All that time and effort you put into planning will be WELL worth it! And your new bundle of joy will help you put all those small problems that comes (unfortunately) with every remodel in perspective! So relax and enjoy the ride!

oh my, you're having twins! (I sort of liken a kitchen remodel to pregnancy and labor and delivery). Breathe! I'm sure you know the exercises. Try to stay stress free as much as possible. Let your husband deal with the brunt of it. Seriously, just go with the flow and do whatever to get through it and it will be fine. Paper plates and cups, pre-prepared foods, take-out...
Twins can be a lot to handle, but they are also double the joy. You will soon have a beautiful new kitchen and a beautiful new baby. How lucky!

oh how exciting! It's going to be fine. You're going to have a new kitchen and a new baby, and you'll be thrilled. :)

I was terrified too, but it worked out.

I was a little aprehensive the night before we started our DIY kitchen renovation too, but honestly, and I know this is going to sound strange, but it's been fun and a joy to do.

If your renovation goes anything like ours, it should be able to be finished, or at least fully functioning within 6 weeks. Ours was fairly involved (all new electric outlets, new circuits, panel, and switches, all new lighting, plumbing, wall demo, window moved and bumped out, sheetrock stripped off, subfloor removed and replaced, new flooring). We started Dec 26 and have been working at a very liesurely pace and the cabinets would actually be ready to install tomorrow if we were on our game. But because of our laid back pace we should be ready by mid so that's about 6 weeks from start to install. If DH had taken off work days, we could have been ready a week ago for install.

Do you have help? If you so, it will go by even faster and be a lot of fun. For the past 3 Saturdays we had extended family over and it was a lot of fun for everyone, with the women cleaning and packing and cooking and the guys drilling and cutting and stuff and the kids demoing drywall and pulling out nails, etc.

I think it's all in the attitude. Get excited. Look at all the positives - how good it will feel to have a brand new kitchen, the pride in knowing your did it yourself, that wonderful feeling of being self-reliant, anticipating how much you will learn in the process. It's a special time.

I heard some good advice before we started: be committed to doing the job over without getting upset as many times as it takes so if you mess up, you aren't angry and upset, you just know it's part of the process and it's OK. Knowing that the worst thing that can happen isn't even that bad (oh well, it's just a do over!) is reassuring.

I know this is already long winded, but I have to share one more thing. When I gave birth to my second baby, we had just sold our house and hadn't found a new one yet. We were living in a small bedroom at my parents house that had in it a queen size bed, a crib for my toddler, a bassinet for the baby, a desk with DH's computer, and all of our clothes were stuffed into bookshelves sitting on top of the computer desk. There was literally a 8"x3' strip of carpet and the rest was crammed to the gills. We couldn't even get to the closet cause that was the only place for the crib! We lived like that for 2 months - and then as we were moving into our new house, we all came down with the Influenza A that was killing the elderly and the young in droves that year - my infant was hospitalized and 1/2 our stuff was at our new house and 1/2 was in that bedroom. It was a mess. But we came through it and it all worked out in the end. So take encouragement, it can be done! And you will make it to the other side with a brand new kitchen and you will love it!

I'm right behind you, Feb. 8 is scheduled for the real start of the dirty part. I'm not expecting a baby but I AM old and working full time plus. I wonder if I can put myself in a trance for a month or two. And keep remembering it's only a do over. I anticipate problems with this old house so maybe I'm half way there.

Thanks, everyone. Especially you, needsometips08, especially for sharing your timeline. You hear so many horror stories of timelines running months beyond scheduled and I think that's what got me the most nervous.

We'll have a lot of help next weekend for demo and hope to finish all demo (ripped down to the studs and 2 walls coming out entirely) between Saturday and Sunday. And with hubby's work schedule, he's got at least 3 days each week to concentrate on it (some weeks we're lucky enough to have 4 days) so that should help too.

It is going to be so wonderful to have both at once - a new kitchen that I've been dreaming about and the new baby. Just hope I can get some sleep in the meantime! :-)