Today I was talking to Mom on the phone. Nothing special, I just felt like chatting. Anyone with children knows what happened next. Peanut decided he was famished. Now, this child refuses to eat a square meal, preferring instead to graze and munch throughout the day. He’s 2 – the world is opening up to him – so I cut him a good deal of slack with this.

He first opened the sealed end of a cracker box, causing the contents to spill out onto the floor. Now, for a 2 year old, the floor is perhaps the most enticing condiment food ever met. Nothing looks so appetizing as a dead bug on the floor, or a bit of week old hamburger garnished with tile floor. Or a mountain of cracker crumbs with a side of dirty floor. Good grief! So, while balancing phone on shoulder, I swept up as many crumbs as I could between Peanut’s greedy grabs and deposited them in the trash. I distracted Peanut with his toy tractor – but that only lasted for 2 minutes. Soon, he was back in the pantry grabbing for yogurt covered raisins. Peanut does not like the texture of raisins, but he would happily sit on the floor popping one raisin after the other into his mouth, then spit it out, then pop another raisin, then spit it out, again and again and again.

Still on the phone, I pried the yogurt covered raisins from his sweaty little palms. HUGE FIT. “miiiiiiiinnnne, miiiiiiiiiiiinnnnne!!!!!!!!” I attempted to placate him with a juice cup to no avail. He was back in the pantry again after a couple of minutes. At this point, I was getting frustrated. I probably should have just popped his little rear and been done with it, but I was trying to hear Mom on the phone. So, I did what I frequently do when Sweet Pea or Sparkly are re-enacting a loud scene from Star Wars, or all three of the kids are galloping through the house, or all are singing (only one volume here -loud) and often accompanied by the keyboards at full volume, I locked myself in the pantry. Doesn’t everyone do that??

When Mom discovered that I had locked myself in the pantry with Peanut wailing away on the other side, I think she was mystified. I enjoy talking from within the pantry, I can pull up a wheat bucket, munch on a chip or two and enjoy a perfectly pleasant conversation there.

It’s taken me a bit of time to find a few minutes here and there to piece this post together.  We’re so blessed and so grateful for the amazing spaces we dreamed about {for the past 12 years that we’ve been in our home} and worked hard to make a reality and now get to enjoy! Truly!  I shared about the beginning of our remodel experience, and now, I get to share some after pictures with you!  If pictures of kitchen spaces aren’t your thing…here’s your chance to click away now because this post will be photo heavy.  🙂  This post will only cover the kitchen; I’ll post later to show you the utility/pantry/entry room…and the new learning room will have to be a post all its own, too.

Getting through the remodel was challenging, but workable.  Once we were on the other side we had to shift gears quickly since we were already into Advent.  So, there was this joy and delight in the spaces we’d envisioned in our imaginations now becoming real before us…and there was the guarding of some quiet and the traditional Advent preparations.  And in between it all, we had to move back into our own home.  {We lived here through the remodel, but we had to pack up our kitchen, learning room, dining room, most of our bedroom, and a fair amount of our family room while construction was going on.  Do you have any idea how much of your kitchen you can actually pack into your bathroom?  Actually, a stunning amount!  And, I still have some books packed in bins in my garage!  One bin at a time…I’ll get there!}  Having said all of that, I’d love to share a few pictures and the rest of the story on the remodel

…so without further ado…

THIS

is my new kitchen

Let’s review….BEFORE…

There was this….

…and the dining {former learning} room, which was separated from the kitchen with a wall…

…and all of that has now become….this…

Here are a few more before and after perspective shots

Below used to be the view standing in my hallway looking into my old kitchen.

and now…

The space is almost completely opened up now.  The old tile floors were demolished {Good riddance!!  How I loathe thee pitted-mock-stone tile!} and red oak hardwoods were installed and finished to match my existing hardwood floors.  {Our floors are all unstained – they’re natural red oak sealed with polyurethane…in case you wondered!  LOL!}

In our old kitchen, there was a double enameled cast-iron sink {please note the chipped formica…sigh…}.  Which I honestly loathed.  It was barely 7 ½” deep and you couldn’t fit a regular pot in one side of the sink…let alone casserole dishes.  Just fitting the dishes we generated for a regular meal was such a challenge!  And my ovens?  Yes – I did have double ovens which I truly enjoyed and relied on, but what you probably can’t tell from this picture is that they were undersized.  Roasting pans for a turkey – nope, not goin’ in.  Sheet pan?  Doesn’t fit.  Oversized casserole dish?  Uh-uh.

