Converting Road (Cross) Bike to Flat Bar

Now that I am living only 5 miles from work, there is NO excuse not to ride..but I have a couple anyway. 1. The final approach to my house is a .3 mile 15-17% grade that is a monster. It use to be that when I could finally ride up the hill, my legs were destroyed for two to three days after. 2. I hate riding that damn road bike. I have never felt comfortable on the road bike (hence why I mtb so much), and part of it is I hate those darn curved bars. My hands always hurt on them, my back (which never hurts on endurance mtb rides) bothers me and even my knee...Stupid young bike shop guy tells me I need a new *carbon* bike and need it sized for me. Yeah and he would love to show me some that start at $2500 to $3500 all with worse components than I already have. Instead I decided to make my road bike feel as much as possible like my mountain bikes. Then end result was easy, and very inexpensive considering the price I sold my Ultegra brake/shifters nearly covered the entire cost. Now, I freakin' love this bike. It feels amazing, I have more control, no more pain of any type while riding or climbing.
This was so successful, I have already purchased the parts to convert my old bike that sits on the trainer. No more curved bars for me!

 

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Clearly, converting this cross bike to a flat bar was the right decision. Went on a flat 40+ mile ride (that involved a coffee stop, and was able to pull the pace line for a long stretch at ~23mph. I never used those stupid drops anyway, so this switch is all positive.