No kitchen sink was the hardest part for me. So yes, much as I hated it, disposable stuff was necessary for my sanity.

They make crockpot liners, which made cleaning the crockpot doable. I did several crockpot meals in freezer bags ahead of time and those were useful. And we grilled a ton. Things like hot dogs or prepared skewers from the butchers' case.

Good luck!

Get a hot plate so you can still cook. Otherwise, buy rotisserie chicken and prepared stuff from the hot foods section of the grocery store. You can also make sandwiches or buy pre-bagged salad and just throw some protein on top. You can buy one of these: https://smile.amazon.com/Joseph-85055-Dishpan-Draining-Handles/dp/B00AVWE6O8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515000465&sr=8-1&keywords=joseph+joseph+sink and do your dishes in the tub if you prefer not to use paper plates and plastic utensils.

We set up our temporary kitchen in our garage. Thankfully it was during the warm months. On a folding table I had a hot plate, a table top microwave, and a toaster oven. It was close to a bathroom sink for washing. It was very helpful to have a large plastic basin to haul dirty dishes to our "sink" to wash. I set up another small table in the bathroom to be able to air dry the hand washed dishes. The hot plate was really helpful to have. I cooked pasta and corn on the cob on that hot plate. We also used our grill a fair amount which was very helpful, although cleaning the grill utensils in the bathroom sink was not ideal.

A big lesson I learned during a kitchen remodel -- remove as many window coverings as possible, wrap them in plastic and store them as far out of the work zone as possible. I didn't do that on my first remodeling project and wound up with a huge dry cleaning bill. If you need privacy, tack up sheets on the critical windows. Also, cover upholstered furniture and beds with old sheets that can be washed frequently.

Crockpot food all starts to taste the same after awhile. Supermarket and cheap take-out gets old really quick. Hint to your friends and family that you'd appreciate a dinner invitation. Complain a lot so they get the hint. You can reciprocate when your beautiful new kitchen is functional. Good luck!

I just cleared the last of the temporary kitchen out last week. Everyone has great advice so I don’t have much to add. I will say that the day you can use your sink again and the day the fridge is back in the kitchen may be the two best days of your life.

Have fun! Ours was done on schedule in eight weeks. It was so fun to come home each day and see the progress.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

bwhaney, your kitchen looks so nice! How wonderful to be done.

My first week update is pretty good overall. There was a dead mouse under the floor, so ewwww. I'll have the pest control people out to make sure he didn't have friends.

There was a big boo boo that I can't believe I missed in the contract, and the GC missed in the contract....there was nothing about the gas lines for the stove and fireplace! That probably added a week to this. I can't explain it; we all knew I was adding gas it just wasn't in there.

I lost the fight to carry the wood floors to the fireplace, something I REALLY wanted, but we found a tile that actually matches the wood. We will lay it in a fun pattern, and it will look pretty good I think.

I so miss my sink, mostly the garbage disposal! Cooking is going ok, but cleanup is not fun!

Maybe I am used to dust lol, but so far the dust is not bad. The guys clean up really well every day.

I was very thankful for paper plates, plastic forks, my crock pot & my instant pot!!

Love the pics....keep sharing. Floor is pretty!

Week 2 update:

I'm going to do a check in here each week to track progress for myself, so I hope you will follow along!

this week uncovered some serious electrical problems at the box- charred wires! The wires were not properly grounded by the idiot diy - er previous owner. (Actually 2 owners ago) But it has been taken care of and I am glad it was discovered and corrected.

I lost laundry on Tuesday and was promised a week until it's return. Plus a few days for tile I'm sure. I am doing ikea cabinets in there and I have to reconfigure due to the dryer vent which has to go in the corner. I lost 5 inches, but it should still be ok. So when it is put back, it will have walls, tile floor, w/d and the old sink for a few weeks. That old sink will seem like a vacation from the bathroom sink lol. I have fully gone to paper. It's just the best I can do to wash real silverware and coffee cups!