I spent 12 years embracing the kitchen we were blessed to have and finding a great deal of peace and contentment in that!  We made it work.  There’s a real joy in that!  And for 12 years I quietly considered every little bit of that space – honestly critiquing spaces that worked, that didn’t, that could be imagined differently.  And I imagined them again and again while remaining content with what we had…until all of a sudden, we were changing things.  And all of my imaginings began to translate first on paper…and then into this amazing kitchen that I’m overjoyed to share with you today.  I’m blessed.  There’s just no other way to express my gratitude.

A closer look

This is the new western wall of my kitchen {this is the wall that formerly had the microwave, double ovens and cooktop}.  You can see that we rearranged all of the major appliances, cut a big hole in the wall, and added a beautiful window that lets in such light!  From this window I can see my little kitchen potager {and right now…it is so badly in need of tending!}.

My new bake center is actually in the same location as my old bake center – on the left side of my kitchen {Picture 1}.  The cabinets below the bake center each have a slide out drawer – which I use for small appliances like my food processor and toaster.

On the right side of the kitchen {Picture 2}, I have my dishwasher, and to the right of that, the bank of drawers.  The single drawer above holds flatware and serving utensils.

Where-oh-where is all the nitty-gritty stuff of the kitchen, you ask?  The two deep drawers hold sippy cups, food storage containers, mason jars, etc.  And my island is nothing but storage – so I have lots of things that we don’t use every day, but would like to have access to, stored under the island!

The kitchen overall is an L-shaped kitchen with a large 7′ x 6′ island in the center.  The island seats 6 comfortably.  I found the chairs at Overstock.com – in case you’re interested, they’re Tribecca Mackenzie counter height chairs {which I waited to purchase at deep discount during Cyber Monday sales}.  I have a set of 8 table chairs in the same style around my table. {You can see them pictured in one of the photos of the dining room up above.} They’re very comfortable chairs and match the cream of the kitchen perfectly!

Our big island is also the home for my new induction cooktop.  I really wanted a gas cooktop, but it just wasn’t in the budget for us since we have no gas lines to the kitchen.  So we compromised and ended up with a 36″ Induction cooktop, and I have to tell you, I love the responsiveness in cooking.  I’m just concerned about long term durability of the glass on the cooktop and the electronic/computer guts of this beast. Time will tell, I guess.  I do like the bridge elements that allow me to convert smaller elements into one long rectangular element.  And I love the large cooking element in the center.

Instead of a hood that hangs over the cooktop, we went with a downdraft, and we {read: Rob and my two sons} love it {because of the coolness factor}.  You probably can’t even see it very well in these pictures, which is the point – it’s meant to be very unobtrusive.  But, there is a 2 inch wide stainless strip that runs across the top of my cooktop.  With the touch of a button, the downdraft unit rises, and there are three variable speeds that suck the burning bacon smoke…ahem…cooking vapors….through the downdraft where it is routed under my kitchen and then right out of doors.  It does work.  It is sorta loud.  But >>slightly loud vacuous smoke sucker<< wins over >>mom has set off the smoke detector yet again in her attempt to add a crispy edge to something with grease<<.  And, I didn’t want a hood hanging over my island.

The layout and design of this kitchen are all mine; we didn’t have the help of a designer, though at times I really wish I did have a designer’s help!  There were a lot of things I knew I wanted and I stood firm on those decisions {like my open cabinets that totally baffled our cabinetmaker…and the double faucets that baffled just about everyone!}, but there were other details I really would have liked more design help with.  Still, I don’t have any regrets; the kitchen is cheery, welcoming, and bright.

