How to Survive a Kitchen Remodel

This past summer I decided that we needed one more thing to add to the chaos of transition:  a new kitchen.  Our white cabinets, which I loved when we moved in the first time nearly sixteen years ago, had been peeling for years.  Most of the hinges had broken, and all efforts to find replacements had failed.  The oft-repaired oven had a door which no longer closed.  We could have kept the project fairly simple by preserving the existing layout, but instead we decided to rip out the attached laundry room and move it upstairs into a storage closet.  My primary motivation for this was not to increase the size of the kitchen, but to open it up to the view at the back of the house (see above picture).

Sitting here today in the midst of the chaos and dust, cardboard and insulation, and dangling wires and cords, I am tempted to think that it would have been easier to move house. The contents of our kitchen are spread between two levels and four rooms, one of which has been sealed off from the original kitchen in a mostly vain attempt to keep out the dust.  Even a simple meal like breakfast requires walking 1000 steps (I am keeping track on my fitbit device) by the time all items are collected, the food is consumed, and the mess is cleaned up.  What is worse, absolutely nothing is happening today construction-wise.  We have hit yet one more delay.

I don't really have the answers for how to survive a kitchen remodel.  What I do know is that I should have googled that phrase before we even began the process.  There are several helpful websites, including the suggestions at Houzz.com.  The common piece of advice from all the sites I persued is to move out if at all possible, or go on an extended vacation.  At the very least, veterans of the remodel process suggest creating a temporary kitchen somewhere far removed from the construction---in the garage, for example, or in the basement.  None of these options was a possibility for us, so we are having to make the most of cooking and eating in cramped quarters amidst the grime.

Our kitchen about sixteen hours before it was torn out.  I made one last batch of oatmeal cookies.

The deteriorating cabinets (they have suffered through a total of fifteen different children from newborn through teens during the past sixteen years):

Mid tear-out:

Laundry room removed, with a window added (I already love the additional light): 

The new, unfinished laundry room upstairs:

This is a picture of the same space taken in August:

Since I titled this post "How to," I will end with a list of suggestions based on our experiences so far.  Some of these we have followed with varying degrees of success, others we have learned through the painful teacher called Experience.   I have a feeling that we are not yet through with said teacher.

1.  Ruthlessly organize your house before construction starts and throw out, give away, or repurpose items that you no longer use on a regular basis.  I created dozens of empty shelves in our basement ahead of time, making it relatively easy to empty our kitchen cabinets and cupboards.

2.  Completely move out of the kitchen at least 24 hours before tear out.  We did not do this as I wanted to put off the evil day as long as possible.  I regret it now.  When you will be without a proper kitchen for two months or more, what is one more day?  On tear out morning, several things are guaranteed to go wrong.  Our oldest child overslept for the first time of the school year and had to be driven to school.  Our second oldest needed an emergency trip to the orthodontist at 8:30am, and there was a third mini catastrophe, which has been swept away from my memory with the initial dust. The workers had to finish the job of moving out for me, which was not ideal.

3.  Cover everything surrounding the construction area with plastic sheeting or bedsheets.  The workers may or may not do a good job of this (our crew unfortunately did not).

4.  Set up a temporary kitchen with the bare essentials.  We were fortunate to have a moveable island, into which I crammed everything I thought we would use on a daily basis.  We also set up an additional table to hold electrical appliances.

5.  Fall in love with your crockpot, unless of course it is summer and you are able to grill everything outdoors.  We have enjoyed steel cut oatmeal from a smaller crockpot nearly every morning, and a variety of soups, stews and pot roasts from a larger one in the evenings.  I am running out of ideas, however, and would welcome suggestions for tried and true crock pot recipes.  My favorite so far is the Whole Foods crock pot recipe for Coq au Vin.  It's easy and delicious.

6.  Be flexible.  Sometimes when you arrive home in the early afternoon to throw a meal into the crockpot, your working area will look like this:

Then you will wish that you had gotten up earlier that morning, or that you had leftovers waiting to be reheated in the refrigerator.  You will, however, be glad that work is happening in your kitchen.

7.  Get the phone numbers of everyone working in your house.  That way you can confirm that the electrician will in fact be coming when your contractor promises that he will "absolutely, definitely" be there tomorrow.

8.  Ask lots of questions.  Don't assume that your contractor has everything figured out.  My problem is that I don't know which questions to ask until it is too late. 

9.  Be prepared for frustrations.   Every single day.  When the plumber is working, there will be no water in the house.  When the electricians redo the wiring, funny things happen.  I created two workspaces ahead of time to replace our kitchen.  The "office" workspace was also the center for coffee and tea making.  Since the day after tear out, however, that room has been without working outlets.  We ended up moving the printer three times before finding a reliable outlet.  The other working space, our porch, was without lighting for several days (but thankfully the outlets still supplied power).  We did our cooking and eating under romantic lighting conditions.

The worse frustrations are the inevitable delays.  I bore the first few with equanimity.  Now it is harder.  The delays always seem to be the fault of someone else.

10.  Maintain an attitude of gratitude.  With news reports of Ebola and Isis running in the background, it is not all that difficult to stay thankful for the multitude of comforts, conveniences and safe living conditions that we enjoy in our corner of the world.  A torn-out kitchen is a minor inconvenience in the overall scheme of things.  I try (not always successfully) to turn my frustrations into prayers for those who are suffering.  And I am very grateful that we have been able to keep a working sink and dishwasher.

As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Comments

[bethany]

sympathies! and thanks for the tips, filed away in my head should i have to live through such. i remember my mom living through months of cooking off a card table and propane burner, but was young enough not to pay too much attention to how she pulled it off. one of my favorite crock pot recipes is this one : http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-thai-chicken-thighs-106499 and it tastes best to me with any bone-in pieces but works with with whatever you have. hope it's not too much longer, but the view looks awesome and well worth it.

[Christie]

Thanks bethany for what looks like a tasty and easy recipe. It will work well with rice from the rice maker that sits next to our crockpot. I can just picture your mom hunched over that card table. I was about to set up our card table, when I remembered that we had an old wooden table from Ponderosa sitting in pieces in our shed. It has been a much better alternative to a card table.

[Cheryl]

Wow! That certainly is a lot to take on! Check out crock pot lasagna. http://www.crockingirls.com/recipes/crockin-lasagna/ (also a good site for other recipes) Of course you can omit or add the ingredients you prefer in your lasagna. The best part is the noodles are not pre-cooked or a special type of noodle!

[Christie]

The lasagna sounds great--thank you! It will make a nice change from soup, chicken and pot roast.

[Shanda]

Someday it will all be a distant memory that you can laugh about. I can't wait to see pictures of it when it's done!