And I was JUST about to start a slightly more limited thread:

How much of the lower cabinets need to be emptied only for a Granite install? Just the upper drawers, and cover the lower shelves, or all of it? Will live w/o backsplash for a bit, so its really only countertops.

Size and storage space are at a premium, as our carpets got flooded right in the middle of pulling the trigger on the new countertops. oh joy!

Thanks

bump

We are renovating most of the main floor of our house (we moved rooms, took down walls and added a small addition). We moved our kitchen to the laundry room in the basement and the dining room table to the playroom. It is a ranch, so we only have the main floor and the basement. We still sleep on the main floor of the house. During the worst of the renovation the GC built a temporary wall to separate us from the construction dust, mess and noise.

We've been using lots of paper plates and plastic cutlery. I have a utility sink in the laundry room where I can do dishes, but this hasn't been as easy as I thought it would be. Since the some of the area being renovated is above my temporary kitchen area I had debris falling into the sink and everywhere else. It just isn't fun to vacuum out the sink, trust me. We ended up stapling plastic drop cloths to the ceiling to cut down on the construction debris coming from above.

I attempted to purge as I packed. The rest went into moving boxes and into storage pods we have moved off-site for the duration. We also put furniture from the rooms we are renovating into the storage pods. I also kept more to use in the temporary kitchen than I have used. We are at the tail end of our renovation (or so I have been told) and haven't used many of the items I thought I would need. Frankly, I was just too exhausted mentally and physically from dealing with the renovation and keeping my 2 young children from getting into the construction areas to think about making real food.

Do you have kids? If so, your prep will be more involved.

No matter how long they tell you it will take, add on at least 3 weeks. We had unexpected structural issues arise and the weather has been holding us up from finishing exterior work that has to be done before the floors are refinished. I think we are about 4 weeks behind schedule.

Have you set aside at least 20% of your budget for unexpected costs? Especially when you make structural changes (are you removing load bearing walls, moving electric, plumbing, duct work)?

I should have stocked up on alcohol. And coffee. Also collect menus from local restaurants (and designate a place to put them - even better, put some in the car so you can pick something up on the way home).

Is your deck covered and protected from the elements? If not, I don't think you can put a refrigerator out there.

Today has been one of those days when I wonder what I was thinking when I decided to do all this work, so I apologize for this being so disjointed.

Lovlilynne we did something very similar, complete gut of kitchen, took down walls in LR, Kitchen & DR and are putting hardwood everywhere. We couldn't leave well enough alone though and also decided to tear up flooring in the whole rest of the house and replaced every window...and NOT with replacement windows either so I can relate.

I got several bins for our makeshift kitchen, but packed everything we wouldn't be using in boxes just as I would have if we had been moving. I went to a liquor store and got wine boxes to store all of my glassware just because it was easy and I didn't need to pack it as safely as if I had been moving far away.

I also stocked up on loads of paper goods, plastic cups, sturdy paper plates, plastic silverware, etc. I kept out just a few pans and some mixing bowls, a few decent knives, can opener, and scissors which I used a lot for some reason! We ate lots of cereal, toast (kept out my toaster and electric kettle), the odd poptart (hate those but I did eat a few) for breakfast. For lunch we ate more cottage cheese than I care to admit, peanut butter (but my husband is allergic), lunch meats and anything else that was easy and required no cooking.

I'm ashamed to say that I didn't try to cook much, though we did grill some. We mostly went to the store and bought fried chicken we could eat and we'd have rolls and fresh veggies (uncooked like carrots) and fruit. We would also go to our favorite BBQ place and buy a pound of pulled pork and make sandwiches. Since you'll have access to your MIL's microwave that could feed you for several nights, we didn't have our microwave because it was an over the range type as well. We also ordered pizza and ate out way too much, which is why I'm cooking like a fiend now. I know lots of people on here are able to cook and clean when they don't have a kitchen...sadly for our budget, I am NOT one of those people.

In one of the tubs I kept my salt and pepper, chips, bread, cereal, and other food items. Another tub was strictly used for the paper goods, and the other tub was for the cooking accessories I saved out. Once the drywall dust settled we were able to use the kitchen table moved to our family room as the primary staging area for meals and so my toaster and electric kettle moved there. I also used a small table in our bedroom prior to that because we didn't have working plugs in the kitchen/FR for awhile.

Higrovemanor, you might want to post a separate thread with your question so it doesn't get lost in the responses for lolilynne's question. I had granite installed in my last house and only removed the drawer items that were at the top but I'm not sure if that's how all installers like to do it.

