A True Sign on Insanity

From everything I've ever heard, I now know that I've reached the brink of sanity, the precipice of psychosis, the ledge of lunacy...yes, if you've done it yourself, you know what I'm talking about - remodeling the kitchen.

We're not going for the full Bob Vila - a complete tear-out; no I'm not THAT crazy. I suppose you could say we're just rehabbing the kitchen. But to a guy that hasn't done it before and hasn't done any painting/papering, or much of anything like it in at least 5 years, it sure seems like a full remodel.

So, what's the a plan, you ask...ok, I'll tell ya:

• Strip the wallpaper off and clean all of the old wallpaper glue/residue off
• Clean all of the dirt & grease from the last 25 years off of the ceiling and walls
• Strip the paint off of all of the woodwork around the doors and windows
• Strip the top finish off of the 60 year old wood cabinets
• Re-stain/urethane the cabinets.
• Re-stain/urethane or repaint the door & window frames (not sure which yet)
  
• Replace the 20+ year old faux-brick linoleum with new vinyl
• Kilz, then paint the walls
• Put up a wallpaper border
• Get a new gas line installed
  
• REPLACE THE STOVE!!!!! (more on that later)
• Install some new cabinets on either side of the new range
• Add some additional cabinets to the primary counter to extend it, both above and below
• Install new countertop & sink
• Replace the refrigerator
• Repair the 60+year old 42" Nutone range hood (an old model 3060)
• Repair some of the loose/missing wall tile (all tin)

I'm exhausted just writing all of that.
The good news is that we've already picked:

• a color scheme/theme
• the wall color picked out
• bought the wallpaper border
• the new vinyl flooring
  
• the new refrigerator
  

and I've narrowed my choice of range down to three or four - all dual fuel, gas on top , electric in the oven, with convection:
A Jenn-Air, a GE Profile, a Bosch, and a Kenmore Elite. (yup, all in black...)

Any opinions?

Here's some "before" photos:

Above: From the back of the kitchen looking towards the front

Above: from the front looking at the back

Above: The current range (a 1950 Frigidaire model RM-60 electric range) & fridge

Above: The counter, sink & cabinets

Above: Over the sink, the cabinets, & window (and tomatoes from the garden!)

Definitely ready for an update, don't you think?

So far, I've gotten the wallpaper down and about 1/4 of the gluey residue off. What a pain.
And as with all remodels, I've hit a snag - I'm going to have to have some of the wall covered over - the wallpaper pulled off layers of paint with it, right down to the original snowy white plaster. It's only happened on the soffit over the sink/counter. I'd scrape it off, but I don't know if it's lead paint so I'm just going to have it covered over with some drywall and mudded up. It's not too much, so it should take long or cost TOO much (oh, I hope those words don't come back to haunt me...)

Above: The pulled off paint

Wish me luck! I'll keep posting updates...

Enjoy,
Lorence