Throwing Out Everything AND The Kitchen Sink.

So.

I didn’t plan on a kitchen renovation this year.  In fact, I figured that it would be just one of those things that I occasionally dream about but never actually do.  We had done a little to the house after we bought it and that was working well enough.

Until this happened:

So the boys got a little show yesterday when our handiest of handymen took our busted pipe apart.

Had we PLANNED on replacing everything in our kitchen, we might have had everything all picked out before ripping out the old stuff; instead we find ourselves scrambling a bit because we miss having a kitchen sink (turns out they’re really convenient). All of our “what if we did this…” hypothetical comments we have made over the years are now actually something to consider. It’s rather intimidating.

So our task for this weekend is to pick out new floors, probably new cabinets and new countertops as well (so…new kitchen). The deciding factor on what actually gets installed, however, is insurance: what they’ll cover, what they won’t (and what that means exactly in dollars), and we haven’t heard the final say yet.

IN the meantime this is what we’re working with:

I pulled up Marlowe’s changing table which was in the downstairs bathroom and it’s now our little coffee station/ bus station.  The main challenge is that it’s hard to find a place to wash dishes (our bathroom sinks are pretty small and not meant to wash solids down the drain). So we’re doing some paper plates for things that can’t be washed off in the sink and some aluminum foil pans that would need scrubbing.  The granola me is just going to have to deal with it.

Oh, I feel like it might be worth mentioning that there’s a dishwasher in the middle of the floor and our cabinets and countertop are hanging out in pieces in the basement.

Anyway, we’ve got a new little routine… when it’s time to do the dishes we take a bin that sits under our bus station up to the bathroom to wash and lay on a towel on the counter.  Anything that is stubborn to clean (for example, a bowl of oatmeal), I use hot water to loosen it and then pour into the toilet which, as it turns out, makes me gag. You learn new things about yourself every day!

Just another life lesson in rolling with it.  Honestly, while it’s been a bit inconvenient, I’m just happy that the hole is closed up and there’s plywood on the subflooring. It’s the little things.

In these kinds of situations I like to look at the upside… so here’s what I got:

• It would have been years probably before we decided to actually renovate the kitchen so this certainly motivates us to finally get it done.
• We didn’t really want new floors but we’re getting new floors…so, there’s that.
• I don’t think I’ve ever fully appreciated the kitchen sink as much as I will now.
• I can brush my teeth, bathe the toddler and do the dishes at the same time.

 

Have you ever had a surprise kitchen renovation (or even a planned one)? Any tips?
Leave a comment, I’d love to hear your ideas!