Good luck on your reno Lolilynne and the most important thing to keep out is your sense of humor and patience...and if you drink...wine...and if you don't drink, you may start! ;)

Kat :)

I only renovated my kitchen so I had my fridge in the DR. In my LR I had a folding table. On it was my coffee maker and a toaster oven. Everything from my kitchen was in paper bags all over my LR floor. I didn't have a ton of stuff since I haven't fully moved in here so that wasn't horrible. Because my whole house was being sanded, painted in addition to the kitchen, I keep all my clothes and linen closet things in various plastic bins. The bins were always covered in dust but everything inside stayed clean. In 2 weeks all my floors are getting refinished, so everything is staying in the bins until that's done.

As far as daily eating/drinking: I kept out one plate, one glass, one wine glass, wine opener, salt pepper, fork spoon knife and constantly walked up stairs to my master bath and washed everything.

so happy my kitchen is done and life is normal again. ;-)

I'm in the middle of reno now, but only the kitchen/laundry and dining room are affected. I had boxes (saved flattened in the garage) so used them for just about everything. I did buy some plastic bins for what I'd be using during the remodel. It's working out well so far.

All the foodstuffs that are in boxes (baking cannisters, lesser used spics, and whatever was left in the pantry) are all kept in a different place than the dishes and equipment. Also, the kitchen dishes and flatware, and other last minute things are also set aside as the ones we'll want to put back first.

I saved out more rather than less, in order to be sane: One large bin with all the leftover paper plates and other disposables I already had. This is great. Another bin with three small pots that can be used on the hot plate, and a couple of corning ware for the microwave. Also in that bin, a few old, hard to break glasses, bowls, etc., just in case a decent meal is desired before the kitchen is done. Also some plastic containers and bags and wraps.

The thing I knew would keep my sanity is good flatware, so my pretty kitchen stuff is in a basket in a shallow bin. We're using the plastic stuff when possible--it's fine for salad--and no proper tablesettings, but take the piece needed for a particular purpose. That averages about one piece per day, rinsed and put in the dishpan for proper washing on the weekend. In the same box are a few kitchen plastic plates and tumblers, which have been used not at all. Cutting boards, ditto. And a minimal amount of tools, a good knife, paring knife, whisk, spatula, tongs, can opener, corkscrew, peeler.

The last bin, also flat, has the daily spices, nuts, etc.

This has worked very well so far. The dust from the jackhammering was a big turnoff, and the biggest meal preparation I've done so far is zapped fresh pasta with jarred sauce, but I don't feel deprived and know I can make something when I want to. And when I want pantry items I know I own, like the sauce, I can get into the boxes and use them.

We just went through the same thing, took a wall down to the studs and removed one wall. To prep for the renovation, I did get rid of a lot of stuff I collected over 35 years of marriage--even a complete set of china was given away. The best thing I did was put all of our groceries in those large reusable supermarket bags and stored them under our dining room table and buffet. On the buffet I set up our coffee pot, microwave and toaster. I thought I'd use our electric frying pan, but only did twice. This renovation took 12 weeks before we had a working kitchen, and we're not done yet.

We put our refrigerator in the breakfast room, it was the only appliance we kept during the renovation. There is only two of us, and we did very little cooking--brought home a lot of prepared meals. I only kept out 2 plates, 2 cereal/soup bowls, 2 mugs, 2 place settings of stainless. We washed these in our 1/2 bath off the kitchen. We did use some paper plates and cups. To control the plaster dust, etc. our contractor hung large sheets of plastic between the dining room and kitchen. But the darn dust gets into everything. Just today I was on my hands & knees washing my hardware floor in the DR. The vacuum wouldn't pick up the plaster dust between the floor boards. Kitchen is almost done, just the backsplash and trim around doors and windows left to be done.

You've got to keep a sense of humor about the entire process. I should have kept track of how many times my husband said "where is the . . . . .?" It's amazing how much is kept in a kitchen that has nothing to do with preparing meals, like screwdrivers, stamps and envelopes, aspirins, etc.

We also tore down a few walls, so we had to pack up the entire kitchen, dining room, living room, and hall closet. Those rooms are all upstairs along with the bedrooms and two bathrooms, and we moved into the rec room downstairs, using the set tub in the laundry room to wash dishes.

We went through a significant amount of alcohol. As a matter of fact, there is a glass vase in our kitchen full of wine corks from bottles we consumed during this process. We kept out 2 coffee cups and 2 wine glasses. We for the most part made due with paper plates and cups but did keep cutting boards and knives out along with a few other odds and ends.

