Some of the kitchen renovation’s side effects are sneaky and not immediately apparent. To refinish the floor in the adjacent family room, for example, we had to take the furniture out of that room. Now that the floors are done, you’d think we could reclaim the space. But that’s not what happened. Instead, the room somehow became the carpenter’s workshop before we could notice it. It seemed cruel to suggest otherwise when there were freezing temperatures and snow outside and the garage was so much less convenient, but now it’s a reality that’s hard to reverse.

Overall, it seems that we have to live with ever-increasing chaos in our house. Every living area has had its basic function overturned. The dining and laundry room share their job as the kitchen, the TV moved into my office (where there’s neither a couch nor a cable hook-up), and a mix of random pieces made the living room look like a furniture store. The guest room is a hoarder’s paradise. Even our lovely Netflix “theater” in the basement (a projector aimed at a big white wall) can’t be used–nobody wants to watch a movie while sitting amidst a drawer assembly line.

Then there are the dirt and dust that manage to invade every part of the house. It seems like there’s no use trying to keep up with it; we gave up on that idea weeks ago. It’s been different kinds of dust and stuff, some of it white and sticky, some of it dry and brown, and an endless chain of every sort of packaging material imaginable.

Basically, there is no escape left. There’s no privacy–the sweet hour after the kids have left the house in the morning is no longer ours. Instead, we hear the key in the front door and the shuffle of whatever is being dragged into the house for the new day. In short: The renovation has gradually been encroaching on our personal space, and it’s  started to threaten everybody’s breathing room. Snow days don’t make this better, either. Instead, they made it seem like it’s all never going to end.

(To see pictures of the remodeling progress from Day 1, click here.)