We’ve mentioned a couple of times in the past few weeks that we were about to renovate our kitchen. We started over the weekend and everything is going great except we’re in the awkward place of not having a functioning kitchen.
We’re expecting to be without a kitchen for the next 2-3 weeks and thanks to the generosity of our close friends and family we’ve received a lot of dinner invitations, which we’re very appreciative of. While it could be worse, not having a kitchen is difficult and particularly inconvenient. From washing food and dishes to attempting to assemble non-cooked meals, we’re finding challenges and solutions all over the place. So far the best investment we've made is a shallow tub trug to do our dishes in, as well as preparing and freezing meals in advance which has really paid off. Have you ever lived without a kitchen? What helped you get through?
Using Luxury Rooms to Keep Teens Home
Juan's Garage Turned Modern Guest House
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sheex Bedding
Yuck: A Fourth Grader Reveals What School Lunches Really Look Like
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
Move the fridge into the dining room, and grill things outside if the climate accommodates that. 2-3 weeks doesn't sound so long. Given what I've heard about kitchen renos, expect it to be longer!
I'm so sad to see that AMAZING stove gone but I'm sure it didn't cook as well as a newer model. I hope you had it salvaged and not thrown away...
Actually looking again... maybe its not as old and vintage as I thought.
This situation sucks. No fun.
We are almost done with our kitchen remodel, which we started over Labor Day weekend. We moved the refrigerator, butcher block island, cafe set from the breakfast nook, and all the essential cooking tools into the dining room. I cooked on a two-burner hot plate or on the grill, and we washed dishes in the camp sink in the (clean) bathtub.
Good luck!
1. Set up a "kitchen" area somewhere else, with a toaster oven, coffee maker, tea kettle, microwave.
2. Grill, baby, grill.
3. Expect it to last much longer than 2-3 weeks.
We had no kitchen for nine (9!) weeks while ours was ripped out, dehumidified and replaced. We got through this by freezing a lot of meals beforehand (mainly stew, chilli and bolognaise sauce) that we could heat up easily with rice, pasta and veg (this saved a lot of money and kept us in healthy food); we BBQ'd occasionally even though it was February (we even managed roast potatoes once); we borrowed a double gas camping burner and kept our microwave which we set up in the living room with a big table, a fridge and shelves for the stuff we needed. It was a good idea to not just survive but prepare and think about what we needed so it was a nice place to prepare food. We used a washing up bowl to wash dishes (which we limited in use!). We also made sure we covered the floor so the carpet didn't get wrecked.
We didn't eat curry or fish (too smelly in the living room) and we kept to simple food! By the end of it we were craving grilled food, baked goods, and spicy stuff but we survived without resorting to take-away too often.
When i remodeled my kitchen two years ago, i had nothing left but the fridge...
I've set up my water-cooker and breakfast supplies in the living room, and left just a minimum of dishes unpacked.
My neighbours (they are all fabulous!!) offered me to cook / warm something in their kitchens, gave me their appartment keys while on business-travel, etc.
This was over a period of 5 weeks, and of course even if it is not comfortable, you have to improvise a lot, but once the new kitchen finished, i was sooo happy , cooked ( and still do ) a lot more than ever in my life and actually spend most of my time in the kitchen (i have a comfy bench ).
We were without our kitchen for 3 months. It was no big deal, really! We had available to us: our refrigerator, microwave, and bathroom sink.
How we coped with this: Take out, eating out, microwave "meals". We did each 2 or 3 times per week. In addition, we had to make our child a lunch to take to school each day. We got through it, ok. Now we have a nice kitchen and an album showing our remodel as it progressed.
I am in the middle of this too.....my kiychen is ripped out and today will be wired for plugs and cabinet lights then I'll add a new floor this weekend....then IKEA will deliver my kitchen on the 2nd!!.
It's chaos here.....chaos taking place on horrible grey "stone tile" laminate that was unearthed when I took of the floating floor.
Wost bit.....fast food, cereal, and sandwiches for 3 days now!
Best bit.......moving the coffee maker into my bedroom!!
WHAT A SLICE OF HEAVEN in the morning!
The price of the kitchen makes up for it all.....I bought it during the 20% off sale IKEA just had.....and the entire thing including appliances and ceasarstone counter tops, was a measly $5900.....I'm thrilled!
We ran into so many unexpected hurdles in our house renovation that we ran out of money for the kitchen, which we had gutted. To make it work for now, we bought a 9-foot stainless steel work table with integrated sink from a restaurant supply warehouse for about $300. Then we bought two hot plates from Target. (We had bought a fancy Dacor gas range off of Craigslist for cheap, but it isn't working; long story.) An extra large toaster oven works well for heating things up, and thankfully we do have a new fridge. Our trusty old butcher block island on wheels gives us more prep space. We're blogging about the whole thing so if you're interested head on over to 2cats.wordpress.com.
Photos of the kitchen specifically are in this entry:
http://2cats.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/day-135-we-have-arrived/
The biggest hurdle now isn't lack of appliances but lack of shelving to put all our stuff on.
