Anticipated Remodel Timeline

Bob and I met with Dan (contractor) and Susan (designer) yesterday to go over the project time line with them. Estimated duration = 5 weeks. It could be longer, depending on how long it takes to make the countertops.

Week 1, which starts on Monday, 6/22/09, will see a lot of work done. Old kitchen - gone. Iron railing between kitchen and family room - gone. Faux (textured) paint - gone. Drywall patched where needed, and electric roughed in. Yes, we'll take pictures.

Week 2, old flooring gone, and new flooring installed, cabinets installed, new pantry doors installed, and new casing around the bay window(s) installed. The walls will have one coat of primer, and one coat of the new color (which we'll pick next week).

We still have some packing to do. There' s a fair amount of last minute stuff to move to its new home: coffee pot, glasses by the sink, coffee cups by the coffee pot, all that stuff under the sink, etc. The goal is to have everything out of the kitchen by Saturday evening. My 'camping out' cooking will start with Sunday's meals.

It will be interesting, when this is all over, to see what the biggest hassle was. Today, I'm thinking it will be the lack of a dishwasher. Our powder room, just off the family room, of course has a sink. But it's so tiny we can't use it to wash dishes. So we'll be schlepping our dirty dishes to the basement. We plan on using a lot of disposables (dishes, glasses, KFS, etc.). But there's still going to be dirty "dishes". I don't think they make disposable pots and skillets, or spatulas, tongs, etc.

More pictures

The first picture shows the now mostly empty cabinets. The second one shows our new 'kitchen'. Under the table is full of boxes. Things that we won't be using while the kitchen is being rebuilt - like the other 3 sets of dishes I like to use. Bread and butter plates Heck, we're going to use paper plates once the dishwasher is disconnected, so we certainly don't need bread n butter plates!

Note the shelves to the right in the picture. That's where a big part of the pantry items went. There's box to the right of the hutch (behind the shelves) with more pantry items. The two boxes on the right end of the hutch contain all of my spices. I have a lot, and use most of them on a regular basis. Not sure how much I'll be using them without a real kitchen, but didn't want to pack them away.

Yes, I have a complete list of whats in every box, and whats where in the hutch. Not that I'm using the lists much. Frequently, Bob and I have to make two attempts at getting anything. First attempt takes us to where the item used to be (25 years of training is hard to break), and then we remember - No, it's not there anymore.

Bob dug the camp stove out of the basement, and tried it. Yup, still works. I think Hamburger (or Tuna or Chicken) Helper will be our new taste treat on those days when we can't use the grill. Not very healthful eating, but I suppose we'll survive.

Halfway to the wall

Everyday I pack a little more. Actually, I think we're more than 'half way to the wall', but there are days when I think I'll never get to that wall...

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. :-) These are a couple of the 'before' pictures. The one with the glasses is to the right of the sink. The spices are to the left of the range. Next post will show 'after'.

Kiki likes some of the new arrangement

The dining room chairs have been moved upstairs into the guest room. Kiki really likes this arrangement. She spends a fair amount of time in one of the chairs (at the foot of the bed) that faces the door, sleeping or just watching to see who's coming up the stairs.

The pantry is now empty, and a lot of the contents are on the shelves we moved from the basement. Some items are in boxes, and the rest are piled on the dining room table until I get the energy to find them a better home.

Bob and I are anxious for the Kickoff meeting on Wednesday (6/17).

Boy, do we have lots of stuff in our kitchen

Packing continues... We went to U-Haul and bought lots of boxes ($50 worth). I filled up box #16 yesterday. The hutch in the dining room now has the everyday things in it or on it. For example, the cereal bowls, saucers and plates are in it. The pots, pans, skillet that I use a lot are in there, too. Two shallow boxes are sitting on top of the hutch, full of spices and herbs, salt and pepper, etc.

I've started packing up the pantry, but have made little progress there. I'm planning on bringing up a set of shelves from the basement to hold the pantry items we'll be using. We also need to move the kitchen table into the living room. Going to have to remove the leaf in order to do that. The table is 31 years old, and that leaf has never been removed. This should prove interesting.

Sorry, no pix - Bob has to show me how to get them off of the camera. I know how to upload them once they're on the PC.

No packing today. I have to give me back/neck a rest. We planted tomatoes last Friday (?) and that started the back and neck spasms. Packing all of those boxes didn't help any. So today is a day off for me.

Scheduled start date - June 22

Just got an email from Dan, our contractor - work on the kitchen will begin Monday, June 22 at 8am. WooHoo!

Sometime between now and then, he will conduct a planning session, and provide us with a time line (Project plan?) showing what is scheduled to happen when.

Good thing I've started packing the kitchen up. My goal is to have it all packed and to be living with the new arrangement by June 17 or so. That way if I've packed something I really need, or the furniture arrangement doesn't work, or the camp stove is broken, etc. etc. - we still have time to react before actual construction begins.

This is a week later than estimated. I had hoped to have the kitchen done before 7/28 (our anniversary). Dan's original estimate was 5-6 weeks of work. 5 weeks we'll make it - 6 we won't. I guess we may end up going out to eat on our anniversary, which we have not done in years.

Packing begins

I've started clearing out cabinets and packing up the 'deep storage' stuff. Things that we either never use, seldom use, or really don't need to use. For example - coffee cups/mugs collected over the years. They were stashed in the back of the corner cabinet - a space reachable only by standing on a ladder. Wondering about their fate when the new corner cabinet is installed - one that offers easy access to all the space.

Bread & Butter plates - yes, nice to use, but for the duration, I think we can use a paper towel.

Drinking glasses - since we'll be washing dishes by hand, in the basement, do we really need a clean glass every time we get a glass of ice water? All the glasses, except for a paltry 4 were packed.

I think you get the picture. It is slow going because I pack a box, rest, pack a box, rest, etc. It's not the packing that tires me out - it is the hauling stuff out of the cabinets. Packing will continue today as soon as Bob gets the spare boxes out of the garage attic, where we've been stashing them for awhile. I expect to make good progress today because Bob is home to help gather stuff out of the cabinets.

We know we have to buy some boxes because so far, no plates have fit into the boxes we have. And, we have a LOT of wine glasses that need to be packed into special boxes to prevent breakage. Perhaps today a trip to U-Haul...