We officially started our kitchen renovation yesterday as I began to demolish the old redwood deck in our backyard.  Manual labor like this makes me appreciate higher education...

We're adding 192 ft2 of  space to the kitchen, including a little walk in pantry/office area.  The flow to the backyard should be improved as well, with the back door eliminated from our breakfast nook and a new door added to the expanded kitchen.

We started the process last fall with a refinance, then moved on to an architect for the plans, then engineering work, and finally city permits that just came through.  Spent over $6k so far and haven't built a thing.  Unfortunately that kind of expense is a fact of life in this area of California.  Every cost is double or triple the national average.