Kitchen Remodel: Week 1

The much anticipated project has officially begun! We moved into our new home in May and knew the 20 year old kitchen needed a facelift. Truthfully, it was a large reason we bought the home. So many houses we looked at had a newer kitchen that just wasn’t our style and it was harder to justify putting such a large cost into an update that the sellers were accounting in their sale price. As soon as we moved in, we had the team selected for the job and got in line on their calendars. As we got close to demo day the reality of living without a kitchen for many weeks set in. There would never be a “good time” to be without a kitchen, so it’s just going to be a creative few weeks for us!

Demo day was officially last Monday and it’s crazy how quick it was taken down to the studs. It was fun to watch the daily progress because I’ve never witnessed a renovation to fully understand all that it entails. It seemed like a slow week in terms of visible changes but every day we had plumbing and electrical changes as well as new canned lights and venting for our hood.

This upcoming week will be all about piecing everything back together. New drywall, patching holes in the ceiling from old canned lights, and other things I’m aloof to at this point. We’ve eaten out more than I wanted this week and eating healthy has been challenging to due the missing cooking equipment I once relied on. It’s temporary, but this week I need to try harder to prep for meals in advance and have grab and go (healthy) snacks washed and cut for ease. Last week we used our panini press for sandwiches and quesadillas using leftover grilled chicken and that will be a helpful tool for the remainder of the process!

I’ll be happy to share tips on cooking with limited space/equipment and would love to hear yours if you’ve been in a similar situation! I’m bringing our neighbor dinner this week because they just had a baby and I’m already wracking my brain of what I can possibly throw together in an impressive way with what we have to work with! Wish me luck.