I also had my rice cooker and a plug in griddle in my temp kitchen. The rice cooker is great for not just rice, but lentils, veggies, etc. The griddle was for easy breakfasts and my 12yo could make grilled cheese, etc.
Don't forget at least 1 real coffee mug and 1 real wine glass. When everything in your house is covered in dust, it's really nice to be able to close your eyes for a moment and sip wine from a real glass.

Congrats on starting.

from another cia Marcia, too

laxsuerpmom - LOL - good call on the one real coffee mug and wine glass. If you have a DH or SO, make it two. I only left out one and poor dh has been drinking merlot from a dixie cup since June. Good luck with your renovation.

I am not to this point ;-( When I am I will also have...

1. An electric skillet - It can sub for just about anything from cooking pasta to making english muffins and tortillas.
2. The induction hob I've been using for the last 18 months

Good Luck and Congratulations!

Judy

Some good advice that I received was make sure you have a covered container for all the things you'll be storing in your makeshift kitchen. Like the coffee cup, wine glass, plates, pots and pans. The dust is constant so having everything covered is key. Keep a cutting board, wine and can opener and one good knife handy.

Good luck! We're going on week 6, not so bad since we still have the fridge and range connected, and a sink in the downstairs bath to clean dishes.

I didn't want to do much cooking in my family room temp kitchen because
I have been washing dishes in the downstairs bathroom...yuk. So my coffee
maker, micro, toaster and refrig are all we have going.

Ditto the covering of everything, although after awhile I think we are eating
and drinking the dust!

We can see the finish line and are sooooo looking forward to it!

Best of luck and be sure to post progress pics for us to see!

vic

Until I created a whole 2nd kitchen (long story!), I used: a George Foreman Grill, Microwave, fridge and coffee maker. Washed dishes in the bathroom sink. IMHO, you'll be in remodel heaven if your removal and reinstall only takes 3 weeks and that you get the luxury of using your laundry room sink for washing dishes during this time. You go! :)

We only ate out (me, DH, 3 kids ages 10, 8, and 5) a couple of times during our 6 weeks w/o a kitchen. The only thing I really, really missed was my dishwasher because we didn't use paper. Don't ask me why- it was a crazy, misguided attempt to keep everything as normal as possible.

As for cooking, you've got the crockpot and that is perfect. I also had an electric skillet for bacon, grilled cheese, etc.

I bought an electric kettle for boiling water for my french press coffee; that was a godsend. In fact, I use it still in the new kitchen.

I used a little two burner plugin cooktop (about $20 at Walmart) to make mac & cheese, etc.

Good luck!!!

Anita

The things I found I really needed were two large plastic tubs. One for dirty dishes and one for clean. We were doing dishes in the laundry room and I found this invaluable for hauling the dishes back and forth and washing them in. Even if you're using plastic, you are going to have some cups and utensils you'll have to wash. It was good to have a place to toss the dirty stuff.

The best food we found was couscous with frozen veggies thrown in - doesn't have to cook at all, just throw in boiling water and cover.

I agree with budge1, the plastic tubs are great for hauling the dirty and clean dishes back and forth are a good purchase! We bought a hot plate for $13 which is very useful for cooking noodles, steaming vegetables, and grilling cheese sandwiches etc. Those are small investments.

Otherwise we have made huge use of the Advantium we purchased for our new kitchen by putting it on a table and using it as a microwave and convection oven.

We learned that frozen food is disgusting!

Oh, and a waffle iron is one appliance to keep out of the boxes -- very useful.

We're past the one-year mark* with our "temporary" kitchen. I've been using a toaster oven (save at least one baking dish that fits it), a microwave, a crock pot, a rice cooker and my coffee maker. We live in California so I've also used our outdoor gas grill a lot. About three months ago we bought a really nice griddle and I've been loving having it.

Don't forget the little things:
at least one good knife and a cutting board
a few measuring spoons/cups (you don't need all sizes)
one spatula and one spoon
can, bottle and wine opener(s)
a couple of kitchen towels

Pasta can be made in the microwave, BTW.

*December 22nd 2007 was the start, Hubby is RIGHT NOW in the process of installing our stove!!!

We are on month 4 of the temporary kitchen. We are using a toaster oven, microwave, hotplate, toaster and kettle. Rather than trying to live on plastic/paper plates, etc. - we find that using real dishes and cutlery keeps us from feeling like we're camping.

Also - we packed up our kitchen utensils and spices initially, but pulled them back out after a couple of weeks. They make a big difference in the quality of meals that we are able to prepare.

We survived moving our kitchen to the rec room in the basement for the 3 or so months until we could resume cooking upstairs. We had the laundry sink (SS kitchen sink & faucet), small hand-me down fridge, microwave and about 4' of demo'd cabinets & counter. We also cheated and left the old electric stove in the kitchen and demo'd around it since it was headed for the scrap heap. We made out pretty well, excepting no range hood - really cut down on our pasta cooking (usually everyday)

Mike & Beth

I echo a lot of the others. We were in our interim kitchen in the garage (see link) for 3 months. We hardly ever ate out. Our GC dropped our kitchen sink into one of the old cabinets out in the backyard and hooked the cold water to it. We used mostly paper, but washed utensils and pots in the sink. This worked well until October when it got too dark to do the dinner dishes outside. (The light switch for outside was connected from the kitchen) We used our MW,toaster oven, one cup coffee maker, coleman stove and george foreman grill. We also had 2 5-gallon bottles of water and bought pumps for them. One was drinking and the other was for rinsing things. We had a tub below that we used to carry things to the sink. We also used a storage cabinet we already had to store staples, cereal, spices, flour sugar, canned goods. and we had our fridge and a separate freezer out there too. I had shelves with lots of zip lock bags as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: interim garage kitchen

thanks everyone. Great suggestions . Yikes, I forgot about coffee...we brew a big pot every morning. Tub is a great idea...I also forgot that I have an electric skillet. I'd better get the grill's propane tank filled. I've grilled in the rain and snow before.

