Things are about to get a little more rambunctious than usual in my house. I know, I know, you are thinking my current kitchen looks fine, and from a distance and if you squint a little it’s not too bad. But trust me when I say that after thirteen years of splattering my kitchen with melted chocolate and more bacon drippings than I could even begin to calculate, the Southern husband and I decided it was TIME.
Time to upgrade to new cabinets, and a stovetop that actual turned on reliably. Time to put in a counter that folks could sit at instead of on. Time to refinish the scuffed floors and paint the weary walls. Time for granite instead of the mysterious unknown and peeling stuff my countertops are made of. Yep, this week we are starting The Great Kitchen Project of 2013…and you, lucky you, you are coming with me.
For about 30 seconds we flirted with the idea of running this project ourselves. Then I flashed forward to a moment in the possible future where I had measured the new cabinets incorrectly by 1.5 inches and as a result the sink didn’t fit into the countertop, and I broke out into a cold sweat and promptly called up someone who actually knew what she was doing, aka our Fabulous and Indispensable Kitchen Designer.
She is a combination of project manager and designer and therapist, and she talks to me in soothing tones when I start hyperventilating about granite choices and the benefits of stainless steel versus enamel sinks. She’s also been a caterer and a recipe developer and totally understood when I said my life would be complete if I could finally have a warming drawer in it.
So with her doing the measuring and leading us patiently through the planning, and after weeks of going to granite yards and appliance stores and picking out plumbing fixtures and tiles and dreaming about paint samples and pendant lamps, the GKP 2013 is now about to happen.
As in, a crew from Green Demolition (do you know you can donate used cabinets and appliances?) is going to show up at my house this week and take away pretty much everything in my current kitchen. Cabinets. Stovetop. Microwave. Sink. Gulp.
My dishwasher and ovens and fridge are relatively new so they get to stay. Except for the fridge none of them will actually be usable during the renovation, but they are going to be there on the other side. Since I recently spent about 1,000 years picking out my fridge, that sound you hear is the Southern husband breathing a sign of relief.
So right now we are in the process of taking Every Single Thing out of our kitchen and stashing in another part of the house. This includes my little kitchen desk where I am typing right this minute.
This is fun. Kind of. It’s definitely a humbling trip down memory lane wherein you remember that at one point in time you seriously thought that an ice crusher was something that was essential to your existence. And ice cream bowls painted with sprinkles. And about 29 varieties of gourmet unsweetened cocoa.
And so! For the next three to four weeks, I am going to be kitchen-less. It’s going to be fabulous on the other side of it, but in the meantime I am going to have to figure out how to get through the days without the vast majority of my cooking stuff.
In terms of the blog, I’ve stockpiled enough new recipes and pictures to keep the blog fires burning in a pretty regular basis. I’ll still be posting new recipes on Sundays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays, I am going to do a Kitchen Renovation Update Post so that you guys can share the agony and the ecstasy along with me. (There WILL be some ecstasy, right? I’m positive there will be. I’m almost sure. Gulp.)
I’m going to take lots of pictures, which I’m sure the construction crew will love as much as they are going to love our overly friendly hound dog, and I am counting on your comments to keep me sane.
My other priority during all this is, well, feeding the troops, and here’s where I need your help. In terms of cooking dinner, here’s what I will have at my disposal:
1. A refrigerator
2. A grill
3. A microwave
4. Paper plates and forks and napkins
5. All of the pantry items that are enjoying refugee status in my basement
Here is what I will NOT have:
1. An oven
2. A stove
3. Any reasonable place to wash cooking utensils or dishes or the like
4. Any counterspace whatsoever
5. Anything remotely resembling a food processor or a mixer or a blender or any of those other small kitchen appliances that I love so devoutly.
I’ve figured out that we can have hamburgers on the grill without messing up any pots or pans or bowls, and I’m going to re-introduce Sandwich Night. The Southern husband has been yearning for ages to be set free in the frozen dinner section of the supermarket, and this will be his big chance.
