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Packing the kitchen for tomorrow's demo

14 years ago

Why or why did I wait to the last minute? Making progress but it is slow.

I am getting really excited. Please give me good vibes.

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Comments (10)

weiss528i
14 years ago
Good luck!
numbersjunkie
14 years ago
I wish it was me...
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Kitchen demo tomorrow: what to salvage tonight?
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I hope I'm not too late... Or, maybe this would be of interest to other people.... You should save the wood of the cabinets IF they are vintage early 1900s or original to the house. If so they would be made out of old growth fir (which is very nice wood) have value, possibly several hundred $$$ per cabinet. Of course they can be removed without destroying them! Just requires a bit of care and not the sledge hammer approach. Generally these were built on site w/ hammers and nails and a good nail remover & crowbar is all that's needed. If they don't come off easily in one piece, then remove doors and face framing first, then disassemble the shelves and sides (to be rebuilt later). Or maybe you can let someone else do the work of removing them - give away to someone, or salvage co. would prob. like to get their hands on them as they are worth some money. If they are more recent 1950s/60s flat panel type cabinet, then NEVER MIND! Probably not so critical although even those would probably be appreciated by someone!
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Good luck! We are less than a week away from demo, and my feelings fluctuate between excitement and total anxiety! Many decisions have been made, but I know there are so many more to come....the biggest of which is actually deciding on the granite slab tomorrow. Hope your cats "go with the flow" (pardon the pun!?) and find the new location of their litter box. I'm a bit worried about our blind dog's reaction when everything is moved out of the kitchen. I know she won't have trouble finding the food, but she gets confused when we move furniture, so this will be quite an upheaval in her life : ( Let's all remember that we chose to do this...and have confidence that, in the end, it will all be worth it!
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UPDATE: We are moving along, but ever so slowly it seems! I think that is the way it might feel for some time : ) Working on other areas of the house, inside and out, has taken us temporarily away from the kitchen, but we are getting back to it now! I've been in the process of setting up our temporary-temporary kitchen in the breakfast nook, which is in the current kitchen. DH informed me it'd have to be moved soon so he and I could begin demo of the kitchen... I am clearly too tired to think straight - he's right! He suggested we move it to the dining room-to-be TV room for now... but first we had to remove his widescreen TV, which he seemed unable to live without (sports fan that he is). This was a sacrifice for DH. Bless his heart! Yesterday we began to set up the temp-temp kitchen (2 temps) because eventually it will be taken down to remove and rebuild a wall between the future tv room and kitchen... My prep space, and only a few of many storage units... The water source is all the way across the house... I'll be keeping a jug nearby! The only problem? We removed the only light in that room... this is the scene from early this morning... making DH's lunch using an emergency light! Felt a bit like camping days from the past! We'll be adding a cheap light pronto! coffee stations are all the rage now... and we have one! Living the life! I have double ovens! (ancient toaster oven sitting on top of old microwave). I'll sure miss that "feature" as our new kitchen will only have a slide in range. ; ) The microwave came from DH's bachelor pad, and to my dismay still had 'gunk' in it, after it'd been sitting for 2 years! I used a flame torch to sterilize it. We put an old rug on the plywood subfloor for now... it adds a certain je ne sais quoi to our formal dining area, don't you think? Things I've learned thus far: 1) When vacuuming plywood sub-flooring, always vacuum with the grain. That way you'll get up half the dirt as opposed to none. 2) Those plastic drawer storage containers won't open if you put anything heavier than 15 paper napkins and a single plastic fork. 3) Keep a plastic drop cloth over everything when not in use... demo dust can find it's way into anything! 4) Maintain a sense of humor, maintain some semblance of order amidst the chaos, and always, always, have a hot pad ready for hot casserole dishes! Best wishes to those going through the process - or preparing to!
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Hi Stacy, well now at least you have a goal to work towards. Things are going to go wrong throughout the project, there will probably be some delays, my best advice is to have an exception that you won't be done by the earliest time they quoted you, then you will be pleasantly surprised that it went better than expected. The most important thing is that your contractor takes care of things properly and keeps you informed. My recent kitchen project was my first home improvement project where I was actually around a good deal of the time they were working. I will tell you that I found excuses to go out even if I really had nothing to do because I couldn't bear watching and wondering if everything was going to come together. Overhearing them grumble when something went wrong sent me into a panic, so I headed for the hills! Your contractor should be licensed and bonded, so giving them a key should be no big issue. My project manager specifically scheduled himself to be there when any sub contractor was going to be there, so they would not need to be given a key. And my tip for surviving without my kitchen, I found the biggest inconvenience was not having a sink. I could grill, cook in my Breville oven, make coffee etc. Second was ice once they disconnected my fridge (which they kindly waited for the last possible moment to do) I totally banned everyone in my house from using real dishes or glasses, even mostly silverware. I kept one fork, knife for each of us in case we needed something sturdier. and made everyone wash their own. We had sturdy paper plates, bowls etc. I had to grit my teeth and kind of give up on recycling to avoid washing things out. I made things that required little prep: grilled chicken or steak with baked potato, microwaved or grilled corn or salad in the bag. I bought preprepared food that I just had to heat up. It wasn't the best of kitchens, but it worked, reduced my stress and made the day my sink was installed the happiest day ever! Try to relax and enjoy coming home every day to see what new has been accomplished. Good luck!
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rjr220
14 years ago
Bless you. Remember that liquor stores carry great packing boxes. And you can grab the sustenance you may need for the kitchen remodel whilst you are picking up the boxes.