I hope our contractor is estimating the time correctly, but we are not doing any major remodeling-- simply removing cabinets and keeping the same floorplan. The biggest and messiest part (I think) will be removing 3 soffits and repairing the wall/ceiling area where they are.

Assuming that you have the usual deep laundry room sink, an extra plastic tub is useful - put it in the sink upside down and then put the tub with the dirty dishes on top of it. That way the dishes you are washing are at a more convenient height.

We didn't eat out at all during the renovation. We used our outside grill (November-January in California), a slow cooker, an electric skillet, microwave, expresso maker and hot water pot. Our refrigerator was plugged in in the temporary kitchen area. If you have a covered gas grill and a thermometer to monitor it, pretty much anything that can be cooked in an oven can be cooked in the grill. I made a cake and a pie in ours during the time our kitchen was being redone.

Hint: if needed use extension cords to bring power from outlets on different breakers into the temporary kitchen area. You don't want the microwave and refrigerator to be on the same breaker.

We bought a wire shelving unit from Sam's Club to hold the supplies in the temporary kitchen.

If you have time before hand, you might make and freeze some dinners. I made a big batch of stew and one of chili and divided that into dinner size portions. We got diposable microwaveable containers to pack them into. Also, when I cooked, I generally cooked enough to have left overs so one time cooking could provide two meals.

Two years for us in our temp kitchen-the workshop in the basement. DH put in an old dbl stainless sink and hooked up the dishwasher from the demo. Also put the demo fridge in the workshop. As for cooking-well I can cook just about anything on the BBQ now LOL! Two winters in a row with more snow than we have had in years. Did have a micro which was useful. Set up the rec room beside the workshop as a living and office area. Funny-both DH and I were woried it would be difficult to move back up we were so used to living down in our little hovel.

I had the GC move two of the old base cabinets into an adjoining room to keep my dishes, silverware and glassware in. Used the raw top (the countertop did not survive the move) for the coffee maker, toaster and plastic dishpan to tote the dishes upstairs. This kept all the dishes, silverware, etc clean from the dust.

We also bought 8 of the large see-thru bins to put the pantry items in--canned goods, snacks, pasta, sauce, etc. Makes it easier to find something when you can see thru them.

We used the microwave, electric frying pan and grill the most. I pre-cooked about 8 lbs of pasta (yes, we're pasta folks in my house) and put it in baggies. Re-heated it in the microwave with pesto, sauces, etc. Not as good as fresh-cooked, but better than nothing.

Honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We decided to make it an adventure, and that helped with our mindset. And an occasional glass of chardonnay or merlot helped too. Echo the real wine glasses--leave our 3 or 4 in case a friend stops by.

I always suggest a portable oven; mine is an 18 quart Nesco which can fit a turkey! My mom uses a smaller one, 6 quarts I believe. Even after your reno is over you will probably still use it. On hot summer days I take it to our lake cabin and use an extension cord to cook out on the dock. At home it lives on my screened porch in the summertime. And I couldn't imagine having a party without it. I think it would be invaluable during a kitchen reno.

We're doubling up the dining room--moved the fridge in, used an old kitchen table as a counter with the toaster oven, microwave, and hot plate on it. We have 2 20-amp plugs underneath so we can run any 2 at a time. The china cabinet became plate and pantry storage, as well as two 3' high bookcases from our also under renovation family room. The dining room table is covered with a heavy vinyl tablecloth to protect it and make it easier to clean.

A second on the good buckets--my DW bought two oval mop buckets, which are big enough for our large plates, and we do dishes in the bathroom every night. If you have dishes, it's important to put them in a cabinet or other storage to avoid construction dust getting all over them.

For spices I left out a subset of my "heavy hitters"--oregano, basil, parsley, garlic, onion, chili powder, red pepper, cumin, cinnamon. The rest are packed away.

Dinners are usually pasta, couscous, mac and cheese,or some frozen things. We allowed ourselves one night a week of takeout or going out to dinner, just for our sanity.

Another good option we've used is to invite ourselves over to a friends' house, and cook dinner for them. We buy all the food, and use their kitchen. We get to cook, they get a free meal, and we get to spend time with people. Even better if our kids get to play with theirs.

Finally, it's also been helpful that our renovation falls over Thanksgiving and Christmas and we can stay at my in-laws for a few days. Again it breaks up the monotomy.

I actually find myself eating a little less. We're cooking simpler meals that are still pretty healthy for us. If you avoid too much takeout and prepared food you will do fine in that regard. Mind you, I'm looking forward to doing "real" cooking again.

When my neighbors remodeled their kitchen, they went to a different friend's house for dinner each week, and made sure to invite each friend over for dinner to celebrate when their kitchen was done. Of course that only covers one meal out of 21, but it's something.

In our last kitchen remodel, the electric skillet saved me, so I echo other suggestions for that. And they seem to be relatively inexpensive. Also in the last remodel, I washed dishes in the tub. I did NOT enjoy it. Fast forward to our now annual camping trips, where I have three large plastic bins for washing dishes on the picnic table--one for wash, two for rinse (a two-phase rinse is more effective). One evening, as I washed the dishes in this way, it occured to me that this setup would be a huge improvement to bending over a bathtub. So, the next time I redo a kitchen (hopefully soon), I'm pulling out my camping wash bins. I read once that in English manor houses, the servants used this method to wash the dishes in place in the dining room, to avoid the work of transporting them to the kitchen, and to minimize the risk of breakage. If it was done in the lords and ladies houses, I suppose I could raise my standards to do it at my house too!