The kitchen is done and we love it! We're trying to figure out where to put everything and marveling at all of the light and counter space. Andy and I now realize just how exhausting having construction going on in your house can be - the kids are tired and cranky, we are tired and cranky. We're trying to rest and reset and cook all of the things.

It took us and our beloved contractor Eric a little more than a month from start to finish and we kept it all within $100 of our budget.

Of course, now I want to buy all new things for the kitchen and remodel the entire house. As part of the remodel we put wooden floors in the front room, and now we're contemplating resetting that room in a different way. We are in no hurry, there are a ton of books.

We have our dishes and pots in big drawers now. We keep moving out glasses to different cabinets, and we're hauling all of our kitchen stuff out of the basement as we need it. We have a ginormous sink - Jennie the Potter mug for scale.

The new kitchen hasn't magically stopped our family from piling on the counters and now there are so many more of them. I already have the bad habit of working on one of the counters with my computer and all of my piles. I can cook and work at the same time!

The whole process went really smoothly (I only cried twice!), we didn't have too many surprises and like everyone told us, it's worth it!