When I re-did my kitchen in my old house, I worked out of the guest room, using the bathroom sink and tub to wash dishes. Although I don’t usually use paper plates or disposable flatware and cups, I did then. I also got a piece of plywood from HD and covered it in heavy duty aluminum foil (taped down with duct tape on the back - where would we be without duct tape?) and used that as a counter for cooking and prepping. I think it was about 4x8.

I had a small microwave, a crockpot, and an electric skillet for cooking.

Think through preparing a typical meal noting which utensils you use. Set aside a box with those utensils inside. You’ve got your outdoor pizza oven, too. Can you make pizza dough ahead and maybe freeze it?

Im lucky to have a large, attached garage and so moved everything ”kitchen” in there. There are also cabinets with a worktop; that I used as a base for boiling water in a pot and assembling food. But, taking the easiest course of action, I ate out most meals. It sounds as if you have some plans made that might just work. Good luck with your project.

I forgot about the paper plates - I put those on my list, which for now is rather short, but I don't want to end up with too much food.

We have a large, attached two-car garage, but it is too hot in there to use it as a kitchen, plus it is rather dusty in there, and I would have to do major cleaning first.

The office is the size of a regular bedroom and has plenty of space for cooking and storing pantry items and cooking utensils. It has more space (including storage space) than my existing kitchen.

I might have a crockpot in the garage here - if not, it is in my garage in L.A., since I never use it. I did not think to look for it there.

I don't think I want to make pizza while I am here, but we do have a smoker, and now that I think about it, we have a gas range in the patio. I should move it so that it will be closer to the kitchen. Anyway, I can always use that in an emergency, and it would work with all of my pans. Since I'm only cooking for myself, I think I can keep it simpler than that, however.

I have some emergency canned foods I can use, such as tuna and pozole.

I do not plan to eat out, since I don't like doing that by myself, but buying tamales is almost the same thing.

Lars, small cast iron skillets are ideal for eggs and induction. You can boil water for tea in anything, including a cast iron skillet. You can also make toast in a dry cast iron skilket.

The best way to know what's in a box is to write everything that's in it on it. Be specific. Or give the boxes ordered names (1,2,3...; Alpha, Bravo, Charlie..., Red, Orange, Yellow...) and have whatever digital assistant you can access make a list by saying, ”Spices are in Charlie” to it. My 3 month kitchen remodel took a year. :) I was especially grateful for the specifics.

As to what to plan, I'd suggest writing out a meal plan with all ingredients and how you plan to achieve the cooking, now, while you can still think. Go for both heathy foods and comfort foods which aren't specifically unhealthy. A lot of people prioritize easy, which is a trap which amplifies stress. This includes watching bought foods for excess sodium, etc., and balancing them with wholesome. Soups and stews, simple homemade pasta dishes, salads, both warm and cold, cutlets which are easy to grill or make in a cast iron skillet (letting the butcher do most of the work). Look at the pre-prepped veg at the store, and see if they seem good. I wouldn't want to tackle a butternut without a proper kitchen, but pre-cut butternut cubes or spirals can be the basis of lots of great one pot dishes. And some stores have fresh salads. And you can make camp bread, but I'd definitely let the baker do it...

Good luck and prompt deliveries!

I would get an electric kettle asap. Then you can boil water fast for drinks, noodles, couscous, etc. You can even boil an egg in it if necessary. If it's very hot where you are I'd not be doing much cooking at all. Cold meals are fine if it's hot outside. If you have a food processor or blender you can make lots of tasty things like hummus, guacamole or gazpacho without any cooking.

When we had our kitchen done it wasn't just cabinets it was major building involving digging out the floor and relaying the concrete, rebuilding a masonry wall, replastering half the room and moving all the plumbing. We had a fridge and camping stove in the greenhouse and washed up in the garden. The water came from a single cold tap in the half built kitchen. We had a a German exchange student staying. Heaven knows what she thought of our living arrangements.

Here's a drawing I did to show where the appliances should be moved temporarily:

Palm Springs Kitchen · More Info

I have this image in my Idea Book called "Palm Springs Kitchen." I drew it in a Cad program and then printed it as a PDF and then converted it to a GIF, which is what you see here.

I plan to plug the refrigerator back in and use it, but of course it will not make ice.

All I am doing is replacing the cabinets and countertops, but I will also get a new backsplash, and I will paint the walls a contrasting color between the counters and behind the refrigerator. I might have to do this myself, but there is very little surface to paint, and I can always do it later.

I have an electric kettle in L.A. - I should have brought it with me. I am thinking of getting a kettle that will work with the induction burner, as I found one for $9 that looks adequate for my needs.

