Getting a new floor in our kitchen...

[desamnik]

and dining room and entry way. We have to pack everything up and move appliances before the installation.
They say it will take about 4 days. Has anyone done this before? No Kitchen for 4 days! Any tips on how to set up a temporary kitchen?
It is wood going down, pre finished, so shouldn't be too messy, I hope!
Any tips/suggestions greatly appreciated!

 

[lorimay]

and dining room and entry way. We have to pack everything up and move appliances before the installation.
They say it will take about 4 days. Has anyone done this before? No Kitchen for 4 days! Any tips on how to set up a temporary kitchen?
It is wood going down, pre finished, so shouldn't be too messy, I hope!
Any tips/suggestions greatly appreciated!

This is exactly why we sold our 18 year old home and purchased a new construction home. I couldn't bare packing up the kitchen and moving everything....SCARY
Do you have a family room area, you can move the table and fridge into? Maybe everything else into the garage.
Or better yet move it all into the garage and do take out for 4 days and not cook at all.

 

[fly girl]

We did ours about 3 years ago. Entire first floor new hardwood. Granted, my husband did the project (and beautifully I may add ) so we were able to maneuver without clearing EVERYTHING. However Mr. Perfectionist worked solo so it took forever. Kitchen was the only thing I was adamant that he had to do in a timely fashion. It took a few days.

Not going to sugar coat it, it stinks. However getting new cabinets and countertops a year later was much worse.

Made a temp kitchen in our laundry room that was right next to kitchen. It has a utility sink and we used the washer/dryer (front loaders) as our counter space. The only thing we really did was breakfast -- coffee and toast. The rest was dining out.

The four days will be zero fun, but so worth it! Enjoy your new floors.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Had major renovations done a few years ago. The kitchen was completely gutted and unusable for over 3 weeks. Old appliances were removed. We ate out and had takeout more than usual, but could still use our dining room table and cooked there with just a microwave and a toaster. A lot of frozen meals and other microwaveable food. We have a backup refrigerator in the basement and got water from the bathroom sink.

For four days, I'd probably just eat dinner out or order pizza. Breakfast and lunch you can manage with cold cereal, fruit, yogurt, sandwiches, etc. as long as you have room for the family to sit and eat. If you can't access the refrigerator, you can get by for a few days with a cooler. Pretend you're camping. Your kids (if you have them) will probably think it's fun. Mine did. You could also grill and eat outside.

 

[dotfurio]

We did floors in our whole house a few years ago. We moved most things the garage or the back of the house while they did the front and vice versa. We mostly ate out, did take out, or ate at my moms while the kitchen was down.

 

[klmall]

Had major renovations done a few years ago. The kitchen was completely gutted and unusable for over 3 weeks. Old appliances were removed. We ate out and had takeout more than usual, but could still use our dining room table and cooked there with just a microwave and a toaster. A lot of frozen meals and other microwaveable food. We have a backup refrigerator in the basement and got water from the bathroom sink.

For four days, I'd probably just eat dinner out or order pizza. Breakfast and lunch you can manage with cold cereal, fruit, yogurt, sandwiches, etc. as long as you have room for the family to sit and eat. If you can't access the refrigerator, you can get by for a few days with a cooler. Pretend you're camping. Your kids (if you have them) will probably think it's fun. Mine did. You could also grill and eat outside.

Same here for us a few years ago. My brother and his buddy (contractors) did most of the work and tried to leave us a functioning sink, microwave, and stove during that time but often 1 or more of these would be turned off on any given day. My biggest complaint was the almost total lack of food prep space during those weeks. We had one small counter next to the stove and a round dining table; that's all!

I purchased tons of paper plates, plastic silverware and a few paper/plastic serving dishes. Since it was warm weather we barbecued sometimes and relied on deli items for side dishes. Luckily DH was home at the time so he shopped for easy to prepare meals. We also used a chest freezer and refrigerator in the basement to store foods and sometimes a foam ice chest for ice and temporary storage.

Here's a during construction picture and a finished product picture; so worth it in the end!

