Does the $2000 have to include appliances, too?

I've never painted countertops before; I imagine you'd have to do lots of sealing, etc. to make sure the paint stays nice. Corian is usually pretty nice (if you could afford it) and not nearly as expensive as granite.

For the cabinets, if you could afford it, it might be nice to get a few glass doors and paint the others black (or stain them dark). I also like the idea of doing one in chalkboard paint and writing on it. (I have seen this on a few design blogs; I am obsessed with chalkboard paint.) If you do dark/cherry stain with the cabinets, lighter brown walls might be nice, especially if you like neutrals. With black cabinets, you could even do an almost white. Some people don't like them, but I'm not opposed to whitish walls.

For the bathroom, I think gray looks great with pink. Gray walls and gray/pink tiles would make it look less girly for sure. (I know gray is "trendy" now, but I really do think it looks great!)

Let us know what you wind up doing.

Hi likimbo, that's a great idea, glass door cabinets I do love dark-colored cabinets. The chalkboard paint sounds awesome (although hub is probably not going to be into it--therefore..must..convince...).

The $2000 doesn't include appliances (thank goodness).

As for shade of gray, do you have an example of what type of gray? Do you think I should do similar to the cabinets in the kitchen (paint or stain 'em too?).

Thanks again for the suggestion.

We just moved out of a house where we had large tiles (like ceramic floor tiles) tiling the kitchen counters. It was great because it was heat tolerant (I could set a hot pan directly on the counter) and it looked great.
A box of floor tiles probably wouldn't cost you that much money, either. And you can tile directly on the existing countertop.

Good luck with the house! We bought a short sale last year and it took them a month for the bank to get back to us, i hope yours goes quicker.

It might be a pain but you could probably paint that pink tile.

I didn't have a specific gray in mind...I almost think a dark gray would look better, but it might make the room feel too closed in for everyday use. Maybe light gray walls and dark gray tiles?

And I definitely think you could do dark gray paint on the cabinets in the kitchen! It would be something a little different but not too extreme, since most people have black or just wood stained cabinets.

For our kitchen, we bought butcher block from Lumber liquidators, it was inexpensive and fairly easy to install (you would need a jigsaw and a circular saw). You may be able to reuse the sink, and could change out the faucet for a more modern one if time allows. We got ours from Overstock, and it is very nice. We picked up tiles for the backsplash from a local tile wholesaler, at about 1/2 the price as a big box store. With some nice tiles for the backsplash, painted cabinets and peel and stick vinyl tiles for the floor, you could do the kitchen for $1000-1500. I would also change out all the hardware when I painted the cabinets.

We have just bought a bank owned home and are going thru the same thing! Our wood floor were awful! But we rented a drum sander and gave refinishing a try anyway. It only cost $115 dollars to rent it and it goes fast too! They came out better than we hoped,of course they dont look brand new,but they are so much better,and cheaper than carpet. In the bathroom,it wouldn't be hard to take that pink counter top completly off,put down new plywood and backerboard and re-tile. Dont count out tile-you can get it really cheap,look for discontinued pieces,or choose larger pieces to cover more sq. feet. The kitchen looks like it has a good lay out and the cabinet look sound. Some paint and new hardware would work,also my mother did this to her's: put beadboard painted white on cabinet fronts and trim it out with 1x2's painted white,it gives the look of new cabinets at a fraction of the price! Good luck!

Great ideas here. Just don't buy anything you know you absolutely don't need until the end to see if you have enough money left over for the extra goodies.