Kitchen Remodel - In the Beginning

After living in our house for over nine years, we finally bit the bullet and are remodeling our kitchen.  I know I haven't posted in a while, but that's because we've been organizing, purging, and cleaning out the kitchen in preparation of the work, which started this week.  Here are some "before" pictures. I'd like to say that the kitchen is a mess because we're packing it up, but that's only half true.  It generally always looks that cluttered, although we don't usually have a trash bag in the middle of the floor.  I am so excited to get more cabinets, counter space, and a bigger room, in general.  See that half-wall and column (below)?  It's gone.  :-)

 And this country border that lines the entire back half of the house?  It's going, too.  Buh bye!  I'd like to say I'm sorry to see you go, but I'd be lyin'.  I forgot to get a close up picture of the vinyl floor, but it had hearts on it, too.  Yeah, I'm pretty excited.

 Here's what the kitchen looked like after the first day:

The most worrisome part for me is not having a kitchen for four weeks.  I think the longest I've ever gone without cooking is maybe a week, when we've been on vacation, so this is going to test my patience (and waistline).  On the bright side, it forces us to try restaurants that we've been wanting to try but haven't because we rarely eat out.

We do have a temporary set up in the dining room for now, with a toaster oven and microwave.  I'm also working on a way so my husband can have his coffee, otherwise we'll have to bump the remodel budget up about $500, which is approximately what he would spend at Starbuck's and Dunkin Donuts if he has to buy coffee every day.  I'm only slightly exaggerating.

Luckily, we have an extra fridge in the basement, so we have cold stuff -- milk for cereal, sandwiches, and salads will do some nights.  For tonight, I'm trying to cook some frozen meatballs from Ikea that we bought last week.  I'm giving it a go in the crock pot, bought some liners, so the only thing we'll have to wash is the cover.  I'm not sure the gravy will work that way (I just dumped the mix and water in the crock pot, gave it a stir and dumped the meatballs in), but we'll know in about 8 hours. I'm either brilliant, or...not.  :-)

I'll keep you posted on the progress, but, needless to say, I won't be posting any recipes for a while.