My home had white ceramic tile on the countertops and backsplash and white banged up appliances. We had the tile demo’d and picked out slabs of granite in a stone yard and had them cut and installed onsite. Counter space was about 68 sq ft. We also bought a new dishwasher, french door fridge, double eletric oven and microwave (all stainless energy efficient stuff). The gas range stayed but we may eventually replace that.
One comment above about granite being dated. Prior to choosing granite to replace our white ceramic tile, we looked at some of the neighbors kitchens and decided that for our area this was the right way to go. Lots of of the neighbors had ceramic or granite tiles, prefab slabs so a custom higher end granite was an upgrade..
I installed the dishwasher, microwave and oven (had a buddy who is an electrician wire the oven for 50 bucks per code). The sink was installed by the countertop installers but I installed a new faucet and garbage disposal. My wife and I found subway tile sized honey onyx at a discount and installed it ourselves.
Total cost was about 7K plus some sweat and elbow grease.
