But we still gotta eat...

The demolition of the kitchen took hardly anytime at all.

That's the good news.

But in the interim (~ two months), we still gotta eat.  And unless that means eating every single breakfast, lunch and dinner in a restaurant (not incredibly affordable if we want to still be able to pay for this remodel and even if we take full advantage of the Red Robin Loyalty program), a make-do kitchen needed to be created.

Let me walk you through it:

You've already seen the relocation of the refrigerator.  Conveniently relocated to the foyer, it is close at hand to the "large pantry" which is now residing in the "piano room."  This is the cupboard from the dining room where we house the bulk of items we elected not to pack (plates, silverware, cereal containers, small appliances such as the rice cooker and crockpot, cashews - what would life be like without access to cashews?  Unthinkable!)  We have also collapsed the small table from the nook and two folding chairs.  We move this out into the foyer for breakfast (the light is better for reading the morning newspaper - while we still have a print edition!) and back into the "piano room" for nightly chess games.



The balance of the kitchen has been recreated, if considerably scaled down, in the laundry room.  It's incredibly "cozy" when we're all in there trying to find something for dinner.  Chris had to finally move his clean laundry to his bedroom so we could put the microwave in there and the dish rack.


Gerry cleared out some of the laundry supplies (to the floor) and we were able to put some supplies - peanut butter (MUST HAVE!), cookies for his lunch, a few other staples.  Even the laundry chute has been repurposed to store tea, bread, chicken/beef stock packets (usually my lunch on cold days - I'm reluctantly becoming accustomed to water heated in the microwave - which BTW makes lousy, but doable for now, tea).





Naturally this move is causing a bit of stress (so MANY questions constantly being thrown at me -
Which wall comes down?  Where do you want the outlets?  Where do the light switches go and what do they turn on/off? Don't you want another heat register in this room?  Do we have a plan for dinner?) that I knew I had better carve out space for a make-shift mini bar.



As we were packing we were able to actually put some thought into the process.  We moved at a pace that was consistent, unhurried, and ... ruthless.  It was surprisingly easy to designate things into one of four categories:  KEEP OUT (for temp kitchen), PACK IT (for storage), GIRLS (things that won't be moving back into the new kitchen but maybe the girls might like), "TRUCK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD" (for donation).

And we did move at a pretty good clip while doing this...until... the spice cupboard.  I had saved this for last since I knew it was going to be difficult.  Trying to determine which spices would be allowed space in the temporary kitchen and which spices I would have no access to for two months felt a lot like asking a mother to pick her favorite child.  (Which of  course is truly ridiculous since I have such little actual cooking capabilities - exactly how will I be able to use ANY of these spices?)

As I stood there, rather forlornly (and more importantly to Gerry, not seeming to be doing anything), he said, "bring 'em all" - and so we did.  (I imagine that he will actually be happier than I to have access to them since I figure all our "home cooked" meals will either be slow cooked, nuked or BBQd!

And so, we have an interim kitchen (and fortunately a friend who has offered to feed us during our remodel - a favor that we will be happy to reciprocate in April when she begins her kitchen remodel).



later, (off to make cold cereal for breakfast in my temp kitchen) tw