Wall is out, new beam in. Inspections Monday for plumbing and electrical. They are working hard and fast so that helps. They did work last Saturday and will be here tomorrow too. I am glad I am here each day b/c I get asked a lot of questions, like where I want each switch and outlet. It is hard ( and boring in my bubble boy room) having to stay home but it seems so important.

the dust has arrived! It is so bad and everywhere. Everything is torn up; walls, floors, and wires are hanging out. I will be happy to turn the corner of rebuilding.

So happy you are posting pictures. Mine begins Feb 5th so all of this is good info.

Week 3

we have walls! The rebuilding has commenced. This week is kind of a blur, I sort of hit a wall myself. It is really exhausting and disruptive. I still do not have laundry, but that is on track for Monday. That is the worst thing that happened, so all in all, we are lucky I know!

we will have workers again tomorrow, to prime the walls and paint the laundry. I don't want to get my hopes up, but they want to install the cabinets end of next week!!! All the hard stuff is done, except patch in and re-stain the hardwoods. That worries me a bit, but all these workers are so skilled and do nicely detailed work. It seems like a big deal to me, though.

I have used my instant pot almost everyday. I made chili, Mac and cheese, and frozen ravioli in it. I do 12 hard boiled eggs at a time. I love the instant pot! I used a bread machine twice this week, so that is a nice treat. ( and easy) tomorrow I'm going to try waffle maker brownies. I am running out of ideas though. It takes a lot of effort to be creative.

it's funny how you adjust to these circumstances, but I will be glad to be done.

fun to watch the progression, and I will keep the vent thing in the back of my mind for when we start ours.

Love the pictures and progress updates! It gives me an idea of what to expect when we start.

Love seeing the pictures. You are making progress.

I'm in the middle of a major remodel - both bathrooms, adding a bedroom, moving kitchen to back of house and every room in my house is touched - some more than others. I have 2 older puppies - the youngest was 9 months old when we started. Since we were moving kitchen, the builder let me keep the old kitchen as long as possible. But we lost the bathrooms immediately and use a 3/4 bath in the unfinished basement. The dogs and I live in the 2 rooms least affected by the remodel.

All kinds of things have happened and come up and I have learned to just let it roll. My house is plaster so every time we have to demo plaster, it's a mess. My dogs and I are just covered all the time. I'm so good at putting up plastic I could be in a pit crew. But some days we just can't plastic areas because there are so many subs in the house going back and forth between areas so I covered all the furniture.

I don't tell friends and family dates because to them the dates were set in stone and I felt like I was constantly defending the builder. So now when asked I say we will be done in 2027.

Oh my, throughout everything we have lost, we always had access to 3 1/2 bathrooms and the untouched upstairs! It is so hard when they are everywhere. And with puppies! I hope they come to a speedy conclusion.

I am going to make a crock pot caramel apple cake today. Just a few ingredients and you layer everything in the crock and turn on. No extra dishes! we'll see how it turns out...

Don't forget to budget for couples' counseling. Kidding. (maybe.)

kidshop, it's looking beautiful. Love the light in the space, and that fireplace!

Chisos - 7b west TX 5000', I hope your project is off to a good start. :)

bwhaney, are we going to get a kitchen reveal from you?

Yay! We picked our contractor today! Feel like we are finally moving forward, although we don’t have a start date yet (and still have to decide cabinet color, counters, backsplash, oh my!).

I will be watching your updates with a lot of interest to see what is coming!

kidshop - last night I lost the temporary kitchen sink I had upstairs. We had to dummy install the new sink for the counter template and because it came damaged we couldn't plumb it. So the ONLY sink I had was the tiny sink in the basement bathroom.

We are on the back stretch now. Once plumbing inspection is done, lots of things can be done like closing up walls in the new bedroom and the bathrooms. I've got a lot of rooms that look like this

Week 4

cute puppy! It feels so good when those walls close up.

Not too much happened this week, since the hardwood had to acclimate for 3 days. I did enjoy the downtime though.

Laundry retuned Monday yippee! I ordered my ikea cabinets for it and they will be delivered Wednesday. Probably installed the next week.

