As mentioned at the end of my last post, Planning My Kitchen Remodel, the next topic in this series is preparing for the first step, demolition.
Where will it all go?
Everything has to be removed from the room, or in my case, rooms. I likened it to moving from one house to another, only on a smaller scale. Everything in the space needs to be packed up and moved somewhere else. If you have a large home, this may not be an issue. In my case, my home is not real big so I had to get creative in finding alternate homes for all of my furniture, kitchen tools and food products.
Finding space for the furniture in the family room was somewhat challenging. Most of it went into my living room which isn’t used very much. A couple of pieces went into my bedroom, and a couple of pieces ended up in the garage with the refrigerator. Since most of the remodeling materials were already in the garage, we had to be careful to leave a path to get around in there.
Purge
This actually presents an opportunity to purge, just like you would do if you were preparing to move to another home. The less you have to deal with, the easier it is to pack and find temporary homes for everything. After several trips to Red Racks (Disabled American Veterans thrift store), which is right around the corner from my home, I rightsized my kitchen!
Accessibility
Not only did I need to find homes for everything, some things still needed to be accessible. This is where my organizing skills kicked in big time. Items I wouldn’t need often, or at all, were placed farther away. Items I would need frequently were placed where I could get at them easily.
Typically when I pack for a move, I seal the boxes and label them with the room where they will live, and the contents (broad category). I actually did that with the items I wouldn’t need for the duration of the remodel. For those items I will need to access, I kept the boxes open. I can see in them to find what I need so it works well for me.
Makeshift Kitchen
Another thing to consider as I was preparing, is to set up a makeshift kitchen of sorts. We understood that we would be eating out a lot, but we needed to be able to have the basics available; caffeine in the morning is a must for me! Mine ended up in my partially finished basement. There really was no other option.
Noise
One more thing to consider is the noise associated with the demolition. This is a little difficult to prepare for if you’ve never been through it, like me. Even though I work from home, I knew I would be ok with it, it was my kitty that concerned me. Cats do not like change or loud noises and she was going to go through both very soon.
As the journey continues, I will keep you posted on the progress, trials and tribulations, so stay tuned!
