Cooking Without a Kitchen

It's a challenge, all right, but one I'm glad to be faced with.  Work actually started Monday! The construction guy (as opposed to the electricians, sheetrocker and so on) showed up right on time and got to work.  We sure made him work hard. To no one's surprise, the walls tested postive for lead. The house predates mandated lead free paint by about 50 years! It's not going to be a hazard to anyone, as we'll cover the paint again (as it's been covered all these years by wallpaper) and the paint on the ceiling is behind the wood we put up a few years ago. Everything else tested lead free.  I never even thought of lead in the cabinets, since they've never been painted, but the tester told me many finishes from the '20s had lead. Glad we haven't been ingesting lead dust all these years...

Anyway, the lead means they have to use lead safe practices.  So Eric (the construction guy) had to tape up plastic on both doors into the interior of the house, put on something like a haz mat suit and a mask, wipe everything down afterwards, and dispose of the waste properly.  And he had to take pictures of each step, including a selfie while in his suit, to prove he did it! I guess OSHA can come down hard on them if they don't, and, since Home Depot is so big, I bet they get checked more than the standard family owned small business. The electricians had to do the same thing - probably silly in their case as you'll find out.

So after getting all set up, Eric took out the wood trim in the affected areas, including the spice rack, and then framed in the doorway and big hole left by the spice rack. The trim in the hall (seen here) needs redoing, as it won't go all the way to the new wall in its current configuration. Good thing we have wood! And of course as he's hauling stuff in and out, it starts to rain. That was the day we got 2.5" of rain, nearly all while he was in the house.  Poor guy. I will say he left it clean. Not spotless, but that would be kind of silly.

We had a chef's salad for dinner, so nothing that needed cooking, but it's such a challenge to prepare any kind of meal right now! We have kitchen stuff in every room but our bedroom - and that includes the bathroom! It's the only readily reachable place with a sink available during the day. I confess we used the sink in the kitchen Monday after Eric was gone. It's so much easier when you're not kneeling over the tub...  Anyway, the dishes are in the study, we had some of the food in the fridge that's staying in the kitchen, other food was on the porch and we needed to wash veggies! Everything takes 5 trips. But it shouldn't last long (fingers crossed) and I'm sure it will be SO worth it when it's done.

Yesterday the electricians started. They, as we thought, had to pull all the plaster from where the backsplash was. HD made them suit up, too, even though there wasn't any paint left where they were working. But rules are rules, so up went the plastic and on went the suits and out came the camera. Better them than me. It's no wonder our kitchen is so dang cold in the winter. We have some cellulose (I think) insulation in the all cavities, but they're also all lined with corrugated cardboard, most of
 
 which looks like it's been wet at some time. It certainly smells like it. Not the thing to keep you warm. It'll all be covered up with vapor barrier and proper insulation before being sheetrocked. I wonder if we'll notice a difference next winter? It's not that big a space when looking at the whole wall, so it might not.  And all the electrical Joe and Dad put in has to come out. Again, I don't know if it was never code, or if code has changed. I suspect the former. Given that it lasted all this time without trouble, I'm sure it was fine, but I'm glad to have it coming up to code.  And we'll have so many more outlets! And nice undercabinet lighting instead of the cheapo

SOME of the boxes going in

flourescent ones we had.

Tomorrow the plumber comes. They'll make all kinds of holes in the walls, for the venting for the kitchen sink and the plumbing for the dishwasher. We already unhooked the gas stove, but they'll cap and remove the gas pipe. It sticks out four inches from the wall. The new one will come up through the floor, allowing us to push the stove back flush with the wall. The more space, the better! Then the first round of inspections starts - electrical and plumbing tomorrow, and general building Friday.

We have our new fan and light, so most of our new stuff is either in house or waiting at a warehouse. It's almost hard to believe it's finally happening.

Oh, fun note. When we put up the wallpaper all those years ago, of course we dropped plumb lines. Believe it nor not, even after 3 sprayings with Diff and the use of a scrub brush, you can still see the lines in places!

Here's the view from the hallway through the door we're removing.  If you know our house, you know you can make a circle from the kitchen through the dining room into the hall and back into the kitchen.  Joe used to chase Kendra as she crawled around that circle as part of getting her ready for her bath. I  still don't know how, but he managed to totally strip her as she crawled. She'd giggle the whole time, and, no matter where I was, I giggled along. She had the most contagious laugh as a baby (and still has a great one!).