This is a closer view of the right side upper cabinets in the kitchen.  These pieces are not decorative – absolutely everything pictured serves our family – most on a daily basis.  I use the platters, plates, glasses…and if you look closely, you’ll even spot some plastic stuff!!  {gasp!}  I didn’t want anything to match, but I did want to follow a cohesive color pattern of creamy white with touches of blue-green everywhere, which you can find in the dried hydrangeas, vintage Mason jars, plastic cups, and other dishes.  I’m especially in love with the set of creamware serving platters my mom and sister got me for Christmas!

Coffee and tea – The backsplash is a simple subway tile in cappuccino {gloss finish}.  I mean – come on – how could I not love a backsplash tile in the color of a cappuccino? And…in keeping with the warm drink theme, the color on the walls is Behr Premium Teatime.  How great is that?  Coffee and tea!

Marble counters – and making peace with it

The two photos here {above and below} give a fair look at the marble we chose for the kitchen.  When we talked with stone-cutters about our counter choices, marble was about the farthest thing from my mind.  I assumed marble wasn’t for a kitchen that functioned and hummed along at a full pace day-in-and-day-out.  I assumed marble was mainly for showpiece kitchens.  Turns out – I was wrong.  When Rob and I went to shop for counters, the salesperson asked us about our family, how we used the kitchen, what we expected from counters, the overall look we were going for, the durability expected and the maintenance I was willing to give.  Then she suggested marble.  In disbelief, I immediately replied:

“Oh no.  No.  No.  No.  I don’t think so.  I’m certain we’d destroy marble counters.”

“Why don’t you try to destroy it?  If you can do it, let’s reconsider.  But first, I’ll give you a week to see if you can stain, mark or destroy this piece of rock,” she challenged.  Intrigued, and in love with the “look” of marble {we just had a tour of the warehouse full of beautiful stone pieces, and I was instantly attracted to Crema-marfil marble}, we were sent home with a 12″ x 12″ remnant piece of the marble we liked – the same crema-marfil you see in my kitchen.  She instructed me on marble’s enemies: acids like — lemon, tomato, tomato sauce, wine, coffee – and how to take care of marble.  Marble, while not for everyone, shouldn’t be dismissed so quickly as an option, she suggested. And so…I put that little piece of marble to the test.

I put every acid I could find on my little piece of marble and then…just walked away.  Yep.  I left red wine, coffee, tomato sauce, and a half a lemon just sitting there on that creamy, buttery piece of marble.  For a week.  I didn’t pick anything up – I just let it all dry in place.  When I wiped, you bet it was stained!  But, having been instructed on marble’s qualities, one of which was its forgivable ability to be sanded and emerge like new, I followed the salesperson’s simple directions: 220 grit sandpaper, {elbow grease}, followed by a light coat of mineral oil.  And you know what?  It sanded out.  Every one of those stains!  EVEN the red wine which had really soaked into the marble after a week!  Some stains sanded out easier than others, but the point was that the salesperson was right – we could live and eat and spill and be messy, and sometimes even forget to wipe up…and this big rock would forgive and forget.  So….I went back and slapped our name on three big pieces of Spanish Crema-marfil and that’s how we ended up with our big rock!  Which we truly love!  The marble was a surprise for me, and a lesson in being flexible and listening with an open mind to skilled artisans.  I love how organic the marble is, how unique – and how imperfect it is…just like us.

The color of crema marfil is a very buttery, creamy color with lots of subtle gray and red veining.  Typically, you see a lot of Italian Carrara marble in kitchens, so this was another area I veered off the beaten path.  I couldn’t be happier with it!  The reason I fell in love with Crema was because of its overall creaminess and the warmth it adds to the kitchen look.

Our marble counters are honed, not polished.  This means that the marble has a very matte/flat finish, as opposed to a polished look which is sooooo very pretty…but wasn’t as practical for our family because as soon as you sand a polished spot…it’s not polished anymore.  But the rest of your counter is. I do love the look of honed in the crema-marfil because the overall finish color is a buttery, almost rose color, whereas polished the color is deeper, richer, and much more beige with orange tones.