We lived in the pretty much unfinished basement of our home while we raized and rebuilt the main floor. Had 3-year-old twins at the time. We had a bar fridge, a crockpot, a microwave and a hot plate. We were down there for 9 months, did dishes in the only (bathroom sink,) It can be done, just lower your standards!

I may not have to lower my standards much. Note that I have posted this only on the Cooking forum - not a design or renovation forum, as I need no help with that aspect. I'm more interested in food suggestions.

I'm ready to go to the store now, and I only have seven items on the list, and I think that will be plenty. I definitely do not want to over stock.

I did a test with the coffee maker to see how it will work for boiling water for tea, and it seems to be fine, but I will need to clean out the pot with baking soda to get rid of some coffee residue.

I'm back from Cárdenas now, and I bought some vermicelli soup noodles while there because they were three for a dollar. I have some dehydrated vegetables that I can add, if I want to make a quick soup. The weather is quite warm today (about 90°), and so I might not be in the mood for soup, but the house is air conditioned to 75°-76°. I did also buy eggs.

This evening, I will either cook some things to have later or start moving things from the kitchen that seldom get used.

I made a list of things to do, but it is not really comprehensive. I will also write out a menu of what I think I will eat so that I will know what ingredients I will need to have handy and what utensils. Most of the small appliances will go into storage, except for the blender and stick blender. I'm not sure whether to keep the toaster oven in the dining room or in the office, but if I can plug it in in the dining room, I will probably put it there.

I'm glad I only need to do a partial renovation. All the appliances we have are new, except for the refrigerator, and I want to keep that because it makes tons of ice.

Lars, you can make ice without the plumbed automatic ice maker while it's unhooked-up you know. :) Or buy a bag and keep it in the freezer. :)

The cheap induction kettle sounds good. Just make sure it has a heavy bottom so it doesn't scorch. For awhile people kept giving me kettles. I have electric, stainless and flame orange Le Creuset. I love the last. Maybe consider a fun or decorative induction kettle, if it's decent price. Just to provide a bit of happy to see you through. :)

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK, I don't think Americans do electric kettles much because of the lower voltage there, it takes much longer to get the kettle to boil.

When we renovated the kitchen, we put the fridge in another room and had a microwave, a George Foreman type grill and an electric frypan.

I got a nice little electric kettle for my mom @ Target - it was less than $20 and works perfectly. Prices are a bit higher now, but still not very expensive. You can find many different kinds sold practically everywhere. An electric skillet is very handy for making all sorts of things, IMPE.

I'm certain you'll figure out and roll with it, Lars. Looking forward to seeing the new kitchen 😃

I do have ice trays, and I put some of them up on a shelf! I'll take them back down and use them when the refrigerator is moved. In L.A., our ice maker only works about 60% of the time and has to take frequent breaks. During these breaks, we use ice tray and ice "balls" that were designed for whiskey highballs (according to their labels), but they work for almost any drink - just not so well in the blender.

As usual, I can see that I am going to have extra food, and so that part of my anxiety is gone now, but I still have the mad dash to move things around on Wednesday, or whatever day is the day before the cabinets will be delivered.

Tomorrow I have to do a bit of yard work, as there are some lemon branches by the pool that need to be put into the green bin. Wednesday is garbage day, and the trucks come extremely early, and therefore the bins have to be put out Tuesday night.

I found the crockpot in the garage here, and so I put it on a high shelf in the office. I probably won't need it, but at least it is handy now.

I don't have an electric skillet, but I do have the Circulon skillet that I can use with the induction burner. The lid for this skillet (which is my favorite part) is in L.A., and I use it for several different pans there. However, I have a T-Fal lid here that I can use with it. None of the T-Fal pans that came with the house will work with induction. One saucepan that I like got badly dented when I dropped it on the floor, and so it must have been very cheaply made. It is probably 100% aluminum, and I've stored it in the garage. Eventually I will just recycle it.

I survived my kitchen remodel by making a temporary kitchen in my office which was under-furnished at the time anyway. I brought in the island counter from the kitchen ( that I was going to get rid of ) and put the micro, Instant Pot, toaster and coffeemaker on top. I learned that I could make almost anything in the IP, included a nice cheesecake. It's saute function let me brown meat or even fry foods. It slow cooks at 190°. It was a lifesaver.

@Lars, as much as you can, keep all of the kitchen items that you are having to store during this project in one place. I had them in several places and I lost items that I have never seen again. Clutter is difficult for me, but it would have been better if I had just gritted my teeth and given over one room. It’s temporary.

I do plan to put almost everything from the kitchen in the office, but a few items might stay in the dining room, but they will not get lost there and will be in plain view on the dining table.

I'm going to put some of the pans that are not induction compatible in the garage, along with items that I almost never use and that I might want to get rid of.

