Hi Kristen,
My husband and I have some problems with our kitchen, and we hope you can help give us some ideas on what to do with it. We have 4 children ages 7,6,2, and 5 months. The older two are just starting to help out with cooking. Our home was built in 1975 and looks like it is stuck in that time. The floor is this horrible brown tiles, the wall paper “updated by the last resident” is white and blue checkers with flowers and fruit on it. We have dark wood cabinets and white laminate counter tops. The dinning room has dark wood paneling and a green tile floor. If having the ugliest kitchen was not bad enough, the kitchen is almost unusable for my husband. He is legally blind and he needs lots of lighting to be able to see what he is doing. The lighting is not working for him. We have a ceiling fan in the center of our kitchen that has one light on it. No matter what part of the counter top he uses the light is behind him. Making it so hard for him to see and dangerous to. The pantry is so dark that it is not at all useable for him unless he uses a flashlight. This is steel not the BEST part…. Our refrigerator can not even fit in the kitchen! The laundry room is just off the kitchen and had a ½ bath in it. We had to take the door off this room and the toilet and sink had to come out because this is the only way to have a refrigerator in the house. The fridge is literality right over the hole in the floor where the toilet used to be. This room is between my little girls room and the rest of the house. She can not get out of her room if someone has the door to the fridge open. We need help! I am in way over my head when it comes to fixing this.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Amanda Schmitt

Amanda, I just read your kitchen mess. I feel better about mine now, also small 70s dark cabinets which are not the same as the new dark cabinets!! Do you happen to live in Southern California? I ask because I do, and your biggest problem seems to be your lighting. My husband is an electrican and if you live close by we would love to help with that in the form of free labor. We also travel to No. California often so I hope your close by. If not I would like to suggest recess lighting and recess spotlights, which could be put on a dimmer. The spotlight would be for your husbands most used workspace and the dimmer would allow him to have it very bright for him and for the rest of the family not so much. Also depending on your kitchen under cabinet lighting might help light your counters.