We actually ate out very little, but I promise you I've not looked at a microwave dinner the same since!

One "splurge" I found helped us all out significantly was to purchase one of those large veggie trays from Costco once or twice a week. We kept one out in the fridge in the garage, and before dinner, I'd put that tray out on the table in the rec room, and we'd all munch off it it while DH and I would have a glass of wine and hash out the day. We all ended up eating a ton of vegetables, hopefully helping to equalize some of the not-so-healthy food we ended up consuming during the process.

While we used boxes for most things, we did keep a few tubs packed with things we thought we might possibly need. We also kept a few boxes close to the top.

The neighbors were talking about our renovation just the other day. There were several weeks at the beginning when we had to go out the front door and back in through the garage to get from one floor to the other. The neighbors would entertain themselves watching our family trying to go through our morning routine, all running in and out of the house in our housecoats and jammies. They said we were very entertaining :-)

Happy times.

Such great advice! Thank you all so much.

Yes, I do have kids - 3, ages 13, 7, and 3. I was just thinking last night - why am I doing this?? My 3yo was smearing yogurt all over our current countertop and had dropped grapes on the floor (which then got squished). I'll probably have an aneuryism (sp?) when that happens on the new wood floors and soapstone CT. But I digress . . .

I have calculated a 20% contingency bucket within my budget. I hope we don't have to use it, but the house is 40 years old.

I'm going to stock up on the wine . . . and tequilla - that way I'll have lots of boxes :-)

The only rooms you can get to without going through the kitchen are the living room and garage (not counting the entry/mudroom and my mother's apartment), and the LR will also have work done (floors). I'll have to check with GC - I would think floors would be refinished first (don't want dust all over the new cabinets), but I don't know. That would help because once that is done and brown paper is done, we could "stage" a lot there.

If I set up some stuff on the deck, I will have one of those instant canopies.

Interesting to note about the dust - of course I knew there would be some, but I hadn't even given the hall closets a thought. The doors on those are the ones with the slats, so dust could certainly get in there. I should check with GC if he will cover them (although - then we can't get at contents).

Boy, my family is going to be annoyed!

As an aside, we have a 2 week vacation end of June/beg of July - I was hoping to be away a chuck of this - but then was concerned about not being "on site" (only 1 hour drive away, though - and DH would be on site the first week). Should I worry?

I personally would not leave during a renovation of that scope. I was on hand and constantly asked for clarification or questions. Trust me, you don't want it done the way some of the subs want to do it. You want it done correctly.

As for the dust, frankly it just doesn't matter - covering the closets, closet doors with vents, regular closet doors - makes no difference. Everything will have a lovely coating of white on it :-)

Mandie

I think my blood pressure rises just reading all this :) I honestly don't know if anything makes renovations easier. Not sure I have much to add since others have given good advice, but I would agree with Mandie about not leaving for any length of time. My husband has been here (works from home) every single day for almost 8 months and there are ALWAYS issues that crop up. Who knows what some contractors would do without someone standing over them? I know that there are very good ones, but they seem to be few and far between. And even then, they still do things that make you wonder what in the world they were thinking!!

Oh, also agree about the dust - it gets into EVERYTHING no matter what. I initially tried to dust and vacuum every day, but very quickly gave up and now I almost don't even care. I'll get really tired of it every few weeks and give it a decent cleaning, but then there's more dust and dirt overnight so it doesn't matter :)

Regarding the floors, I think most people do finish them prior to cabinets going in, but we're having ours finished after for several reasons. Since our renovation involves a multi-level addition, as well as refinishing all the existing hardwood (in every single room except the bathrooms), there will still be a lot to do even after the kitchen is completed (or almost completed). Since I've seen how careless contractors are with the house right now, I know they won't be any better with a newly finished floor and I'd want to kill someone if they messed it up right after being done! :) Also, the cabinets (and everything else) are already covered in dust, so sanding the floors probably won't make much of a difference (they have "dustless" sanders now that are supposed to be much better although not perfect). We left all the toekicks off so that if they get any stain on anything it shouldn't matter too much and can be covered hopefully.

Good luck - you'll definitely live through it and according to those who have finished it's worth it, although I'm in the stage of debating that - haha!

DON'T LEAVE!!! I have been living in the house during our renovation and things still haven't gone as smoothly as I would have hoped (though less has gone wrong b/c I have been on site and able to answer questions). You don't want to come back and find your sink where your refrigerator should be, or that they decided your cabinets looked better with the base cabinets as uppers and the uppers as base cabinets....

