In my apartment I put lights on top of the cabinets which shine upward.  I'm thinking about moving, and one of the houses I like has a soffit extending over the cabinets.  So no space for lights over these cabinets, unless I remove the soffits.  Do any of you know how much work it would be to rip them out?  I think the cabinets are bolted to the wall and not the ceiling, which is good.  I imagine at minimum the wall behind the soffit would need to be painted, but I don't even know if the walls and ceilings behind them are finished.  Also, there could be pipes or wires hidden inside.  I'd be neat to put lights on top, but the amount of work involved is a bit daunting.

i have the same issue with my house and my parents would not let me simply rip it out to install lights, i do think it would look nice with some /827 or /830 linear fluorescent on the top

If not rip the soffits out, you can direct at them spotlights (MH for example) from the central lamp place in the ceiling. this way you'll have overcabinet lights while the light is actually only reflected from there (right, its no the same, but can be close, and the spill from the spots can be actually good for lighting up the room in general)

Those can be mounted in different ways depending a lot on the quality of the assembly., so not much predictable

As for hiding pipes, you can replace the boards with diffused glass, or move them farther in so that the pipes are deep and hidden. and the lights are on the part closer to the outside

I think it'd look nice, but I want to know what I'm getting into first.  It might be as simple as knocking them out and painting the wall behind, but not necessarily.  One question that would need to be answered is how to light the area over the sink.  In my apartment there is a set of cabinets over the sink with a light fixture underneath.  In the house, there is already a light fixture under the soffit.  It'd be somewhat counterproductive to lose this light in the process of adding others.  One option would be to add a set of cabinets, which has the additional benefit of providing more storage space.  I don't know if I'd be able to find a cabinet that matches the others.  A second option would be to install a recessed floodlight in the ceiling above, but that would require fishing wire over and cutting a hole for the fixture.  

I agree that a lighting solution that does not require the removal of the soffits would be simpler, cheaper, and perhaps every bit as good.  I'm partial to the cabinet-top uplighting mostly due to the fact that I have it today.  

Honestly, I like the apartment I have but I'm fed up with the noise.  Given that home prices are still depressed, it seems like a good time to buy.  I've been woken up by noises above way too many times this year.  Any other apartment dwellers here?  It's not even that the tenants upstairs are being disruptive, but it seems like the wood frame building actually amplifies rather than dampens sound from above.  

Maybe you could add some kind of crown moulding near the ceiling and put fluorescent tubes over that for uplighting... Just a thought, I don't know how it would look, or if you would like the look of it. You would have to find very slim fixtures or remote mount the ballasts, though.