The office is almost empty, especially the closet, and so most things can go there. I just have to set it up so that I can easily cook there. It has plenty of easily accessible outlets.

I cooked beans yesterday, which took a lot longer on the stovetop than in the pressure cooker that I have in L.A., and I will make bean dip today and then put the food processor parts in the dishwasher and run that this evening. Anything that is in the dishwasher is obviously something I use often.

I mixed a batter for waffles this morning and then noticed that my baking powder had a use by date of Dec 7, 2021, and so I sprinkled some yeast on the batter and left it to rest for a while. I had thought that I had used this same baking powder in September and it was fine.

The batter was making almost no bubbles, and I did not want to risk cooking it like that. I've not made yeast waffles before, but I don't see why this would not work.

ETA: The waffles came out fine. I added 1-1/4 tsp yeast to a batter that makes five waffles. Now I am out of yeast, but I have loads of it in L.A. I meant to bring one jar of it from the freezer with me, but I do not expect to be doing any more yeast baking while I am here.

You'd be surprised what you can cook in an air-fryer. Veggies, biscuits, omelettes (I used a cast-iron casserole that fit in mine), pizzas, pork chops, chicken, truly almost anything. Breakfast sausages are amazing in it. And it's good for re-heating I reheat almost all my foods in it.

Eggs work in a cast-iron and of course non-stick. Some non-stick brands work on induction.

Keep it simple. Think like a European! You've travelled over here.

Breakfast ; continental. Bread, butter and jam with a yogurt and a piece of fruit.

Lunch. Sandwich, fruit.

Dinner ; one-pot wonders. Pasta and simple sauce, takeaways, baked potato and filling. Fruit.

When I traveled in Europe, I did tend to have a larger breakfast than what is common in Europe, but I did make a batch of waffles yesterday that I can reheat. Also, I can make protein shakes, which is what I am supposed to have for breakfast on my diet. I should have bought yogurt, but I didn't think of it. I did buy a couple of telera rolls at Cárdenas, which I use to make tortas, and I could make breakfast tortas with scrambled egg and bean dip.

I did stock up on sandwich materials, and so I will be having plenty of those. I brought rye bread with me that I made in L.A., and I have that in the refrigerator.

I made Spanish rice yesterday evening, and I can have that with the beans that I made, but I use the beans mainly for making burritos, which I can have for any meals. Normally for breakfast I would make a breakfast burrito with a scrambled egg, but I might not go that far. I generally add a bit of rice to the burritos, as well as cold cuts.

Looks like I need more fruit! Thanks!

My installation has been delayed until Monday, and so I am glad that I only partially moved items from the kitchen. I will now do a slower and more methodical move of items that I will have to store, and I will wait until the weekend to do most of it.

Fortunately, I had made a very detailed list of how I want to move the items, and it includes the order in which I want to move them. I will proceed today with moving items that are seldom used and can be stored in the garage.

I have also turned on the pool heater and will use the pool for the rest of the week - through Friday, since air temps will be in the low to mid 90s, which is warm enough for swimming. However, the pool water is currently 78°, and I have set it to heat to 85°. I don't think it will be too expensive to heat the pool for three days, but I will find out! I'll turn the heat off on Friday, as I will not use the pool after that, but it will be nice to use it the rest of this week. The pool guy is supposed to come today, but if he doesn't, I will have to scoop leaves out myself.

Pool sounds like a great way to pass the time, as does methodical moving. I take it Kevin is hiding from the reno in L.A.?

Kevin would like to be here, but he has his own doctors' appointments and work schedules. He is scheduled for another colonoscopy on Dec 8, and I will have to be in L.A. for that. I'm having to go back and forth a lot more frequently than I like, and it probably costs me over $60 in gas for each round trip.

Currently I plan to be here until Oct 31, and the countertops will not be done by then, and so I will have to come back in the middle of November to inspect them. I have a doctor's appointment for my annual physical on Nov 29, but I might postpone that until mid December.

I think Kevin can come here for Thanksgiving, but it would only be for the weekend.

The cabinet company called this morning (and left a voice mail) and said that they want to come tomorrow (Friday) to demo. I have not finished clearing the kitchen, but I can do that today, although I had planned to do yard work today instead. I have to finish clearing leaves from the patio before Saturday, as it is supposed to be windy again on Saturday, and I don't want to make extra work for the pool guy. He has already complained that I need to have the "plantas" cut, which I have not done, but there are plenty of dead leaves that I need to sweep up. I could not do this earlier because I had to wait for the green bin to be picked up and emptied, which happened yesterday.

I have the pool heated to 87° but I can still use it this evening and tomorrow as well, as the weather will still be warm and calm.

