Once I got the date for our kitchen renovation, things got real, fast. Jeff got the call that the other fan and the light fixtures were in at the light store, so he picked those up Saturday morning. Also Saturday morning, my new baby arrived!
I took Saturday off to get to work on the rest of the kitchen. I spent most of the day cleaning out the remaining cabinets and organizing our workspace in the basement. I can already tell it’s going to be an interesting few weeks! I’m going to get a lot of stair credit on my Apple Watch, I’ll tell you that!
The first, and probably most important part, we tackled was the pantry. I started by removing all of the food and organizing it into what I knew I’d need (oils, sauces, etc) and what I might not (waffle mix, lemon curd…you know…those non-everyday items).
No, this is nowhere near all of it.
Jake was a HUGE help! He removed the items he could reach and put them on the counter for me. Then I went through and organized things. Eventually we switched and he started “organizing”.
I had tons of plastic bins from over the years (I told you I liked containers!), so I organized things into bins where I could. Jake loves thing organized (unless it’s his toys), so he really enjoyed helping! 
Once we had everything pulled out of the pantry and organized, it was time to haul the stuff downstairs to set up. I have a bunch of these shelving units in the basement with bins of things on them, so I was able to clear off and stack the bins and move one of the shelves over to my work area to act as a pantry.
I have had “overstock” (yep…you can tell I work retail) in my basement for years (on the lefthand shelves). When I see a good deal on something, I stock up. So adding another shelving unit of food just seemed the right thing to do!
I will be cooking in a “make shift” kitchen throughout the process. My personal challenge is to only eat out once a week. The boys might eat out twice because I work one night a week, but other than that, we are STAYING IN! The more money we save, the sooner we can take on the next project!
I’m pretty proud of my little “kitchen”. I can’t really have the fridge items downstairs with me, which is the only thing I’m really not looking forward to, but I’m pretty sure I have everything else I need!
I love my toaster oven. It’s good size and I can cook a small pan of lasagna or stuff shells in it. I’m pretty sure I won’t have to use it nearly as much as I would have before I got my Instant Pot though! It would be pictured, but I’m making Mississippi Pot Roast for dinner, so it’s up in the kitchen currently.
My “workspace” has my most used items within arms reach. My olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and DLM spice rub is right there as well as some small mixing bowls and measuring cups.
The rest of my utensils and important accoutrement are in the stacked drawers that sit on the table. Ignore the labels…these were from my very brief days of scrapbooking. I was too lazy to remove them. The bottom drawer has various baking things in it. The next two drawers are filled with my spices…I told you I was addicted! The second to top drawer has measuring cups and spoons, whisks, spatulas, mixing spoons, etc in it. And finally all the tall bottles are at the top. You never know. I might actually like this set up! I won’t have to bustle around the kitchen quite as much!
Of course I couldn’t forget my coffee maker! I’m not really looking forward to going downstairs for my morning cup of joe, but we all must make sacrifices. Maybe it will get me in the habit of exercising first thing in the morning! (Wow…I sound lazy!)
Under the table, I have some larger mixing bowls and other kitchen items on the left, my big bin of baking things in the middle, and all the plastic wrap, bags, etc on the right.
At this point, I had spent a good few hours in the kitchen and basement. Jake was tired of helping so he decided to drive his truck around and pout, waiting for me to play with him. I should have sent him to his buddy’s house so he wasn’t so bored!
Finally the kitchen was cleaned out and our basement kitchen was assembled. Here is our final look at the kitchen I’ve been cooking in (and wishing to update) for over 7 years:
This is the main space I’m in when I’m in the kitchen. I spend most of my time cutting and prepping my food on both of these counters. One thing I love about our house is the tall ceilings. Our new kitchen is going to have cabinets that go all the way up to the crown molding above our fridge.
This is the opposite side of our kitchen. You can’t tell in this picture, but the space between these counters and the previous counters is too great. It was too small for an island and felt bigger than necessary. Our new kitchen will be straightening out the counter and removing pretty much everything thats not attached to the counter. Our upper cabinet (complete with its crooked door) and pantry will be gone and the counter will be turned into an island. I’ll be very excited to get rid of the “bar height” counter. No one could ever use it because the builders made it way too high.
This will all be gone! So long, ugly bar stools!
God, I hate our white cabinets and blue counters. So dang ugly! We are going to have a medium brown cabinets and grey/black counters. It’s hard for me to describe the color, but it’s very pretty. We love it. We will also have creamish colored tile on the floor and the same color subway tile as our backsplash.
You can baaaaarely see our cabinets and counters on the left side of this picture. In the new kitchen we will be extending the cabinets by TWO pantries! The cabinets will go nearly all the way to the windows! And there’s another one of those ugly fans! Good riddance! We will also be parting with our kitchen table. Jeff got this table when he was in college so it’s a good 15 years old! It’s a nice table but won’t really go with our new “look”.
So that was my Saturday. I feel accomplished and excited, though I am a little apprehensive to see how this whole cooking in the basement thing goes. It’s kind of like camping! Wish us luck! Now to go see Fifty Shades Darker. 😛
One Girl's Taste On Life 