Hey Amberley, Scrappy, & Bmorepanic (& anyone else in this MD/VA/DC)...we have around 30" here in Western Howard County. Drifts are quite a bit higher...the one we measured was 36" high! My DH just started slowly snow blowing our driveway. We have a fairly long drive, so it's going to take awhile...he figures it will take him at least 2 days to do it all! Our dogs refuse to budge from the porch...we have to push them off to "do their duty" on the snow rather than the porch! My DD tried throwing Ruby (the female) into one of the drifts...but she stayed on top and daintily walked down & off the drift! Heavy snow! But, we have a fire going and I just made hot chocolate for the kids (they just came in from playing out there-13 & 15 years old and still playing in the snow, I love it!), so we're doing great! I also made a big pot of chili for tomorrow and now I'm making pineapple casserole (me) + Roman Holiday (DH & kids) for tonight's dinner! Amberley, it sounds like you're making good progress b/w the demoing and the snow shoveling!

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!

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.

Just remember, major changes will happen quickly ... and then everything will seem like it takes forever! We're in the last days of our renovation and can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Good luck -- and be sure to stay on top to the project. (I annoyed my GC by asking for updates at every logical point. If he said cabinet install would take 2 days, I'd check in at 1.5 days. The good news is we are finishing the project a week ahead of time -- and under budget. It could have been done a little earlier if we weren't delayed by the countertop people!)