I turned the heat off on the pool - weather is supposed to be cooler for the next 10 days - mid 80s instead of mid 90s, and so it would cost more to heat the pool, and I don't think I will need it, but I can still use the spa, which is much less expensive to heat. I have to pay close attention to expenses now because I might have unexpected expenses in the near future.

One unexpected expense came up yesterday after the demo. Dennis (the cabinet guy) told me that I needed to replace some drywall that had gotten damaged (especially under the sink and behind the D/W, and I needed to have some plaster work done at the perimeter above the cabinets, but I want to have a lower backsplash. The old backsplash had been installed OVER the outlet/switch plates! I ordered all new plates, but I was going to do this anyway. However, I had to hire a drywall person to fix the drywall and plaster. I had Dennis recommend someone (Juan), but Dennis told me that Juan is very busy and might not be available. I called Juan anyway and told him that I had an emergency job (this may or may not have been a mistake), and he came over in an hour to look at the job. He did tell me that he was very busy but said that he would do my job for $450. I didn't have time to get comparative quotes, and so I agreed. Juan then went and bought the materials he needed (a thin metal "L" bracket for a top corner was damaged), and then he came back with his son. They completed the job in about 2 hours, which was good, but that meant that he was charging $200 an hour, which seemed excessive. He did do a very job, and that is what is important. He had to texture some of the walls to match the existing texture, and so I left that alone to dry overnight.

This morning I was having trouble trying to decide what I should make for breakfast and how I should cook it, but then I found the waffles in the fridge and decided to heat that up, since that is what I made them for. I'm eating one now, and I have enough left for only one more breakfast, but this will give me time to get more organized for the next breakfast.

Because I was so rushed on Thursday (I stayed up until 2 AM) moving things, I was not as methodical as I had planned to be, and so now it is difficult for me to find a few things, such as my tea, which I had put in a jar, and I don't know where I stored that jar - I should have stored it next to the teapot in the office, but I didn't.

The cabinet people plugged in the microwave, but it doesn't work. I set the clock on it, but it would not come on when I tried to microwave something. I wasn't expecting it to work anyway, but it would have been nice.

Incidentally, since Kevin is not here, I stored the dining chairs in his bedroom, but I could have put them somewhere else.

They moved the kitchen table to the living room, in front of the TV, but I can still see the TV, but the polished top of the table makes a mirror reflection of the TV screen - not that bit of a deal. I would cover it with fabric, but then the remote control for the sound system might not work.

Today I have to start painting the walls between the lower and upper cabinets, and around the window and behind the refrigerator. This should be easy, and I will do a second coat tomorrow. I also have to paint one wall the old room color, as it had some plaster repair. The cabinets will be installed on Monday.

Excellent progress! What a nice surprise, finding those waffles! I love finding forgotten goodies. Sorry about the tea. Can you “borrow” a bit from a neighbor? Re the table, how would a cloth affect the remote? Hanging down? Is the refection bigger than a placemat or pillowcase? If so, don't you have a cloth thin enough to fold without blocking the view? or a sheet of newsprint? Or flattened box? Refections like that are so annoying.... Re the workmen, $100/hr. each, or $125 and $75 for master and journeyman, isn't bad. Compare to four hours plus lunch for the merely adequate who have all the time in the world to waste your money. Unforeseen is never welcome, but at least it was a small repair rather than something awful! Great work getting right on the painting. I always have to cogitate first, and that doesn't help the drying time at all! Holding a wish that that caps the unforseens... :)

I found this leopard print velvet scrap in my closet, and it works well to prevent glare on the TV. There is a slight glare in this photo because the fabric does not cover a sliver of the table top, but that goes away at night. Even during the day, it is a major improvement, but I'm not watching that much TV anyway, since I have a lot of chores to do. I have to take a lot more breaks than I used to, as my back starts to hurt more quickly than it used to.

Love the recherche print—every remodel needs some whimsey. I didn't realize the size of the TV! Great that you turned up something that fits. Also, great that you have the spa for when the chores are done. :)

Oh man, I don't envy you at all. I was fortunate enough to still have the White Cloud house when we remodeled our house here, and it was only about 20 miles away, back country roads with no traffic. We could work here all day and go back to the White Cloud house at night, have supper and sleep there. We had breakfast before we left and made coffee to bring along, so it all worked out really well. I still hated everything about it, but it was doable.

I'm another person that relies on an electric skillet, I even take it along when travelling. I can make anything from chili to eggs in an electric skillet, so it's a very "multi purpose" tool for me. I also have an electric kettle, which we use every morning to make coffee with the Chemex pour over, and that would be suitable for soup or water for tea.

I think you have your meals pretty much taken care of, I'd probably be living on eggs, cold cereal and beans with tortillas!

Good luck, I'm sure it'll be wonderful when it's finished, you are so talented when it comes to design and decorating.

Annie