I've just completed my second installation of SMF, and all went extremely well and hassle free! This time around I decided to try out a theme (chip) instead of doing my own hacks to the default, and barring a little hackery on my part, the theme is working quite well. I also installed all my fav mods seamlessly (except for reCaptcha).
Just wanted to thank the team for continuing to support such an amazing application. SMF is definitely a next gen forum! Thanks folks! :)
In case anyone is interested: www.bestopensourceapps.com/forum