Pictures and stuff
Good work but did you take down any load bearing walls? If so, and it was done without a permit, that could seriously comeback to bit you in the ass. It could be because I'm incredibly paranoid but spending $500 for an engineer to give you a plan and $200 to the city/county for a permit and inspection beats having to spend twice that if you have to go back and get it inspected prior to closing on a sale. Looking at the pictures you posted the supports you built it look pretty solid but without knowing the load that wall might have been carrying and what's above and below you there's no way of knowing if that's properly build to transfer an active load.
BTW, if anyone has any ideas for cheaply remodeling a kitchen, I'm all ears.
No joke - Ikea. This is just me, but I'd go with Ikea for a kitchen that size and get their highest quality butcher block counter tops and give them a dark stain. That kitchen doesn't look that big so you could probably do granite or some other stone on a budget but if you're budget is less than $5K go with butcher block. By the way, if you don't have a problem being in front of the camera you could always give Renovation Realities (
http://www.diynetwork.com/shows/renovation-realities) a shot. I believe they give you $3,000 towards your renovation in exchange for you letting them film you freaking up.