We are DEFINITELY going to be going out a couple times a week, and we are going to become close personal friends with the pizza delivery guy. I figure this will get us about halfway through…so please, if you love me, leave me a comment below with your suggestion for other dinner possibilities that don’t require stoves or ovens or the washing of any food preparation items.
Bless your hearts, and in return I promise to try and keep my wailing and gnashing of teeth to a minimum. On the blog, anyway. Here goes nothing…or maybe a whole lot of something!
One trick I learned is to pre-cook a few things that you can refrigerate and easily microwave later. It won’t get you through the whole week, but the first day or so might be easier to handle with a good pasta salad in the fridge, or some quinoa or rice to go with the grilled meat!
Good luck, and hope your husband has fun with the frozen food aisle!
Delivery from your inveterate kitchen designer who takes requests for favorite foods.
Oh heavens, you have a grill, you’re golden!!! What great timing too, who wants to be inside heating up a stove on days like this. One trick I use for grilling to save on clean up is marinating in a ziploc bag. You can put all the ingredients for the marinade in the bag, mix it (via squishing!) in the bag and then toss the meat in before you head to work. By the time you are ready to throw them on the grill you’ll have some deliciously flavorful meat! Add a salad to the side or grill up some veggies (I marinate them the same way…toss some olive oil, balsamic, herbs and a touch of s&P in a bag, add asparagus (or your fav veggies) and let it sit for a few, toss them on the grill and you’re set. Cant wait to see all the pics!
We are smack dab in the middle of The Great Kitchen Remodel of 2013. It’s been twelve years in the making. I have a temporary “kitchen” set up in our dining room. And we ARE doing it ourselves. All of it. Kill me now. I’m also tracking our progress on my blog, Rindy Mae, if ya wanna glimpse into your future. :o)
Can’t wait to see it all come together. And maybe a little happy that someone else will be entering hell right along with me. Ha!
Grilled individual pizza. :)
Heather and Mindy beat me to the punch! those were two ideas I had:-)
Grill and Microwave good. I will keep on my thinking cap.
I think it will be fun to see how creative YOU get
in this process Kate! You are a sharp cookie:-)))!
I love an adventure so I will be eager to see each installment
of the great kitchen caper! It’s gonna be great!!
Sounds like you are going to have a fun improvisational and inventive month of cooking. And summer with grill = no problem! We do all kinds of things in tinfoil on the grill instead of heating up the oven or even stove top. And there’s nothing better than grilled pita or flat bread with everything. Can’t wait to see pictures of the new kitchen coming together!
Hope your contractor is true to their word about the time frame for completion. I was without a kitchen during our remodel 13 years ago for 6 MONTHS! Ugh! But we were actually adding on to the house and not just using an existing structure, but still…Grilled up lots of food and I had frozen stuff like sloppy joe meat, BBQ beef, taco meat, etc; stuff that was re-heatable in the microwave. We used a lot of paper plates and disposable flatware. For the few items I had to wash, they were done in the bathtub. Oh what fun! If you have a pizza stone, that works great on the grill for frozen pizzas and grilled cheese sammies. Good luck!
We are just starting a kitchen renovation project, too! We plan on grilling everything when the kitchen is torn apart. Good luck with your renovation!
When we did our home…we fixed in eating OUT…..cost about 2 percent more….remodeling vacation!!!!! Bring your wine!!!
Good luck with your remodel. Hope it goes smoothly and on time. When we did ours, we added lighting in the ceiling and I wasn’t prepared for the amount of dust it caused throughout the house. Put your Crockpot to use. As much as you can do with a grill and microwave…it all still seems to get old quick.
Love your kitchen, and can’t wait to see what you do after you make your “improvements”. I have the same mystery material countertops, but my kitchen is sooooo tiny. If I were you, I would be making plenty of fun salads and eating in my yard since the summer is here..BBQ with disposable plates etc.
LOVE the idea of donating the cabinets etc..very cool that they will get a new home or made into something fun (I see that all the time on tv!!)
You can make crockpot meals or if you have a roaster you can bake cakes and things in there. We built on a new kitchen addition to our home when our son was a year old. Lots of dishes in the bathtub.
Here’s a nice little summer version of tuna salad for you to try. You can serve with tortilla chips, tostadas, or on bread as a sandwich.
