OK friends. Jen Hatmaker’s people never called us for the next season of My Big Family Remodel (seriously, how could they not?!?) But since our kitchen remodel has drawn to a close without my own show, I’ll have to settle for sharing a few lessons we learned here instead.

First lesson, good people make everything better.

Seriously, we were so lucky with the contractors we chose. The people at Finding Time were so beyond amazing that every part of our experience was a delight. Of course issues came up and timelines changed because that is the nature of a remodel and heck my friends, of LIFE.

But the good people of Finding Time made everything better and easier.

Each person we came in contact with was so kind and helpful and cheerful. From Randy’s super patient emails, to my new friend Stephanie helping me pick out all the things, to Troy who was so thorough and honest to each and every person who worked on lights and plaster and cabinets and floor and plumbing….everyone was just wonderful.

When faced with choices (I’m the world’s worst decision maker) they kept things within our budget and made everything beautiful with awesome suggestions. Each and every person arrived on the scene to the total chaos of us trying to get 5 kids off to school and 2 adults off to work and just patiently and kindly worked around us. There was total flexibility in working through quotes and timelines. Countertops were backordered and yet they had our kitchen up and running for Christmas. A light arrived broken and no problem. When the new one arrived someone was on our doorstep to put it in. They gave expert advice and thought of things that were way better than anything I could have thought up.

In short, each and every person was friendly and helpful and kind and patient and seriously reminded me that how we treat people matters. It just makes all the difference in the world and made what could have been way more stressful into something we could handle. What a lesson.

When you find people that get this as a part of their business model you want to shout it from the rooftops. So consider this blog as my rooftop. If you live near me and need work done on your home call Finding Time immediately. You will never regret it.

Outside of the awesome people that did the work, the awesome people in our life helped us through the chaos. From helping us to organize to looking at endless floor samples to a million meals being dropped off our family came through in a big way. They basically fed us through the month of December and my parents had the added pleasure of 7 extra people staying with them for the good part of a week, including school days. For the love…their reward with clearly be great in the land.

Anywho my friends, we’ve once again learned the value of good people. It’s a whole thing. We need to be good people for each other to help us all get through this crazy life.

Other random lessons include the fact that the only thing that makes the holidays more chaotic is not having a working kitchen, you can still have Christmas without making a single cookie, having a door on all your cabinets is really a nice touch, frozen pizza tastes only slightly better in a super cute kitchen, and once your living space looks more Pinteresty nothing in your real life actually changes because there is no kitchen on this Earth that can make kids’ lunches for you. I just smile a little more while (watching Todd) making them.

Enjoy some pictures from the adventure!

A few BEFORE pics (not pictured, the drawer that has been missing in the island for three years, if you look to the left you can just see the missing cabinet door, and the countertop lifted pretty much clean up off the top of the island. Not really a thing wrong with the look of the place, just things were starting to fall apart):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DURING (also thankful for all our free demo labor #familyisthebest):

 

 

 

 

AFTER (Praise the dear LORD and welcome to my overshare and the real reason for the remodel, an island all five kids can sit around):