Floors - ugh! The floors are one of the last things to be done in our renovation. Why? My GC doesn't want a bunch of people walking around on the new floors and possibly damaging them. It makes sense, but hey, I'm tired of cooking in the laundry room so at this point the workers could drop an anvil on the floors and as long as it doesn't impact the schedule I wouldn't care :).

Also, depending on the layout, you might want to leave the premises during the flooring process. Between the dust from the sanding and the fumes from the sealer it is supposed to be rather nasty (add another expense to the budget). I am requesting water-based sealer (or what ever it is called) and it is supposed to be low-VOC, but we are still bugging-out for the 3-4 days needed for the whole process.

Remember to seal-off the rooms not being worked on. We are planning on sealing the bottom of the doors with tape and going out through the windows (we are obviously dealing with ground-level rooms, though a two-story home would make this whole process even more entertaining). I am also going to cover my electronic equipment and artwork.

Isn't renovation fun?

Floors - consider having them refinished before the cabinetry except for the very last seal coat. Both my cabinet guy and my flooring guy suggested and endorsed this approach. So our first step (after demo) was to sand, stain, and seal coat the floors. Then framing, rough in of plumbing/elec/hvac, etc. Later the cabinets and counters will go in. Finish of rough-in. As the very last step, the floors will be vaccuumed, then cleaned with a diluted vinegar solution, lightly sanded, and then have the top coat put on.

In between the first and last step, the floors are protected with construction paper and masonite. I've been happy with this approach. It is an investment of time, but I think it's worth it.

bumpety bump

I talked to GC on Friday, and we talked about timing a bit - I raised my concerns about having all three room in play. He was saying that they would move the refrigerator in the LR and I could set up my microwave there - so I asked him about the floors, and he said that they would do them later, maybe before cabinets, maybe after, so I asked about the dust, and he said that they people he uses have a dust-free process, and I "won't even know they were here".

Sooo, I don't know. I am a little leary of the whole thing, GC seemed very casual about the whole thing, and it seems to me that since they are taking the whole ceiling down in the LR that we won't be able to have usable space in that room. I thought that maybe they would just temporarily cover stuff in the room, but then wouldn't it be difficult to work (re-sheet rock a ceiling) with a bunch of stuff in the room?

So, I'm going to have to have to come up with a plan myself, I think.

It is always an adventure. We planned a family room addition and a kitchen renovation --- with a 3 year old and a 1 year old. It was a mess. The GC took out an exterior wall and put up a temporary wall that was plywood with insulation stapled to it. We set up a staging area in our living room that consisted of a fridge, table and a microwave. I put tons of canned goods on the table and many rubbermaid bins, toys underneath the table. There was very little room for the kids to play and it was stressful for me to be in the house because the baby would cry and I knew that was annoying for the workers. On the other hand, their hammering was a constant torture sound! I decided to take the kids and go visit my mom in FL for a few weeks so they could really crank it out and we'd come back to a finished project that had fallen way behind. Washing dishes in my bathroom, dealing with the constant dust,etc. made me wonder daily what I was thinking....

Anyway, we left for FL, came back and excitedly opened the door and discovered that the CG never set foot in my house when I wasn't there. GRRRR. I called him from my house(on my cell) and asked how it was going, to which he replied, "oh great." I was furious. That was the first of many problems we encountered with him. He was the worst and in the end our addition burned down the first time we turned our new gas fireplace on) and we had to start all over (when I was now 7 months pregnant. When I went into labor and was at the hospital, our roof was covered in tarps. My MIL called us at the hospital and wanted to know what to do because it was raining and the wind was blowing and the tarps were blowing off and it was raining all over our brand new beautiful cherry floors. Any way.... it can be painful, and expect inconvenience, but guess why I am on this forum now.... because I want to do it all again.... yes, we have waited 4 years. In the end, we enjoyed that kitchen and that new addition so much. I learned many many lessons --- the most important being TRUST YOUR GC, but it was all worth it. It was a product that I was so proud of every single day and we were so sad to leave that house because we had put our personal stamp on it!

Good luck --- can't wait to hear about your finished product, I'm sure you will be so glad you did it.

ganggreen980 LOL Oh my gosh, we started our remodel a few months ago, just some demo then an unscheduled detour through the city planning department and dealings with an unscrupulous contractor! I think we are finally about to get back on track and I can't wait. I love the Costco veggie idea and I can appreciate the wine cork story (I am glad to hear that I am not the only one!!!). Why do renovations have to be so stressful! It is supposed to be such an exciting event.