Upper kitchen cabinets went up Monday and the floor was laid yesterday. The kitchen floor was originally running perpendicular to the other room, it now is all the same.

My 12 inch pantry does not (and can not apparently) open from the front as well as the side like I thought it did. It is a 24 inch, 12 inch deep high cabinet turned to the side next to the fridge. I'm not sure if I like it. A 12 inch pullout is my option, but it is pretty expensive. I am going to think about it for a bit.

my charging station cabinet did not get ordered properly, it was supposed to have short doors and be finished inside to make a cubby. We decided to keep it, and run the wires down to a glass shelf. Then we can charge inside or outside the cabinet.

I love having a floor and can't wait to see all the cabinets in!

Week 5

things are rolling along! I have a microwave problem; there was serious miscommunication about our microwave even though I gave the gc the specs well before the cabinets were ordered. It is supposed to be a built in (without the oven under it). And they ordered a shelf! That does not work for me, so I will first try to fit the space with an acceptable microwave and if not, we I'll re order the proper cabinet. He is working with us and I'm not that concerned about it. It doesn't affect anything other than the backsplash.

I love how everything is turning out. My giant sink is in, but won't be hooked up until Monday.

our lighting went in this week, and they are still working switches and electrical. That stuff takes a long time.

Looking good!!!

Love your island, flooring, and cabinets. So pretty much everything. Hang in there, you’re getting closer to the end results.

Beautiful counter!

The fantasy brown is so pretty! I don't what happened, I am a quartz person. I was at the stone yard looking for cheaper granite for our basement bar and I saw a slab. I had never even heard of it before, but I fell in love.

Re the outlets being high: it was one of those things I never even thought about. When he asked where I wanted them I just said to put them in the usual spot. They seem ok to me though. There will be stuff in front of them.

My outlets are this high too and I don’t intend to have anything in front of them. Now they are bothering me. The electricians never asked me how high I wanted them . They put them in line with the switches at the “standard height”

mocxr, it is easy to get hyper focused on one item. You probably won't notice as much when everything is installed. Or if it really irks you, just have them moved lower now. now is better than later!

The island is Fantasy Brown marble/quartzite. The perimeter is concrete grey quartz.

I think I would move the outlets lower and make them horizontal. The kitchen looks beautiful so far! Thanks for sharing these updates.

Your kitchen is looking great! Thank you for your updates. Looking forward to seeing the finished project

Week 6

The week started with the sink and dishwasher hook up. I love the sink and the dishwasher! So much. Forever. That is such a big hurdle to be over. My stove, while now in the kitchen area is not hooked up. They have not tested the gas line yet, I'm not sure the hold up and I keep asking.

We decided we wanted the built in microwave, so a few weeks now until the new cabinet comes in. They will do the backsplash, probably this week. I chose a simple gloss 4 X 16 subway tile that is close to the color of our wall paint (alpaca by SW).

Ikea laundry room and basement bar will be installed on Thursday.

It is nice to be working in the kitchen and slowly putting things away. I am really enjoying the new layout. These new cabinets are really tall, though. I 'm going to need a step stool to keep close at hand.

favorite item is the trash pullout! I have never had one and it is so much better than a can in the corner. The 18 inch is perfect and holds 2 13 gallon bins.

Week 8

I missed last week, our power was out for a four days. That was pretty horrible! As per contract, the bulk of the work was to be completed by 8 weeks and that has mostly happened. We are awaiting the correct microwave cabinet, the finishing trims, painting and floor staining. Due to the power issues we did not get the laundry and basement cabinets installed. That will be the end of next week now.

I really like everything so far,

Before

What a wonderful improvement. Are you adding a crown molding to the top of the cabinets to bring them to the ceiling?

Love everything about your kitchen especially the gorgeous island lights.

yes, crown and light rail still to come. That small upper has to be replaced for the microwave cabinet first.

Wow - good for you for getting it mostly done and back up and usable in the time frame! We launch next week - wish me luck!

I love it! Especially that island counter so beautiful. What kind of sink did you get?