I have a kitchen! With cabinets! And counters!

Oh, I never thought I'd see the day.

The contractors came and dropped off a ton of boxes yesterday with our cabinets, and today, they arrived bright and early to install them. And THEN they built my countertops!

Seeing it and the look on my husband's face when he came home tonight has almost been worth what this man has put us through over the last three weeks. Almost.

The kitchen, seriously, looks BEAUTIFUL. More beautiful than I ever imagined. I can't wait to see how it looks when they are all finished tomorrow. I will be gone tomorrow on a claim, so I will just have to come home and be surprised, but apparently they are going to go to Home Depot to get all the "extras" that they need and then will be coming over to install the sink, faucet, garbage disposal, range, microhood, and then to put the finishing touches on. The floors are confirmed for Monday and Tuesday (I talked to the flooring company this morning) and the window guy is supposed to come Monday or Tuesday, whenever the windows come in. Then the contractors will come and finish up by installing our cabinetry toe-kicks and some molding for the bottom, and then it will be up to US to finish next week with the baseboards, paint touch-ups, moving all the furniture back into place, setting up the new pieces of furniture that we bought, and just in general, getting things organized. Going through something like this is seriously like moving into a new house. It's weird.

Oh, I am excited. The end is in SIGHT! I would share a picture, but I don't want to ruin the final effect. It's truly amazing...and a miracle. My poor kitchen is like a phoenix rising from the ashes!

On another unrelated note, I got a call from the owner of the vet place that the thing happened at with Taylor, abjectly apologizing for the way that I was treated and sincerely apologizing for everything that happened. She also said that she has declawed several older cats and would be happy to discuss doing it with me if that was the route that I wished to pursue. I thanked her for calling and told her how much I appreciated it, but that I had decided to pursue other options.

Work is fine. I got my first claim today in two weeks, and I have SO enjoyed having the last two weeks of peace and quiet to catch up on stuff. It's been heavenly!

I'm sure I've got other stuff to report, but nothing quite as wonderful as the status of the kitchen, so I'll leave you with that and go eat!