Change is good.... Your Help Requested!

Change is good... change is good... change is good!

My new mantra.

Half the kitchen was ripped out today. No oven, no microwave, no hotplates... dinner tonight is going to challenge my creativity!

3-minute noodles, anyone?

Actually, have sandwich press - can do toasted sandwiches!

I have never renovated a house I was living in before. And never renovated a kitchen before. We've been here for 13 years, the house is older than that, the original kitchen was looking a bit sad. I promised Chris I'd take before and after photos. Only, I didn't remember until the oven, microwave and half the cupboards had been ripped out this morning that I wanted to take photos.

I'll post the 'during' and the 'after' photos together once the reno is complete.

I promise that this won't turn into a 'renovators delight' blog... honest!

But what it brings up for me is my reaction to all this. People keep saying to me - you must be so excited!

I'm NOT. There is too much work, too much disruption for me to get excited. I'll be excited, or deliriously pleased at least, once all the work is done, once the last workman leaves the house, once the boxes and bags are all emptied and everything has been assigned a place and is residing therein.

But as we are doing the kitchen, then the laundry, then the floors of the entire house, then a little bit of painting (can you hear the big sigh??) it's not going to be over in a week. Not even in a month!

I'd love to have it all done by Easter but I really don't like my chances.

So, no, I am not excited.

BUT. I'm calm. And that, my friends, is the key ingredient today. Being calm, not getting flustered. Coping well. If my attitude is calm, then those of my family won't get to fever pitch during the upheaval (I hope!).

And I am begging you - any tips at all from those of you that have lived through a renovation and survived to tell the tale can give me - please, please leave a comment or email me?

Comments

[Chris Owen]

I'm sending soothing vibes dear!
It'll be over soon!
And I've never heard of a better excuse to cook as little as possible and have a bloody good alibi!
Soak up the simple meals/cheffing.
The problem with having a nice kitchen is that you feel guilty if you don't whip up an exotic pumpkin risotto with endless stirring of the pot!
Hear me now! YOU DON"T HAVE TO COOK FOR AS LONG AS THIS RENO TAKES!!
I say let's have drink to celebrate!
What's more when you DO go back to cooking, they'll apprecaite even your most mundane offerings.
See the silver lining here?

[Leah Maclean]

One word K - BBQ! It is a god-send during renovations and it is amazing what you can good on a BBQ (especially if you have one with a hood or a gas ring on the side).

In the meantime I will send you warm patient thoughts. The only good thing is that you are not pulling out a bathroom - now that IS a nightmare.

[Renée]

Hi Karen,

I'm like you, I never like to live in a house where renovation is going on. I'd my kitchen renovated and repainted the whole house 3 years back due to Feng Shui reason.

The house was a total mess. There's no way I could cook for my family and dogs when all the kitchen utensils were packed into boxes piled up in my study room (store room was already filled with other stuff).

What we did was we got catering service to deliver our meals and went out for dinner on weekends. A period of unhealthy eating but we survived.

At the end of each renovation day, we clear as much debris as possible even for those unaffected rooms especially bedroom. At the very least, we get a good night sleep before the chaos begins tomorrow.

[Karen Wallace]

Renovations mean Chaos Rules. And I forget to respond to your kind comments - sorry!!

Chris - I took you up on your advice the first week and did the takeaway thing, only the options round here are so limited that we exhausted all possibilities pretty quickly. I've taken you up on the offer of a drink to celebrate quite often though.

Leah - yes the BBQ is a life-saver - in more ways than one. You see, since I burned pork chops to a cinder a while ago (and almost wrecked the new BBQ) I am not allowed near it. G does the cooking when it's BBQ :-)

[Karen Wallace]

Hi Renee and welcome! It's lovely to have you visit. It looks like you survived your reno in one piece, so I'm taking hope from that.

I have been taking your advice and clearing the debris each afternoon after the workmen have gone. A quick vac helps tremendously to keep the dust down. Yesterday was a bit bigger clean, since the plasterer putting in new cornices didn't believe in drop sheets. There was big globs of plaster everywhere! gooey and horrible... sigh.