Love it! Thank you.

Michelle, I'm not a builder but am building with hubby, a single storey limestone home. Our daughter built a two storey limestone home just down the road, that hubby also built for her and the extra foundations she had to install would be at least twice more than we have for our single storey, not to mention that there were allot of short walled founds leading off the perimeter of her home to assist in less likelihood of wall roll out and the inspector called it. Cost for you, will depend on whether you have adequate foundations to carry a second storey and usually that is never the case. All the lower walls will need double the support and it usually has to carry on down to the foundations, depending on whether you have a solid concrete slab or concrete stumps that are accessible. This would mean most of the plaster being removed and hoping that you find no nasty surprises as far as the condition of the existing frame in the home, the builder would as I mentioned, have to add structural supports to carry the second storey. Most often, second stories are built with a hardiplank type exterior and certainly not brickwork as you would then difinitely have to have extra foundations in for such a reno and you would have to start asking yourself if it isn't better to demolish as this type of reno can be extremely costly. You might be lucky but probably highly unlikely, to have adequate structional integrity to be able to add a second storey, without everything I have mentioned to be skipped in any way. I hazzard a guess that such a reno would cost you $250,000+ and maybe more. Would love to know what you finally decide to do and your builders estimate. Good luck. Cheers, Barbara

Hi Clikmania, hmm... not too sure if this can be achieved using the existing cupboards... we're having both handles and no handles in our kitchen and the drawings show two different types of cabinetry (see attached detail #1 for standard with handles & detail #4 for handle-less doors)... a cabinet maker should be able to tell you if it's possible or not... as for the finish if you do end up going for the handle-less cupboards, it should definitely be poly or vinyl... bcoz of the gap required between each drawer, the top edge of each panel will be a lot more visible than your current setup so too many lines/edging if laminate... finally, are you really keen on this very costly exercise given your cupboards are only a few years old, or could it just be that you don't like the current handles (no offense)... have you considered maybe just replacing the handles for a more streamline contemporary look you're after?... I note your kickboards are black, so imo I think some nice black onyx handles would work a treat :) good luck!

Do you like white kitchen cabinets? (Personally I don't mind the look but think it probably needs more cleaning then most). Anyway, black and white is a classic combination and doesn't really become outdated. Even if you don't do the bench top yet or choose a different colour bench top later, everything goes with white.