Ta da!

No, it is not done by any standard definition of done, but it is functional. I have cooked two nights in a row and by the end of this weekend I may actually want to invite people into my home again. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I am really proud of Chad and I for the following reasons:

1) We have not killed or divorced each other. We may have thought horrible scathing things in our head, we have have told our friends what horrible spouses we have, but to each other's face there was actually minimal conflict. We have learned something in the last ten years, and it is know when to fold 'em. We each have strengths and there is more than enough work to go around, there is no need to step on each others toes.

2) We knew when to throw money at the problem. We have done a lot of the work ourselves, we have had a lot of help, and we have known that sometimes paying someone else can be the right answer even when the budget is tight. For instance, when our countertops arrived this week and Chad saw me nearly burst into tears and kiss the countertop installers on the mouth he knew that us taking another week to figure out how to hook the plumbing and dishwasher oursleves was not the right answer. Indeed, we would have paid a lot more money to put me in the asylum if I had to wash dishes in the gross laundry tub for even another day.

3) We were flexible. Chad and I are not fix it wizards. We try hard, but are skills are not exactly Bob Vila level. So we hit a lot of walls where we wanted something a certain way, but couldn't figure out how to do it ourselves. Sometimes the lesbian posse knew how, sometimes Jim did, but sometimes no one did and we couldn't afford to throw money at the problem. Instead of freaking out we got pretty creative and I think it will pay off in having a kitchen that is made of nice, neutral materials but has a lot of unique touches because we couldn't find what we wanted we had to cobble it together ourselves or sometimes with the help of the IKEA. It isn't perfect, but then again, neither are we.

So thanks to all of our friends, neighbors, families, and the Home Depot. We did it and you all helped.