In terms of the esteemed practical – marble is very durable {hot pans and pots go right on the rock}, and believe it or not, I find it pretty easy to live with and maintain, and forgiving when it’s stained. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you thought marble was only for kitchens that were for show, never used, not cooked in, and never had kids trekking through it, I’m happy to be the spokesperson for the marble-kitchen-with-lots-of-kids-spills-and-action!

It’s just a big, beautiful rock.  That’s it.

My weekly routine is to wipe all the counters down with Method for Granite and Marble using a microfiber cloth, and follow it with plain mineral oil and allow the mineral oil to soak in overnight {wiping up the excess oil in the morning}.  That’s it.  I use the same microfiber cloth {already damp with the Method brand marble cleaner} to wipe down all the stainless in the kitchen {faucets, appliances} and it does a great job.  If you have marble {especially honed marble} and have a preferred cleaner that you love, one that might even give a slight buffed look, please leave me a comment!  I’m new to this and I’d love to hear others’ experiences!

The Farmhouse Sink and Double Faucets

After struggling with a white enamel sink with a double basin for so long, I was pretty convinced that a white farmhouse sink was the last thing I wanted in my “practical-functional-pretty” kitchen.  But the pretty side of me…was smitten.  And just like the annoying song you heard on your child’s ABC sing-song app that WILL NOT get out of your head…I couldn’t quit thinking of a pretty, white farmhouse sink with the skirt front.  So, I started researching.

It turns out that the newer sinks are all fireclay sinks, and after talking to various sales-people and researching and reading reviews, I was *told* that they are extremely durable!  They’re harder to scratch or scuff {you know…that ugly silver/gray streak your stainless pots leave when you’re washing them in a white sink?}, and they maintain their pristine finish much better than their older enameled cast iron cousins.  So…I took a leap of faith, and ordered my dream sink from Signature Hardware:  an Italian fireclay farmhouse sink that mounts under the counter.  It has a single drain in the middle {which was my preference}, and is the deepest and largest single basin I could find: 10″ deep x 36″ wide.

We put this sink through the ringer from the word go!  We cooked and cleaned and entertained so much over Christmas, and this sink has performed like a champion.  One benefit of having such a large sink is that we can fit a lot of dishes in here.  A LOT!  So, the sink just absorbs the mess, and the kitchen doesn’t have stacks of dirty dishes everywhere…which is nice because the house is so open now, and it’s one of those side benefits you don’t discover until you start living in a space.  Now, full disclosure: the sink has gotten a tiny little mark here or there as we wash a big sheet pan or something stainless. It’s nothing like the gray scratches I used to get in my old sink just from waving a baking sheet over the sink.  Anyway, I’ll notice the small mark and think, “hmmm…I guess I need to clean the sink during my weekly kitchen clean up,” and by the week’s end, the mark is gone!  Mysterious!!  Yet beloved!!!  {Seriously though – my best guess is that just swishing around in the sink with my washcloth during ordinary clean up is enough to whisk the little gray mark away.}

I knew I wanted double faucets.  The idea was inspired by a 48″ Kohler utility sink which, truthfully, I almost bought for our kitchen, but decided against because it was too deep for standard cabinets, so the cabinet box would have to be adjusted, and, and, and…but the one takeaway for me was: 2 faucets!  Heaven!  So, I researched faucets {to death!!!  Oy!} and we chose the Delta Cassidy faucet in the arctic stainless finish.  Times two.  In between the faucets is a soap dispenser.  How many different ways do I love having two faucets?

• Two people can do dishes at once – double the efficiency.
• One person can work on meal prep dishes while another uses the other faucet for veg rinsing, filling pots {which, by the way, is another benefit of having two faucets: the faucet is mounted close enough to the side that it can easily swing out to fill a pot that is sitting on the counter}, and general meal prep.
• Someone can bring in a basket full of fresh eggs that need to be washed and do so without interrupting the person that is filling a glass of water, rinsing or washing dishes, scrubbing veggies, filling the coffee pot.
• I can wash the baby’s hair on one side, while someone works with the other faucet.