3 cans (15 oz.) tuna in water, drained well
1/3 c. mayonnaise
3-4 plum tomatoes, chopped
5-6 green onions, chopped
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
2 avocados, cut into large pieces
1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 t. salt
Fresh ground pepper
When we did our kitchen I brought out the old electric frying pan. Couldn’t live without
the eggs for breakfast. Also good for grilled cheese etc. Easier than getting the grill
going,and no one wants microwaved eggs! Good luck!
I went through this a couple of years ago…it is worth the trouble. I found a panini press and crock pot indispensable.
Invest in a decent toaster oven. This came in handy when we were dying for an 8×8 pan ( yes, it fits) of fresh brownies and our oven was out of commission. Perfect even now when it is too hot to turn on the big oven. Looking forward to seeing the end result!
I agree with Darby, I found that little toaster over did a number of things that made life easier, prime example, toasted bagel in the morning. We were lucky enough to also have a propane camp stove, which we set up on the patio. My hubby wanted his eggs in the morning, so he would whip up omelettes on that. Camp stove also useful for cooking things like spaghetti. My small stock pot worked very well on the camp stove. Good luck with your project. I found that the 6 weeks it took for my kitchen remodel, went very quickly, mostly because we had the right tools to see us thru.
The essential item is a credit card. Gourmet take-out !!!! If not now … when?
A good crock pot as well as many pre-frozen dinners and invites to good friends and family.
I have been there! This is where your grill is your best friend. But you know that. I would use the indirect heat part of the grill to bake casseroles and breads. I’d throw a chicken (or two) in there to roast and have a great meal with plenty of leftovers for sandwiches, salads, tacos or whatever.
My grill has a side burner, so that was indispensable during the no-kitchen period. But if yours doesn’t have that, there’s always that little “fifth burner” thing, or the electric fry pan, or the electric kettle…
Whenever you’re cooking on the grill, throw in a few foil wrapped potatoes (regular or yam-ish) to bake. Use some with that meal, save the rest for salads, breakfasts, frittatas and so on — frittatas on the grill, yum. Roast packets of veggies — I find them yummy to snack on when I just need a nibble, but they’re also great for tossing a veggie salad.
If you clean the grill really well so you don’t get that smoked meat flavor, you can do some coffee cake kinds of things in a batch to eat or freeze to tide you over, too. Roast some plums or other stone fruits on the grill to top them or use as condiments.
About the only thing you can’t do is make a cake. The temperature control is just not sensitive enough. But denser, more forgiving baked goods are do-able. And you know grilled pizzas, so there you go…grilled plum and feta pizza. Doesn’t that sound good???
At least you’re not having to heat up the kitchen during he hottest part of the year. And think how great it will be when your new baby is ready to face the world. ;)
Ah!!! That’s SO SO SO exciting! But nerve-wrecking also. Can’t wait to see the finished product!
All I can say is, “My sympathies.”
Crockpot and grill! Love the “Jersey Girls” sign!
Strewth! Your kitchen seems to be the size of my house!! I had a new kitchen installed about 10 yr ago. Was installed in half a day. But was manufactured offsite. But I did the dismantling of the old, rewiring and retiling. I forecast toasted sangers on your immediate menu!!
I’m thinking grilled cheese sandwiches… hope that helps!
In addition to the above mentioned appliances I also used a small single burner I got at the hardware store. It was electric and cost $10. My daughter made her confirmation when I was kitchenless and the little darling(now 23) wanted her special dinner with all the relatives to be at home. Yup! I did it. And washed all the dishes in the laundry sink in the basement. Sainthood or lunacy? Missed the running water the most during the whole redo. Be brave and laugh when thinkgs go awry. It will be worth it.
Awesome kitchen room design it is…!!
Perfect arrangement all the things too…..!!!!!
For me you have a pretty good decision on renovation your kitchen even though it is really look’s good and i notice that you do a very good plan for it and i hope the success of the renovation for your kitchen.I can wait to see the finish of it.
Hey Kate,
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Hope you will have great kitchen renovation..good luck!!
It’s all finished – we are so happy!