This post is sponsored by Home Hardware. We are thrilled to be working with them throughout our entire renovation process.
Well, there’s no going back now. Our small, dysfunctional kitchen has been torn out and the work has begun to build it back up into the beachy, bright, kitchen of our dreams.
In my last post, I mentioned all the preparations we did before the renovation; things like decluttering and donating old items, eating the food in the pantry, and so on.
But there’s a whole bunch of other stuff that goes on when you’re prepping for a total kitchen demolition.
Originally, when we were going to do this renovation in the spring (pre-COVID), my stubborn plan was to live in the house while all of this was happening. Our kind and wonderful Home Installs Project Manager suggested that a kitchen remodel is no joke and that we might want to consider moving out.
I’m SO glad I took her advice. As much as it was a bit of a pain in the butt to pack away the kitchen and pack to move the family out for two weeks – it has been a total blessing.
I mean, demolitions make a mess AND take up space.
Things I didn’t realize would happen?
The giant dumpster for all the kitchen debris is literally the length of our driveway. So if we had stayed at the house, there was no place to put our cars. Home Hardware delivered six gigantic pieces of plywood to protect our driveway from damage due to the dumpster… and it was wild to watch them back it up using a huge truck on our tiny street!
But here’s the reality of the demo. After the sledgehammers and reciprocating saws do their thing… you are left with:
The dust.
The dust.
The dust.
I was at the house for about 30 minutes yesterday and I could feel the dust in the air. It will all settle eventually, and we have our cleaners on stand-by to do a deep clean once it’s all over – but living with all those particles floating around? No thank you.
We knew this was coming. Before leaving the house, we covered all our furniture in sheets before leaving and we rolled up the area rugs on the entire main floor.
The contractors are also being mindful to section off all the doorways leading into and out of the kitchen to mitigate the dust traveling through the house as much as possible.
Even still. It’s dusty.
Another thing I didn’t consider was the new cabinets would need a place to go as they were being sized and installed… which meant that immediately after the demolition, all the new pretty cabinets were piled into our living room.
See where this is going? A kitchen renovation and demolition take over your entire house. Which is why I’m so grateful that we moved out for this part of the process.
The cost of the rental apartment certainly added to the renovation expenses, but it came down to liveability and stress relief for us. The cost of ten nights in a clean, not-dusty, apartment with a functioning kitchen and laundry room was worth it.
