Simplify, simplify...Life without a kitchen

I never thought I would say this, but in some ways, life without a fully functioning kitchen is easier. Yes, it's a drag to be so limited in terms of what we can cook, and to have to carry dishes from the makeshift kitchen to the laundry room where we wash them by hand. But because we are using paper plates and plastic utensils, buying more prepared food and eating out more, we spend much less time preparing meals, washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. It seems that we have more time for the kids in the evening after work. Before we tore apart the kitchen, a typical Sunday for us involved menu planning, a trip to the grocery store, preparing several things that would could eat for dinner during the week ahead, and cleaning the kitchen afterward. A trip to the park or other fun had to be worked in around these other tasks. Today began with a breakfast in downtown Folsom (out of the window of the restaurant I could still see a few runners from the half-marathon that I had considered running trickle by as my eggs benedict arrived), followed by a long walk down to the river, and an afternoon and evening at Grandpa and Grandma's. No shopping. No cooking. No guilt. Hopefully we'll learn some lessons that will stay with us even when we reclaim our remodeled kitchen.

Construction -- Week 1

The picture doesn't really tell the story here. At the end of week 1 the kitchen looks much the same as it did after the demolition. Now there is less drywall, and the large beam -- the last remnant of the soffit -- has been removed. But outside, a new gasline runs to where the cooktop will go. And much of the wiring and plumbing work has been done.

Easy Mac Anyone?

Other than toy storage, we never really thought of the family room wet bar as a practical feature of the home. Until now. It's become our makeshift kitchen. Plenty of storage and a small sink (the laundry room sink has become the diswashing station). We have a mircrowave, an electric skillet, and the gas grill outside to cook with. And after using the grill to toast bagels and cook the kids' chicken pieces, we decided to return the toaster oven we bought. It'll do for now, but it will be very nice to have a real kitchen again.

With a little help from our friends

Saturday morning



Saturday Evening





All in all, the demolition went better than we expected. We started at about 9 Saturday morning and finished by 5 p.m. We finished loading the U-Haul about an hour later. The next morning, the two of us took the load to the dump and managed, in a little more than an hour, to get rid of the three-ton pile that had taken us a day to make (actually, some of that weight was the bricks from our fireplace that we removed months ago). The guy at the dump told us it was going to cost $75 and asked if we still wanted to dump it. What else were we going to do? He told us that people who bring U-Hauls to the dump often get sticker shock when he tells them the cost. But to us it seemed cheap. We could have paid $300 for a dumpster (not sure whether our home owners' association would've allowed it) or $2,500 for someone else to do the demolition and haul the stuff away. The cost of the U-Haul and the dumping was under $200. A bargain.

Without the help of friends, and father-in-law, we never would have finished in a day. It would have been even more overwhelming than it was. At all times we had a work crew of 3 or 4. That seemed just about right. It was a big job.