 

[smokeyblue]

Same here for us a few years ago. My brother and his buddy (contractors) did most of the work and tried to leave us a functioning sink, microwave, and stove during that time but often 1 or more of these would be turned off on any given day. My biggest complaint was the almost total lack of food prep space during those weeks. We had one small counter next to the stove and a round dining table; that's all!

I purchased tons of paper plates, plastic silverware and a few paper/plastic serving dishes. Since it was warm weather we barbecued sometimes and relied on deli items for side dishes. Luckily DH was home at the time so he shopped for easy to prepare meals. We also used a chest freezer and refrigerator in the basement to store foods and sometimes a foam ice chest for ice and temporary storage.

Here's a during construction picture and a finished product picture; so worth it in the end!

Sorry to hijack. I love the way you did the island. I'm not sure what you have on the other side there, but so may people put in the straight counter with cabinets to cut the rest of the kitchen off from the dining area. I think this is great and so convenient for food prep!

 

[Darcy03231]

We just started a new kitchen project (gut and remodel) and will be without a kitchen for about 4 weeks. We moved the refrigerator, microwave, toaster and coffee maker to the dining room. We've bought a bunch of paper/plastic. We've been doing a combination of eating out, take-out or cooking something on the grill and cooking in the microwave.

 

[tvguy]

We remodeled out kitchen 2 years ago, it was out of service for 7 weeks. Moved the microwave to the laundry room, ate a lot of frozen dinners.

 

[Aliceacc]

We were without our kitchen for most of the summer 2 years ago. (They did a fabulous job, but they were so incredibly unorganized; we never knew from 1 day to the next whether someone would show up.)

We put the microwave and coffee machine in the basement, and we grilled a LOT. We used lots and lots of paper plates and plastic flatware. And we did way too much fast food.

 

[AnnaS]

Have a microwave and toaster oven handy. Good luck. I am sure in the end it will be worth it. I this is why I hate to start any big projects (and I have two kitchens and two bathrooms). I wish they could be done in the blink of an eye!!

 

[HM]

We did it for a week while we remodeled ours.
We pulled the refrigerator into the dining room which luckily had a long enough cord, and set up the microwave on it's cart in that room too. Mini-kitchen.
We replaced the stove and dishwasher, so they were pulled out completely.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

We had a flood two years ago. New floors throughout the house.

We had to pack up everything that was out. But stuff stayed in the cabinets.

We set up a "kitchenette" in the garage. It included the fridge, the microwave, a crock pot. the rice cooker and a roaster. We ate a lot of sandwiches for lunch and crock pot meals for dinner.

We were locked out of our kitchen for about a week.

 

[klmall]

Sorry to hijack. I love the way you did the island. I'm not sure what you have on the other side there, but so may people put in the straight counter with cabinets to cut the rest of the kitchen off from the dining area. I think this is great and so convenient for food prep!

Thank you! We put a pull-out drawer with a trash container and a recycling container on the left side of the island. The right side has a deep drawer and 2 big pull-out drawers below. We use them for boxes of plastic bags, foil and plastic wrap etc.

I can't take credit for anything in the kitchen design since we had wonderful help from a cabinet discounter company in our area. I had thought the space was too small for an island but it worked out.

 

[tigercat]

I have porcelain tile down on my hallway, 1/2 bath and kitchen. It was put there 4 yrs. ago. I love the colour but the person who put it down I think did a horrible job. The grout started coming out right away and we now have a lot of grout gone. Also, I just discovered (this morning actually) that a couple of the tiles are now cracked. He says that the problem is that there are some heavy people in the house (200 to 250 lb) walking on the floor and that is the reason why it has gone that way. But funny enough the bathroom upstairs is fine. When we first talked about the tiles we told him that the floor was really "bouncy". As in you could rock back and forth while standing on it. That the sub floor needed some work but we didn't know what it was like until after the old floor would be taken up. I am really upset because I really love the tile but now I am going to have to redo it. I will keep the upstairs tile though as it is fine.
tigercat

 

[Kenny1113]

We just finished redoing our kitchen. It was 4 weeks with out a kitchen. Like a pp -lots of take out, paper plates, plastic ware, bottled water. Microwaveable meals for kids breakfast, protein shakes for DH and I.