Kitchen madness continues unabated

Oh it's wild and hairy over here in our house!

The kitchen remodel is progressing nicely, not quite as quickly as we may have hoped, but nicely nonetheless.

We started two days after Christmas, which, in hindsight, was crazy. We sure picked the busiest time of the year to pack up and tear out our kitchen. Since our basement and shed are already full, most of the things we moved out of the room are being stashed in other rooms. The dining room has become a makeshift kitchen and is lined with boxes, the computer and all the bill-paying stuff has been moved up to the small desk in the library and the computer desk is holding court as the biggest coffee table you'd ever want to see in the living room. Oh yes, and the kitchen table is being stashed on the front porch.

At the end of the first day, the kitchen looked like this:







The next day we cleared the rest of the room, junking the countertops, sink and dishwasher, moving the table and fridge, and storing the cupboards to be painted and reinstalled later. Then The Viking painted the fridge (it went from almond to white), pulled up the old vinyl floor, laid a new sub-floor, and put down the new hardwood floor.

Here he is sanding it (as seen through the protective plastic sheet in place to keep all that sawdust from invading the rest of the house):


While all that was happening I created a workable kitchen in our dining room and got creative thinking of ways to prepare meals with only a microwave, toaster oven and crock pot.

There's the newly white fridge!


And what we're calling our "kitchen" these days.


As of this morning the floor is officially finished: sanded, stained and polyurethaned (two coats)! We also got the cabinet doors and drawer-fronts cleaned, sanded and primed. Now we've got to move on to the cabinet bases and then start painting them all sage green. I'm not looking forward to this process as I'm allergic to paint fumes, but it must be done, and this, too, shall pass.

So, another few days of feeling woozy, alternately from the paint fumes and the Benadryl I take to combat the paint fumes, and then, hopefully, the worst will be over. We've adjusted to using plastic cups, plates and utensils, and have not been eating too badly due to the miracle of Crock Pot liners! These things are great! Just line the pot, throw in whatever dinner you've decided to cook sloooooowly and let it sit. Then when dinner is over, just lift out the liner and throw it away. No more lugging the crock pot upstairs to wash out in the tub! I truly feel like writing to the Reynold's people to thank them for this brilliant product!

Okay, well that's enough progress for one day. I'm off to catch up on some laundry and then get My Boy ready for his doctor's appointment (ear ache and possible infection...ick).

Until next time...