Just sit back and think, dear reader, of the different things you throw into your sink.  Your kids shoes after a romp through the mud. The frozen animal water dispenser, pots, pans, food, coffee pots. Thawing the frozen corn you meant to take out of your freezer hours ago but must cook in 15 minutes. Your 5 year old’s knee after it meets the pavement.  And tell me if I’m wrong – but aren’t you always washing dishes when any of the above needs to happen?  Having two faucets means that our family can do all of those things with the ease of access to two faucets instead of one.  Two faucets – now THAT is my idea of LUXURY!

The single basin is another feature I love!  I can set two large 9″x13″ casserole dishes down lengthwise in the basin of this sink – side by side {utterly unthinkable for me to fit even ONE casserole dish in one basin of my old sink} – and still have room for more dishes.  The point is that this sink is roomy and accommodating!  It’s thrilling!

Appliances

When choosing appliances, we were well aware of the fingerprint issue with stainless steel, but it didn’t make sense to go with anything else.  Every appliance is from the Jenn Air line because, as luck would have it, they were having a sale at the time we were shopping.

The top unit is a microwave and convection oven combo unit.  The bottom unit is a convection oven.

The fridge and freezer…sigh…well, let’s just say that our choices became more and more limited by the inevitable, planned obsolescence in the appliance world today.  I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say, we ended up choosing what is essentially made to look like an expensive built in fridge, but what you see are just two regular, slide in units that have a special kit that goes around them to make them look built in.  They’re voluminous, and basically no frills after that, which is what we wanted.  Both the refrigerator and freezer are from the Frigidaire professional line.  We love them!!!

Above is probably the best picture {if you’re even remotely interested} for seeing the downdraft….see {on the island…above the cooktop} that thin stainless strip that runs across the length of my cooktop?  That’s the downdraft – at the push of a button it rises about 12-18″ to function…and then recesses to almost invisible when not in use.

Finally, I know you’re going to ask – the organizer hanging on my fridge is the Hang Up Home Organizer {in an older print} from Thirty-One Gifts.

Side note: I can’t tell you how grateful I am for the durable organization of all the Thirty One Gifts products!  When the house was completely gutted, and we were schooling out of bags so we could be mobile and portable, and my little make-shift pantry had to be set up and sometimes removed from the dusty parts of the house during construction…I kept it all in Thirty One Utility Totes!  I’ll share some pics of our mobile school-in-bags in my upcoming learning room post, but for now, if you’re looking for a consultant because you’d like to order, please send my consultant, Jenny, an email!

Back to the Hang Up Home Organizer – It’s great for organizing all the essentials that you look for when you’re groping for that first cup of coffee and wondering if it’s the 14th or the 15th of the month, and….is the dentist appointment tomorrow…or next week…or in 30 minutes?  Great pockets, and I love the ability to hang a calendar on the organizer!  The four pockets at the bottom of the organizer are great for holding coupons, take-out menus, receipts, papers needed for upcoming appointments.  I have mine hanging on the freezer with rare earth magnets, but the grommets on the top are meant for a hook/nail-on-the wall maneuver, and I’ve seen some youtube videos of some people hanging theirs on over the door hooks.  Lots of options!  But…I wanted to cover up some of that huge stainless expanse!  Know what I mean?

We’re so blessed, and we are so grateful!  This kitchen is welcoming, and I love having the space to work and move in the heart of my home!

It’s practical…and…it’s pretty!

And if you’ve been reading here at all, you know that’s sort of my mantra!  🙂  Things should work for your family, and they should be beautiful.

Let me know if you have any resources that you’re convinced are essential for a kitchen like this!  I’d really love to hear about it! And, I’ll get to work on that post on our sunny, new learning room space!  Can’t wait to share that!

Photo Credit: Sarah Nicole Studio

There is a lot going on here this autumn!  I would love to chat about our books, continue my Charlotte Mason Teaching Tuesdays, share how the school year is going, show pictures of our autumn nature walks, brainstorm fall menus, and organizing closets…and I will definitely be back to that soon!  But for now, we are in the middle of a major home remodel of the entire downstairs of our home.  Yes, we’re still homeschooling through it! Challenging – sometimes!  On the first day of demo there were walls coming down, brick being cut off the side of our house, saws blaring, incessant hammering…and Mark took an Algebra test and managed to score an A.  So…we’re doing ok!  The key to homeschooling while remodeling seems to be in keeping lessons and books portable and contained…and staying flexible!

