Surviving a kitchen renovation

It’s been a little quiet around here while some big changes have been happening in our house. I’m talking about a brand spanking new kitchen and some shiny (well, kind of) new floors.

We always knew we were going to renovate our kitchen from the moment we first looked at our house, and the time is finally here!!

Helped along by some less than sturdy cabinets, that is. Which only got worse in the nine months from when we moved in.

So you can imagine this sped up our timeline a bit.

And while our original kitchen wasn’t terrible, it was a little, shall we say, dysfunctional. A couple of tight corners, and a lack of useable counter space meant we wanted to rearrange things a bit, but still keep the appliances which were in good working order.

And so, to make a long story short (too late) that’s what we’ve been up to.

I don’t literally mean we – as much as I fancy myself a DIY-er, we called in the pros for this one.

Which brings me back to the whole point of this post, which is surviving the renovation, or how to live without your kitchen for several weeks.

It’s been about three weeks so far of some variation of no kitchen to semi-useable kitchen (our stove is currently in the laundry room if you catch my drift), and I wanted to share how we’re getting on without eating out for every meal.

1. Plan plan plan – the weekend before our kitchen was ripped apart I spent a few hours prepping and freezing breakfast quesadillas, breakfast sandwiches, chili and crock pot meals. These were a lifesaver!
2. Set up a mini kitchen area in your house – we used our laundry room to set up our coffee maker (can’t do without coffee, right?), toaster, crock pot, and microwave. We’re lucky to have a big sink In our laundry room, but a seldom used bathroom would work well also. Just try not to have too many appliances running at once – I only tripped the circuit once, which I consider an accomplishment!
3. Be flexible – there were some nights we planned on cooking, thinking everything would be back in place when it wasn’t. We had to shuffle plans around to either heat up leftovers, or go out to eat instead (say, when our kitchen was intact but had plastic sheeting covering everything for the ceiling repairs) – staying flexible and having a plan B really helped in these cases.
4. Get out of the house! It’s ok to take a break and meet up with family or friends for a meal. The daily grind of renovations can really wear on you, especially if you’re home while contractors are hard at work. Escaping the noise and dust can really lift your mood.

So there you have it. We’re in the home stretch, so I plan on updating this post if any additional thoughts come to mind.

And if you’re gearing up for a kitchen renovation, I hope these tips are helpful to you! If you’ve been through your own renovations, do you have any tips to share in the comments?