Kayte Kelpin Wants A Modern Kitchen

The Early Show has partnered with Sears Kenmore-Pro to make over the kitchen of a deserving family. From the thousands who submitted their kitchen stories, the producers chose five finalists. Here is finalist Kayte Kelpin's story.

Dear Early Show:

My family's kitchen not only serves its practical purpose, but unlike others, ours has fueled a hot debate amongst relatives for over a decade now. The issue we grapple with is simple: What in the world are the hideous shapes on the walls?! Most people now believe that the gold, blue, red, and yellow shapes are none other than chili peppers. Who would have thought?

As you can see from the pictures, our kitchen is an eye sore (to put it gently). My parents live in a beautiful English Tudor home that was built in the early nineteen hundreds. They raised my three brothers and myself in this home and it has always been a sanctuary for me. There is no place in the world that I feel more safe and secure than in that home. When they bought the home eleven years ago, all of us children were in middle school and our needs and activities took precedent over fixing up the house. The most important project to my parents has always been the kitchen because we spend the greatest amount of quality time in it; however, it is the only room that has not been remodeled as money and time just are not there.

Our kitchen has served many functions: it's been a comedy club as we laugh around the table, boxing ring as my brothers and I duke it out, court of law as we have had to await the consequences for our actions, interrogation room for potential daters, and place of worship as we pray before our meals. If only those walls could talk! My favorite memory about our kitchen is that every Thanksgiving, four generations of women on my mother's side gather to prepare a feast and have fellowship in that room.

As I am now a young adult, I am only beginning to see and truly appreciate all of the sacrifices that my parents made for us children while growing up. I am so thankful for the safety and security that they provided for us. I cannot think of anyone in more dire need, nor more deserving of a kitchen makeover than the people that I am proud to call my parents.

Early Show, PLEASE end the debate and get rid of the "chili peppers" once and for all!!

— Kayte Kelpin, of Fort Wayne, Ind.