How do you survive a total kitchen renovation.

[fauna74]

We did a HUGE reno/addition about a year and a half ago. I had no kitchen for about a month. I set up a "kitchen" (microwave, hot plate, compact fridge) in my laundry room. I washed dishes in the utility sink.

Every time I felt like crying in frustration I would think that somewhere there was a woman living in a tent in a refugee camp cooking a cup of rice over an open fire to feed her 5 kids - just trying to keep things in perspective.

It was all worth it - my new kitchen is not only beautiful but a breeze to work in. It's been a real change in our quality of life.

 

[metsno1]

Wow...been there/done that with our entire house, and yes, the kitchen can be the most challenging portion of the home to be without.

We just "went camping" for the couple weeks that the kitchen was under construction. Grilled a lot. Used our camp stove on the patio. Washed dishes in the portable sink we use for camping.

We probably ate out once every couple days for one meal or so. Begged our friends to feed the kids once in a while!

It'll be done before you know it!!

 

[momejay]

We did this 2 summers ago. Kitchen was supposed to take a week or 2. We were without for almost 4. (mostly problems with inspectors)

We have a side burner on our gas grill. We used it to cook veggies. We converted our covered porch area into a kitchen area. I used the kitchen table as a counter top. I plugged in the fridge in the garage. It was summer so I let kids eat in a tented picnic area outside. Eating outside cut down on the crumbs & spills in the living room.

We ate a lot of salads, grilled meats & corn on the cob. We microwaved potatoes until they were almost done then rolled it around on the grill.
I made a couple of pans of ziti & mac & cheese ahead of time. I put it in aluminum foil pans & set it on the grill to heat it through. (grill should be on low) I used the microwave to heat soups & veggies.

My son loves meatloaf. I made meatloaf patties cooked them like hamburgers on the grill put them in an aluminum pan & smothered them with tomatoes sauted oniions & peppers & fresh basil. It was his favorite meal & I do this all summer now so I don't heat up the kitchen.

Good Luck!

 

[FergieTCat]

I had my kitchen remodeled a few months ago. I live in a co-op and it's only me, but it was still a pain.

I plugged in my refrigerator into my living room and bought a toaster oven. It helped, but I spent most of the time buying prepared food.

My next apartment will have a decent kitchen!

 

[FINFAN]

we didn't due a full remodel by choice, but in 2001 our washing machine kept running and flooded our first floor, water wicked up the wallks and basically, we needed to pull the kitchen apart to get to the walls to repair them and the floor. So while we did not get nice new appiances/counter tops etc., we DID get to experience the utter JOY of a kitchen remodel for 6 weeks. My neighborhood is pretty cool and once word got out that we were living w/out a kitchen week 5 neighbors come by with dinners, they rock! However, prior to that we:




washed dishes in the tub or utility sink
grilled
microwaved
I went to my friends and cooked all afternoon making stuff to freeze so we could microwave it later
definitely used paper plates/cups
fast food ( you know it's bad when your DS who lives for McDonald's tells you he is sick of it, and actually is HAPPY to buy the school lunch

I was without laundry machines for those 6 weeks too, so the laundromat ate up my finds in the Disney change jar! The kicker? It all happened on April Fools Day..yep, NEVER gonna forget that one. We did learn that we will never remodel by sheer choice or because we are tired of something, lol....we had to do this or if something needs replacing we will have to, but if we can avoid it, we will!

 

[Schachteles]

I feel your pain, we are in the process of doing out kitchen right now...next week my fridge and stove go to the garage and my dishwasher goes to the living room. I am going to be doing lots of cooking in the microwave for about 10 days and we will just have to eat out some. I am planning on grilling lots and having PBJ. At least it will be beautiful when it is done...GOOD LUCK!!

 

[JuneCleaver]

One burner hotplate from Target! You can boil water for pasta with that beautifully!

We did a full remodel a few years ago and that really helped!

Thing I missed the most during the remodel was a garbage disposal...however the dogs thoroughly enjoyed it! They "assisted" with anything that needed to disposed of!

