I'm with lax - when I read your post, I immediately thought of nomorebluekitchen's (which is worth pulling up just to read about the little prank her sister pulled on her! :-) Evilbunnie, I love those pix too. I must have over 500 photos and it includes every single boring detail, from first shovel in the ground to first meal cooked. I never bothered to post any progress pix here but I do think they are so helpful for everyone embarking on these projects. So, Stacy, pls keep your pix coming - it's so much fun to see your vision come together. BTW, saw your other post - I think your island is a great size for your space. If you've got the clearance, go for it. Eliz

lavender, thank you, and thanks for the vote on the stair spindles. When I have a free minute I've been taping off where the spindles meet the treads, so after the ceiling trim is up, it's a go. marti, I think she was more than half in jest, but the room is painted, so it must have worked! shadygrove and shades, thank you. Do you all realized that you get to see my new stuff before almost anyone else? I just want to say that I really appreciate everyone's encouragement. I've been busy the last couple of days, routing and painting the new ceiling trim. I put up the filler on the top of the DR cabinet this morning, then my father wandered in with a bucket of cherry tomatoes. Lol, any idea how many cherry tomatoes one has to halve to fill a dehydrator? A bunch--but aren't these the cutest little things?!

Our cabinets came form Home Depot American Woodmark Brand. We got a good deal because they were having a sales if you spend over $5,000 you got a free sink base cabinet which saved about $400 so on cabinets plus granite it cost us $4,600. We also bought tile that was on clearance so it was about $1 per square foot of tile. The contractor we really lucked out on we found him on Craigslist. He was a MA licensed builder and he showed us his own kitchen which he remodeled to show us his work. He also came in at an insane lower price then any one else we had put a quote on the job. I think the labor including electrical and plumbing (he knew people who did these) it was a total of $3,600. then over time we had to add the $300 because the wall we turned into the breakfast bar was load bearing so he had to install a new support beam which added a bit to the cost. It should be done sometime next week so I will post new pics then!

Thanks all! We really are thrilled with how it is turning out. We were on a pretty tight budget but thankfully we only had to make a few compromises along the way. I wish I could have afforded the slide in range right now, but I really like the GE Profile that I got - and it was a fantastic deal. The griddle is huge and we love it for grilled cheese and pancakes, which we make often. I've missed having a gas range for the last 15 years that I've lived out west and I'm so glad to have one again. I didn't grow up in the mountains but now I can't really imagine living anywhere else. If DH got a job near the beach, I wouldn't complain, though! I'm already over the snow and it's only just begun. DH and my oldest are going skiing tomorrow and I'm staying home with the younger two, warm in my jammies! rebunky - the granite is called Viscont White. I'm going to embrace my white fridge, though it's SO darn small inside. The previous owners had to special order it 10 years ago to fit that small space in the old kitchen. I have a full size upright freezer and full size upright fridge in the garage, though, so I am not lacking cold storage space. My old fridge was a GE Profile and was SS and I never had an issue with fingerprints, even with kids opening it all day long. Seeing this one in the space, though, I don't think we could go with anything other than a counter depth. A regular depth one would stick out almost 6 more inches! anitamo - it's funny you mention the brick wall. DH is still hung up on whitewashing it, so I'm not sure what will happen to it in the next few weeks!