What Do Women Want in a Kitchen?

Our beautiful Victorian home with 6 bedrooms and 4 full bathrooms has been for sale for almost 2 years.  Real estate agents tell us that everyone who looks at the house thinks it is beautiful, but they think the price is too high when they take into consideration changes they would want to make.  Ignoring the fact that if they were really interested, they could make an offer lower than the asking price, this brings me to the question, "what is it they want to change?"  Number one answer:  the kitchen.


The kitchen is actually very attractive and functional.  I have served meals for 70-80 people from that kitchen.  I have baked and decorated fairly elaborate cakes in that kitchen.  It also has some unique features.  The main chimney of the house goes up through the kitchen.  When we moved in decades ago, we had the outside surface of the chimney sandblasted and coated with polyurethane.  The oven, a microwave shelf and a shelf for cookbooks are built in between the chimney and the adjacent wall creating a very pretty and unusual feature.


About 2 years before the house went on the market, I thought of completely remodeling the kitchen.  All of the research I did indicated that this was not wise.  The experts said that you will never get your money out of a kitchen remodel.  So, I sanded down and refinished cabinet doors that didn't look up to snuff.  I had the kitchen painted and papered and had laminate flooring installed.  I loved my "new" kitchen and joked that maybe I wouldn't move after all.


But.....I did not change the counter-top.  I am now thinking that everyone expects granite or similar counter-top.  What???  Why on earth?  Given the amount of eating out that occurs, and the prevalence of convenience foods in the grocery store, and the shrinking of grocery store shelf space designated for basic ingredients, it sure looks to me like the modern woman doesn't actually use her kitchen much.  It looks like a coffee maker, two burners, and a microwave would almost do it for lots of women.  However, apparently all of the appliances need to sit on fancy gleaming counter-top.


I guess I will make a trip to Lowes and Home Depot and check out model kitchens to see what young women want their kitchen to look like.  It must be that kitchens have gone the way of lots of other things in our world and appearance trumps function.


Oh, Wow....I'm older than I realized!