This post is photo-heavy, and if this doesn’t interest you, here’s your chance – click away now – you’ve been warned!  But for friends and family who have been asking – here’s what we’ve been busy with…

Before Shots

 Family Room area

{Below:} In the family room there were different size openings to our living room that always bothered me.  The closest opening (in this photo) was 5 ft wide, and the farthest opening was 4 ft wide.  Dreadfully bothersome for those who enjoy symmetry.  We plan to open this entire room up by removing all of the wall dividers.

Dining Room Area

{Below:} This room will be opened up to the kitchen – that wall there to the right – the one you see the bookshelves standing on.  That wall is leaving.

{Below:}  This shot was taken in my hall while looking into my kitchen – all of this should open up.

Kitchen

{Below:} you can see my cabinets, double ovens, cooktop, microwave, and half of all of the counter space I had in my kitchen. The pantry (the door on the far right of this photo) will be relocated to the new enlarged utility/mud/pantry room.

Below is a good before shot of my kitchen.  Everything you see is leaving.  We’ll repurpose the old cabinetry in the new pantry/mud room and I plan on reusing my current kitchen sink in my new utility area.

This little hall space just off my kitchen disappears and will become part of the new larger walk-in utility/mud room.

Laundry Room

This is my current laundry room.  Complete with icky fluorescent light.  I can’t wait for the larger space and natural light (we’re adding a window!)!

New learning room…which was a part of my gigantic bedroom

I’m sorry that all I have of our new learning room before shots is this panoramic shot I took with my phone.  It makes the room look a little crazy!  But you’ll get the idea – the room IS crazy big, and we’re taking the entire right half of the room (from the chair all the way over to the wall with the bookshelves, and making that space its own room: building a wall, adding hardwoods, and it will be our new learning room.

and now….

After 1 week of progress

This is the family room now….

No more walls – the room is entirely opened up now.

You can see where the walls used to be by looking at the floor – see the space with no hardwood?  There used to be walls there.

{Below:}  Remember looking into the dining room before?  Remember that this room used to be my learning room???  The walls have been opened up and structural beams are in place.  You can see that the old tile floors from the kitchen are all removed now, too.

{Below:}  You can see my new walk-in utility room is framed, and a new window has been added to the room.  My washer and dryer have been left for me to use through as much of the construction process as possible. 🙂  Whew!  They also left my kitchen sink for as long as possible, but that’s all that’s left of the old kitchen and it will be leaving soon to make way for new floors and cabinetry.

Isn’t that new mud/utility/laundry room (still working on coming up with a charming name for this space!) a TREMENDOUS difference in size from the old little closet in the before pictures? I’ve always wanted something that was like an arctic entry (you’ll find these in cold weather climates – it’s an entry that can be closed off from the main house, and has a place for boots, supplies, and keeps heat in the house as you come inside), and I’m so excited that we worked this out in our remodel! While we don’t have arctic temps, we do get pretty cold here.  And I love the idea of being able to unload all my {insert –> bulk-packaged-parcel-filled-wet-animal-muddy-kid-mess <–here} without having to schlep through the house. Bliss. I can unload it all onto the counters, or into the sink, or swish it into the bathroom -right in my happy southern-non-arctic-entry!  You can imagine my joy and anticipation!  I have had fun mapping out how I’m going to place old cabinetry and shelving in here so that this space isn’t too cluttered feeling, yet still houses my pantry goods, laundry and cleaning needs.

Here is more of the kitchen looking into the open dining room space now.

John Paul loved being able to do pull ups!  🙂

A different view of my walk in utility & pantry area.  Love that bright window that looks into my gardens and lets in the western afternoon sun!  Isn’t there such a huge difference of space in here now!!  The space at the far end…with the window…used to be my old kitchen walk-in-pantry.  We combined two spaces (walk in pantry and old utility room) and snuck 18 inches away from the kitchen and that gave us this big walk-through-non-arctic-entry room – which I love!

