast.  It's clean, but all the personality that makes it the heart of our home is gone (but whereas I may love seeing that, you probably don't, so...).

Okay, I would REALLY love some comments on this post about two things (please, please, please!):

1) should I keep the red walls when we put our home up for sale, or should I paint them a neutral like beige?

2) do I need to repaint the cabinets or do something similar so they're not that yellowy oak?

I love my kitchen, and when I look at it I see all the hours of work we've put in it to transform it from what it looked like when we first moved in, but I confess, as I'm looking at these shots it kind of looks like a "before" shot on some big kitchen renovation reveal (then again, we're in a starter home neighborhood and I don't want to spend a ton of money that we won't make back when we sell).  Thoughts? Please?  Would you buy as-is?  What changes would you make?

This is my view as I wash dishes and I LOVE it.  I can see our family photos on the wall opposite, my colorful mixing bowls that were an anniversary gift from Neil (minus the one Abigail broke, oh well) are smiling at me, I can use my beloved gooseneck faucet with abandon thanks to the tile backsplash we installed, and best of all, I can watch the kids running around and playing in the living room.  I love love love this cut-out feature.  It is one of the best parts of our house.

 As I've mentioned before, we used to use the library for its intended purpose as a dining room, but I like eating in the kitchen much better.  I'm getting a little nostalgic as I look at these images; in this one, for instance, I can see the hutch that Neil bought me for my birthday when we were very first married, and the light that I found at IKEA and he rewired for me as a ceiling light (when we were in Chicago, just the two of us, when I was about five weeks pregnant with Luke), and the green table that Neil painted for me and that makes me smile whenever I see it, the Le Creuset casserole dishes my sister gave me for my birthday, the special "date night" plates that Neil and I always use when it's just the two of us eating, the clay cup that one of my roommates gave me when she was learning to use a potter's wheel, the basket full of napkins and placemats from my grandmother and a dear friend who used to live in our ward, and the "bluebird of happiness" given to me by my Merrie Miss teacher when I was in Primary.  And last but not least, the flowers that my girlies picked for me a few days ago.

 I am so thankful to be surrounded by things with memories attached (thanks to our habit of buying little things to commemorate occasions), rather than just "stuff" that I bought on a huge spree to fill up empty space.  It's taken me awhile to learn that lesson--the beauty of empty space and the joy of finding the perfect thing that makes you smile whenever you see it, rather than just settling for something that you can live with.  Not that things are the end-all be-all, but still.  I suppose this is where Abigail gets those packrat tendencies to hold onto every last tiny precious thing that someone gives her.