June

 

[Donnainnj]

I am not doing the kitchen, but was in Costco last week and saw two products that could help some of the problems. The first one a bit of a budget buster, a $1400 outdoor kitchen, the second was a camping oven, it looked like it had a small oven, and I think had burners on top, about $150.
Donna

 

[Befferk]

Lots of good advice so far. We did ours a year and a half ago (completely gutted the kitchen and our only bathroom at the same time). We lived in our camper for about a month and grilled out a lot. It is so worth it in the end!

 

[blanq]

Our kitchen has been gutted down to the studs. There is a coating of dust on everything, and I mean everything, in the entire house! WHAT a mess!! So far, the plumbing is in and so is the electric, and now we wait five days for the inspection. (grrr)
Living without a kitchen (and esp. the sink) is challenging to say the least!
We have the refrigerator in the living room, and a microwave and a toaster hooked up in a spare bedroom, and we prep food in the bathroom, but really, it's the pits! Anyone else go thru this? What did you do for food. I'd love to eat out three meals a day, but that's not gonna happen. I need some suggestions on how to feed us until we have a kitchen again.

Oh, any time I read a post about this I get anxiety because I lived through a gut to the studs (kitchen, laundry, bath, dining room and a computer/spare room...and rebuilding the stairs between the two levels of our home). We moved out of the house for this, for three months, but when we moved back in we still did not have a functioning kitchen for quite awhile, but my refrigerator was in so I could store cold items.

I set up a little work station in my dining room (an old door on saw horses) with basic kitchen implements, a microwave, a cutting board, salt/pepper, and a plastic tub to put dirty dishes. Below the work station were plastic totes with dish towels, dry foods like cereal, dish soap, toaster, etc. When I did dishes, I would head to the bathroom with the plastic tub to get my water and do the dishes.

Lucky for us, we moved back in when the weather began to get nice so we grilled a lot. I did quite a bit in the microwave. Within a month of moving back in I had my stove (but no kitchen sink), so that gave me a bit more flexibility. We ate lots of grilled meats, baked potatoes, salads and sandwiches! Breakfasts were mainly cereal, toaster waffles, toast and fruit. We ate out plenty.

This was a horribly stressful experience. I said I would never do it again. But now that I have some distance on it, and I am in love with my new rooms, I probably would do it again. I think kitchen remodels are like giving birth. Horribly painful, but somehow we put it all past us and do it again.

Here is my kitchen and laundry now (they are adjacent to each other on the first floor of my 1903 home):

http://spiredesigngroup.com/project14.html
http://spiredesigngroup.com/project18.html

 

[Jill in Chicago]

We went through a total kitchen renovation down to the studs as well. The only sink on the main floor was a tiny sink in the downstairs bathroom.

It was the dishes up in the bathtub that really got to us, exhausting. I agree with the Sam's club: plates, silverware, anything that you can throw away and not wash. (This goes completely against my "green" personality. I got over it though!) Use zip lock bags to mix everything.

Dinner Ideas:
- Roasted Chicken from the store, rice mix in a package (microwave) and frozen vegetables (microwave).
- Crock pot anything! Make a huge batch for 2 nights of dinner
- Love that electric skillet. Make scrambled eggs and fill them with mushrooms, peppers and microwave some sausage
- Good soup (Dominicks) and bread (Panera). We had an oven in the basement so we could make biscuits, on tinfoil, so no clean up.
- You can make baked potatoes in the crock pot. Again come up with lots of stuff to "stuff" them with: vegetables, cheese, sour cream, microwave some bacon...

We did not eat out and rarely ordered pizza or anything. You can make a beef roast on the grill, boil some potatoes (for mashed) in the microwave, and stir fry some vegetables (electric skillet).

 

[Floridagal23]

We put the old fridge in the garage for extra storage, anyway, so beverages were cold. We set up a big table in the part of the kitchen/family room that wasn't guttted at the time with a toaster and microwave, and ate a lot of rotisserie chicken, deli, and we grilled outside. Paper and plastic utensils, plates, etc!