Or You Could Eat Out Every Night For A Month

I was regaling you with the saga of remodeling our house, which I’ll intermittently insert between ramblings on current events in my life. I described remodeling our kitchen, which truthfully, I had very little to do with. Except for saying “That edge sticks out too far, can’t we take it back some?” Or “Shouldn’t that cupboard door open the other way?” This of course, after the cupboard is installed.

So today’s little piece is about how I coped while the kitchen was being redone. The whole reason we never got around to remodeling before was that I dreaded the huge inconvenience it would be to remodel while you are living in the house. And it was true. It IS a HUGE inconvenience, to remodel in the midst of life.

So here’s how we did it, and dreadful as it was, it was doable. And it’s worth it! (Not to forget I’m writing this a full year later– not on the delivery table, as it were ).

Assuming that you are like me, and can’t afford to eat out every night for a month, here is what worked for us:

First, and most obvious, disposable dishes, cutlery, etc. are the way to go. Second, the greatest gift my husband gave me was a utility sink in my laundry room, just before all this remodeling thing began. I could throw whatever dishes we dirtied into a Rough Tote plastic tub, haul it downstairs, and wash them in the utility tub. This beats bending down low over a bathtub, any day.

We set up the microwave in the family area, and it’s truly amazing how you can live off food from a microwave almost indefinitely. I did also have a burner plate that we used a few times. So we had everything but an oven.

We used a lot of canned food, and I didn’t make anything that called for ingredients, if you know what I mean. It was all open up the can, dump and zap type of foods. We’re talking chili and crackers, canned stew and crackers, canned chop suey, canned spaghetti sauce (burner plate to cook noodles), bagged salads, frozen and zapped vegetables, and sandwiches. For about a month. You can do it.

When we finally got the kitchen back, it was great to have an oven again, to have a truly baked potato (as opposed to rubberized nuked spuds), and homemade bread again. Actually, we have a bread maker, so we could have had bread earlier, but I was unwilling to handle ingredients during that phase.  Besides, I use my breadmaker to make dough, because the machine’s loaf is too big. I prefer to make two smaller loaves than one big one.

With the utility sink and the microwave, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Really.  So if you're dragging your feet in fear of inconvenience, let me cast my vote for going ahead and taking it on. If you're going to have to make improvements before you can ever sell (and even if you think you aren't ever going to sell-- never say never!), you might as well make the changes and get the benefit of enjoying them for awhile, since you have to pay for them anyway!

Joy in the Journey