It has been a loud, messy week so far at our house, but stuff is happening! The wall separating the kitchen and dining room is knocked out, the soffits are removed and the ceiling replaced after it fell down (yes, really), the electrical and plumbing is done, and the new doorway is opened up ready for a pocket door to be installed next week.

Before:

All opened up:

I’m really excited about this part. No longer will you have to walk through the laundry room to get from the kitchen to the family room. It will make a bigger dining area and a nicer laundry room as well. (The family room was the original garage, in case you were wondering why it was laid out that way.)

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If you’re going to be without a kitchen for any length of time, you need to set up a temporary spot with some basic stuff so you can get by for a while. As I mentioned before in my cookathon post, I cooked and froze a lot of stuff that we can reheat in the microwave or toaster oven. It has been nice to have home-cooked meals even with the kitchen being in the state it’s in!

We moved the kitchen table into the family room to serve as a “prep” area, and set up the smaller card table to eat on. The prep area consists of the microwave, toaster oven, knives and cutting boards, paper goods like zip-locks and foil, and a few other things. Under the table I’ve stored things that I shouldn’t need to get to very often but still wanted to have available. (The rest of the kitchen stuff is packed up in David’s office.) Next to the table, we put the pantry with all our food, and next to it a small china cabinet to hold a few dishes, utensils, etc. The fridge is in the laundry room, where it’s been since we moved in. The dishwashing station is in the nearby guest bathroom.

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Ok, I just thought we were committed when I posted the last post. I suppose, if something had happened, we could have just replaced the floor and still had a kitchen. But now we’re really committed! We donated the cabinets, countertops, and appliances to Habitat for Humanity, and they sent someone out to pull it all for us! Yea! Free demo, and the stuff will end up in their “Re-Store” and get reused instead of going in the landfill.

Construction should start first thing Monday morning. We are hiring a contractor do to stuff like knock out the wall, remove the soffits, move the doorway, and do the electrical/plumbing. Then the same guys who textured the ceilings before we moved in will come back, so the kitchen will match the rest of the house. Then the kitchen should be ready to fill with cabinets, countertops, appliances, flooring, and whatever else we haven’t thought of yet.

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I guess you can say we’ve started the renovation! David spent the evening taking up the lovely 80s tile floor, revealing an even lovelier 70s vinyl underneath. Man, what a mess! We are grateful to our neighbor Isaac for loaning us the proper power tool for the job.

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We are anticipating being without a kitchen for about a month. I know, these things usually take longer than expected, but that’s our best guess based on the people we’ve talked to. So how do we eat, without spending as much on dining out as the kitchen costs, or resorting to Bagel Bites and Easy Mac?

I’m going to cook—a LOT—now. This week I am cooking up some casseroles, soups, baked goods, and some other things that can be frozen and reheated in the microwave or toaster oven. I may have to buy some storage containers, but we should still come out ahead as opposed to eating out all the time.

Here are some of the things I’m planning to make:

• Chicken Rice Casserole
• Skillet Tamale Pie
• Spinach Manicotti
• Baked Ziti
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Vegetable Beef Soup
• Chili
• Freezer Twice Baked Potatoes
• Baked Goods:
  • Banana Bread
  • Oatmeal Raisin Bread
  • Cranberry Orange Muffins
  • Apple Muffins
  • Oatmeal Raisin and Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough (rolled into balls and frozen)

For veggies to go with the meals, I guess I’ll steam them in the microwave—not my preferred method, but better than nothing. We’ll use store-bought bread and rolls. Then there are things like cereal, yogurt, fresh salads, baked potatoes, grilled cheese (we have a griddle), fresh fruits and veggies, etc.

When I looked online for ideas about how to eat during a kitchen remodel, there was a lot of advice about using a hot plate, slow cooker, outdoor grill, and so forth. Yes, it’s possible to cook using those things, but it still seems like prep and clean-up would be a major pain, trying to prep in the family room and wash dishes in the little bathroom sink. I want to have as much ready to eat as possible. We’ll supplement with eating out some, and if we run out of food, maybe I can have another cooking day at someone else’s house and fill up those containers again.

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We are about to embark on a big adventure, the likes of which we have never experienced before and probably won’t ever wish to again once it’s all said and done: the total kitchen remodel! We are still in the planning stages and are gathering quotes from various folks, but we hope to get started in the next couple of weeks so we can finish before the baby comes in October.

The kitchen is small with minimal counter and cabinet space, but there is an adjoining formal dining room that we plan to take in and make part of the kitchen. (We really don’t want nor need a formal dining room.) The dining room is conveniently the same width as the kitchen, so it will be a long galley-style kitchen when it is done, with plenty of cabinets for storage and counters for prep. This will also enable us to shift the work area down a little bit to make the eat-in area of the kitchen larger. It is currently pretty tight (our table has to be pushed up against a wall), and we’d like to be able to seat more than four people. Also, the laundry room doorway is right in the eat-in area, and we plan to wall it off and move the doorway to go directly to the adjoining family room. (You’ll see what I’m talking about when you get to the photos.) This will also allow the family room to be used for overflow dining space when necessary, plus it just makes a lot more sense for traffic flow.

Our goal is something functional here. We don’t want fancy fixtures, ornate moldings, and elaborate decór. We want something basic, surfaces that are easy to clean and maintain, design that lends itself to cooking efficiently, and materials/appliances that are not top-of-the-line but still good enough quality to last a while. Also, we’re going to try to be eco-friendly when possible, and I’ll be pointing that out in the choices we make.

I hope to document the process along the way. First, maybe this will help someone else who plans to go through the same thing, and second, I need to be better about blogging and this seems like a good thing to blog about.

Now, for some “before” pictures!

The eat-in area:

View looking from the formal dining room:

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