First off: thanks for all the praise, encouragement, advice and food we’ve been offered since I started chronicling our Kitchen Renovation project! In the office, in the neighborhood and even at a party last night, people have come up to me to cheer me on. Those in the know share their own stories, and the others are either glad that they already have a great kitchen or are waiting to see how things will go wrong work out. This is what’s happened so far:

Demolition is almost complete. The old cabinets and appliances have been taken out, and most of them got either recycled, donated or repurposed to serve in the garage and laundry  room. Only the old tile floor hasn’t been taken out yet–according to the contractors’  schedule, that’s going to happen tomorrow.

The space that used to be the kitchen was screened off from the rest of the house. For the time being, we have no business being in there. In the meantime, the flooring guys and the electrician paid site visits.

We’ve created a “temporary kitchen,” sort of, in the dining room. There’s the old fridge (minus the water filter–a real loss as the DC water tastes like it was pumped out of a public pool), the formerly built-in microwave propped up on one of the old cabinets, and toaster oven and a coffee maker. We bought lots of paper plates and -cups as well as plastic cutlery because the biggest problem with a temporary kitchen is that you can’t clean any dishes in it. Carrying every glass or knife down to the laundry room isn’t just a nuisance. It’s also not particularly savory.

Perhaps we should think of it as a camping trip. I’ll ask Chuck to brush the snow off the barbecue.