Yes, now we have a new excuse. I'm going to the liquor store . . . . to get boxes.
warmfridge
14 years ago
Don't pack the wine where you can't find it!
gbsim1
14 years ago
Ahhh.... I'm finally almost moved back in, so know that this too shall pass!
Good luck and remember that dining out stimulates the economy!
weidiii
14 years ago
Be ruthless!!!! Donate 50% of you stuff...only save the top tier...things well made, well designed, useful and loved..
rufinorox
14 years ago
I'm getting ready to unpack and plan to donate alot of stuff!
heart-of-dixie
Original Author
14 years ago
My husband is a pack rat so I was not able to put much into the donation stack -but once unpacking starts - well I hope to donate alot! LOL!!

The kitchen is 98 percent packed. I am ready for a big burger and a drink!!
formerlyflorantha
14 years ago
After packing up my kitchen, which was redone in 1974, I have decided that there should be a federal law that says all homeowners must clean out their kitchen cupboards every twenty years. Goodbye, unused wedding presents from 1970!

Gol, have I been in Reminiscence City! Down behind the cupboards where the wall has separated from the countertop, we found a treasure trove, including a receipt from a long-gone grocery store, a photo of my daughter in grade school, and my mother in law's recipe for egg bake, which I recall fondly.

Other sources of boxes: offices which go through reams and reams of paper; strong meat boxes from the corner meat market; grocery stores which have banana boxes--very strong but cover over those air holes.I also appreciate small boxes--I have a new appreciation for odd long, thin ones.

I was lucky to find two beat-up old teak and chipboard bookshelves at the Re-Use center recently, which are set up in an unused bedroom where I hope to access some of those boxes more easily than in a stack of boxes. I need to go back and mark boxes with a marker regarding contents. I'm already digging in them for stuff.

Don't forget to keep the bottle opener, the coffee grinder, the can opener, hotpads for the microwave, and some napkins--I've gone back and dug for all of these and it's only been one day since they were packed!

I ran one last load in the dishwasher--dusty stuff from the top shelves. Workers arrived before it was done, so I hand-dried the stuff and heaved it into boxes. But... I now know that there is no "drain out the water" button on my control panel. The thing has to go through a complete cycle in order to dump its water, so the workers had to wait it out. :-)

I will be cooking in a camper trailer for the next month.
benjayva
14 years ago
The packing and donating is so very cleansing. It WAS hard getting rid of the 1977 wedding gifts as well. But, some of the bowls etc were still in the boxes w/ plastic on them. Hardest thing for me to get rid of was the gold corningware mixing bowls..had 2 sets, gold ones and white ones. Yes, remember the can opener etc like stated above. I packed very early on and kept going thru boxes. I finally just picked a day and said that's it...tape them up. Had to borrow ice from the neghtbor last night..forgot about that.
Good Luck...keep us posted :)

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