The Ugliest "After" Photo on the Internet

Our house has a baseboard trim problem.  It's either missing chunks

cut in weird places

Why use one piece that's six inches longer when you can stick two together so cleverly?

has chipped paint

is missing the quarter round

or is missing all together.

Then there was this in our kitchen:

Our cupboards were frankensteined together by the previous owner, and had some resulting weirdness at the bottom in the form of unfinished particleboard/brown toe-kicks/general ugliness.  Now that my son is in all.the.drawers.all.the.time, it was time to address this issue.  Most importantly, the jagged-ness (ooh good word) and gaps in the cupboard bottoms became the stuff of nightmares; the lurking place of food long fallen from the countertops.  Truly gross.  And also where my son liked to hang out.  So rather than sweep and vacuum and sweep and vacuum, we found this $7 roll of "Self Adhesive Flexible Baseboard". (Don't worry, I'll still sweep and vacuum, it just won't be such a pain to do!)

She makes it look so easy to stick it in there.

We just finished installing it last night, after we cut a few filler pieces where some cupboards sat farther back than their neighbors.  It's an improvement, I like to think. But still a pretty ugly "after".

Needless to say, someday we would LOVE to revamp this kitchen.  It's pretty tiny (coming from a gal who doesn't need space to "entertain" -ha!- but rather needs space for things like massive baking projects and food preservation).  The layout is a little funny, but we aren't really sure how to improve on it.  Maybe when we get serious about a new kitchen we will consult a designer.  We're thinking all new cupboards, nixing the orange countertops (and the non-matching blueish/gray), a space for the microwave, and actually utilizing the corner cupboard space instead of leaving it dead space (how it is now).  Also I'd love to tile a backsplash and work in some glass-front cupboards.  A matching pantry cupboard with space for a garbage/recycling cupboard would just be wonderful.  All topped off with new lighting, new floor tiles, and maybe a raised bar behind the stove.

Ahhh to dream.

Speaking of which, have you all ever checked out Ikea's kitchen planner????  Oh it's a good way to waste a few hours in dreamland.  I, briefly and with many mistakes, planned our kitchen and it came out to around $5,000.  Supposedly there are sales.  Let's hope!

Meanwhile I'll be here, saving pennies and enjoying our lovely new "self adhesive flexible baseboard" solution.