Friday, September 05, 2008

Project: Controlled Chaos

So remember that whole kitchen debate we were having way back when? We finally made a decision and you can probably guess how it went. Yeah, everything's ripped out. It's been okay so far - the demo went smoothly (after they started a day late) - and the ceiling/drywall repair has been completed with minimal dust. That, unfortunately, means I cannot blame the dusty state of my house on construction! No one was working today, but the cabinet install begins on Monday. I've seen one new cabinet out of its box and I still like them, which is a huge relief. (It also just so happens to be my new lazy susan corner cabinet and I am in awe of its cavernous insides.) Yay!

Of course all of this means that we have no stove, no dishwasher, no kitchen sink and weird access to the refrigerator (it's almost blocking the entrance to the family room so we have to think really skinny to get by, then stand on the steps to access it which puts me face to face with the crisper drawers). I have stocked up on electric skillet-friendly recipes and have fed Wyatt Chik-fil-a with no regret, despite the fact that we're only days into this. We're also unlikely to turn down a dinner invitation at your house. Dishes are being done upstairs in Wyatt's bathroom, both the dining table and the kitchen table are in the dining room, and my pretty hutch is now a very functional pantry with china and glassware stacked on top. It's pretty classy in these parts. Strangely, our military life has completely prepared us for this! Thank you, Uncle Sam. Jeff went through some training back in 2000 that put us in a glorified hotel room for four months, during which we functioned with an electric skillet, our George Foreman grill, a refrigerator and a bar sink. So now we've just added a dog and a two-year old. No big deal, right? Incidentally, Wyatt wakes up every morning asking if the kitchen is all better and Isaac was over last night, very concerned that our kitchen is broken.

The neighbors have been in to observe the empty kitchen - it looks so different with no cabinets that it's easier to envision other potential remodels, if that makes sense. Since our neighborhood is not entirely different than living on base in Okinawa (only three floorplans in here, all designed to look slightly different from the outside), they're in here plotting their own future kitchen overhauls. I figure we're kind of taking one for the cul-de-sac since they'll probably walk in when it's over and say, "well, there's a plan we won't do! ha ha! I'm so glad they messed it up first!"
There are already some design points that I would modify, but hindsight is really kind that way. We're taking this as a learning lesson and know that we won't own this house forever, so it's like a practice remodel or something (lesson one: don't put in new floors before you gut your kitchen since it kind of limits your options). Really, it's a great big, fun adventure whose one month time-frame will be just long enough to make us appreciate whatever the kitchen turns out to be, flaws and all. And hopefully it will be just enough to make our house more rentable and/or sellable when the time comes. If not, we'll just refer to this as the great financial folly of '08.

By the way, I'll be uploading some pics of this process to Flickr in the next day or so, and will attempt to keep updating it so check there if you're interested.

1 comment:

Mom said...

Sort of brings out the pioneering spirit, doesn't it? In a few weeks (hopefully) you'll look back and say, "That was totally worth it" Can't wait to see the pictures.