I did the same as others. Set up a mini kitchen in the bathroom. Minimal dishes, coffee maker, microwave and a cabinet for supplies. We ate lots of toast, cereal, sandwiches, trader joe's microwave, etc. Honestly, it isn't that bad. We treated it sort of like camping for a few weeks.
My old cabinets were removed and new cabinets were installed in one day, but, we had to wait three weeks for the coutertop to be fabricated. My contractor offered to set up a temporary countertop and sink (and hook-up the dishwasher) during that time. Otherwise, I would have been washing dishes in the bathtub....ewww.
Yep. Minimal dishes, because washing them in the bathroom sink really sucks. Lots of microwavable foods, and take out. Not healthy.
But we weren't without a kitchen for a very long. If we had gone without for nine weeks like others here, we would have needed a different solution.
Another mini kitchen:
* move the fridge out
* dining room table instead of counters
* coffee maker, hot plate and electric griddle instead of stove
* toaster oven and crock pot instead of oven
* wash dishes in bathroom
You can probably borrow various small appliances from friends to make your life more interesting. Most people have lots of single purpose items they received as gifts and don't use such as hot dog cooker, fondue pot, bread maker, sandwich maker, and waffle iron.
yes yes yes! check out my kitchen renovation blog... http://hishouseherhelp.wordpress.com/
it is underway as we speak! bf has been w/out a kitchen for several months now. he set up a faux kit in the foyer w/ a full size frig, microwave, toaster oven, and hot plate! toaster oven is the lifesaver!
i will be posting pics of the temp kit soon on the blog later this week probably... even an action shot of cleaning dishes in a bathroom pedestal sink! get excited.
The grill, paper plates, the garden hose, and takeaway!
After a weekend of 16-hour days, my husband and I are nearly done with our partial remodel, which included rewiring, re-plumbing, modifying the vintage cabinets for a larger cooktop and a dishwasher, building a new countertop, and building a new plywood cement subfloor. I'm grouting the counter today, and on Friday we install the floor tile. We did not set up a makeshift kitchen in hopes that we would work faster from annoyance, and it worked (caveat: no kids or dog).
You will get there, too, even if you have some setbacks!
It seems like people learn how to deal with no kitchen... but how do you keep the drywall dust from getting everywhere?!?
heather, good question! check out my recent blog post about our kitchen renovation. the first pic shows a temporary door that we put in the opening that leads into the kitchen. then we stuffed paper towels around the door to really keep it airtight. we did this at every opening. we can only get to the kitchen & that side of the house now from the carport.
http://hishouseherhelp.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/before-pics-post-demo/
We lived without a kitchen for over a year thanks to severly underestimating our home's remodel, which ended up being a complete gut/rehab.
As a result, I gained 13 lbs. from eating out, I can't look at a microwave meal without wincing, and I know every restaurant delivery guy by name within a 5 mile radius of our home.
Next time...who am I kidding? There won't BE a next time.
: )
Well this is right up my alley..... Going on 4 months without a kitchen! And since most of the house is under renovation, it doesn't sound too tempting trying to create a mini functional kitchen. We just bought a refrigerator (yay, cereal in the mornings) but other than that.... it's just been A LOT of eating out. It will still be another couple months before we have our dream kitchen and my biggest fear is that I'll walk into it and think "What, I have to cook and do dishes now?? Let's just order out."
yes! my kitchen looks a lot like that during photo at the moment (even the cabinet colour). we have stuff everywhere, but we're expecting to have the kitchen functional tomorrow.
we've been, uh, treating ourselves to a few nice meals out. and also using the microwave/convection oven and electric frypan.
for dishes it's been a washing up tub in the laundry sink. ugh.
During my kitchen renovation I was without a counter, sink and cabinets for about 2 months. I had my old ones removed as soon as I moved in because I couldn't stand to look at them. It was tough but well worth it in the end (well maybe). Luckily I still had a fridge so I lived off frozen dinners. I live alone which made it easier but I can defintely see how renovating could put a huge strain on a marriage.........I was renovating my kitchen and bathroom at the same time so there were a few weeks when my only running water was in the tub......... all I can say is thank god I lived alone because it made me pretty cranky!
I dunno about a kitchen, but I've been living with only a half bath for the last 3 weeks. Snowpocalypse hit right after the demolition finished, won't have a shower for at least a week or so.
University gym has been great, also some wonderful neighbors (I waded through waist high snow...showering was almost pointless at that point!), but there's been at least a few sponge baths at the kitchen sink.
Hmm. If I will live without a kitchen for several weeks, I’ll move the fridge somewhere else where I can still plug it in and use it so that food wouldn’t be rotten. Maybe I would stick with microwave-cooked food first or some instant food. We did this when we were also renovating our kitchen and we added a center stainless steel work table in it. We were able to successfully survive those weeks. Good thing you have some nice friends who invite you over for some meal. So don’t be too depressed, 2-3 weeks is not very long. Your sacrifice will come with a great reward afterwards.