Lauren loves to investigate!  Needless to say, we have to stay pretty close with all of the open walls around here right now!

She found a tiny hole in the sub floor and enjoyed looking into it.  🙂

And my new learning room space is taking shape…

{Above:} I’m standing in the bedroom part of my room, looking through what will eventually be double pocket doors, into what will eventually be our new learning room.  The carpet will leave and the room will have hardwood floors like the rest of our home.

{Below:} You can see the new, framed wall.  Even as I type, it is being drywalled and is changing even more in there.

We had to move all of our bookshelves and furniture into the bedroom part of the space to make room for construction.  And there is ol’ faithful – our book cart!  Still a useful workhorse during this entire process, holding our books and lesson plans, and rolling wherever we need it!  Seems like we keep rolling everything further and further back!  Maybe soon we can start rolling in the opposite direction!  Hope springs eternal!

So…now you know what our autumn is like!!  I hope to be able to do a weekly update showing progress as we go!  This remodel is so exciting for our family.  We love our home; we’ve been here for 12 years TODAY!  And for the last 12 years, as our family has grown, we’ve been thinking of ways to make this home fit us better.  And now…all of those years of research, planning, and saving have gotten us here!  A few weeks of inconvenience will yield practical and pretty spaces, I hope!

I was a little intimidated at first – to live, cook, eat, and homeschool – through a remodel of the entire downstairs of our home, but you know what?  It’s totally do-able!  Of course it IS a drag just like you imagine it would be, but it’s NOT impossible, and each week I’m learning something new about tips and tricks that make living through this more pleasant and bearable.  So, I thought it might be fun to share some practical ideas each week – in case anyone searching through might be looking for a little reality and sharing on making it workable while living through a remodel!

Weekly Tips for Family Living While Remodeling!

Week 1

 …was all about demo and dust!

• Cheap tablecloths from the Dollar store work well for covering tvs, small appliances while demo takes place.  Cover the butter.
• Clear bins are essential for packing up your kitchen.  You think you don’t need a cheese grater for 6 weeks…and then you do. You’ll want to be able to see into bins to find things rather than opening every single one looking for the elusive cheese grater that stands between you and the microwaved fajitas you hope might resemble real food.
• A dust mop is invaluable.  I use my Sh-mop daily.  Don’t be fooled by the lack of dazzling marketing fluff when you check out this mop!  It’s the real deal!  Wide mop head, washable mop covers (LOVE the terry cloth covers!), and the best thing about this mop is the SUPER STURDY handle – lean on it, push with it, scrub – it won’t bend or break. I thought I might need to buy a special dust mop, but my Sh-mop was magnificent – I wet one terry cloth cover with water only, mopped up the dust, and then just took it off, rinsed and wet mopped again.  It picked up so much dust and then I just threw it in the wash. Normally, I’d mop with Murphy’s Oil soap, but I wasn’t going for glam floors…or even reasonably clean…I was going for dust-free.  Cotton terry covers on a sturdy mop base did the trick.
• Bags.  You will want some really good bags ’cause you’re going to be living out of them for awhile.  I thought this might make a good post all its own so you can see my bags, how I use them, what I put in them.  But suffice to say, you’ll want sturdy bags of all kinds because some days you may just have to pick up and go…other days, you may be stuck in one room…upstairs…until 3 pm.  Really.  You’ll want food and the daily necessities.  For now, I’ll share with you the number of bags I prep on a daily basis:
  • Food bag – this is an ample sized thermal bag that holds our lunch, snacks, water and juice for the day.
  • Baby bag – with diapers, change of clothes, shoes and two books.
  • My desk in a bag which holds my laptop, iPad, charging cords, and my planner.
  • My purse
  • A large utility tote that holds our school books for the day.

As I type, drywall is being finished, lights are being added to my kitchen, our kitchen window is being installed, and our new homeschool learning room is taking shape!  I’ll be back to share more pics of the progress next week!

Happy Autumn!