Talk me out of it, no, talk me INTO it!

I really wanna do it.  I've been dreaming of it for months.  Pros and Cons lists.   Everyone is doing it. 

What is keeping me up at night? 

I want to remove our upper kitchen cabinets on one wall and put in shelves. 

You're bummed aren't you?  You thought it was some amazing earth shaking idea, sorry.

That's the only pic of that wall I have right now and as you can see there aren't that many cabinets anyways so I wouldn't be losing on storage, I think I'd be gaining.

The blurry "thing" to the right, that's a cabinet as well, and it being gone would REALLY open up the kitchen to the eating nook.

The thing that is keeping me from pulling the trigger is having to pay to have it all done.  I know NOTHING about electrical or demo and honestly, I am just not brave enough to just jump in.  Now, if the cabinets were attached to the wall without a soffit I would try, but I have a feeling once that soffit is attacked dry wall will be necessary.

Another con is that the walls in the kitchen are paneling and I worry it would be a huge cost to tie the existing paneling in with new.

Can you see where I'm going here...cheap, cheap, poor, both of us in school, I worry I'd open a big ol' expensive can of worms.

The other big hurdle is our home was build in the 1950's and I recently saw on the news that demo in homes built prior to 1970 is now specialized and both contractor and home owner can be fined if demo isn't done in a new, safer manner.  I'm assuming this is due to lead.  SO that just adds another $$$ to the whole thing.

I just don't know what to do.  Once I get an idea I can't stop myself.  Estimates are free, might be worth a few phone calls. 

If anyone knows of a good contractor or handy man in the Columbus Ohio area, email me at kat_eyez23@yahoo.com. 

Here's an inspiration picture for you from Pure Style Home.  Serious, Laura has more creativity in one of her nose hairs than I do in my entire fluffy body!

photo: Pure Style Home