And so it begins...

My alarm forced me out of my dreams and into reality at 6am this morning. Today was the day that the contractors would begin tearing out my old kitchen and installing the new. Unfortunately, I hadn't really finished clearing out all of the stuff from the cabinets and dishwasher, so I had to get up, showered, dressed, and primped for the day as quickly as possible before they pulled up to the house between 630-700.

Luckily, they got there right at 700, giving me an extra half hour to get things organized. Not that there was really any hope of that. I had some dishes in the dishwasher and a few in the sink that I needed to clear out, plus some odds and ends that never really had a "category" per se that I had to find a home for.

Needless to say, the contractors were ruthless in their destruction. By the time I left for work around 800, I no longer had an island, light fixtures (both the flourescent and the chandelier over the breakfast nook were gone), upper cabinets, an oven, and a microwave/range hood. I'll post pictures when I get home tonight, but the quick pace of the demolition was suprising. I had no idea.

One thing that I wished I had had more forethought into was preparing to clear out the kitchen. DH and I spent the weekend at Target buying these giant rubbermade bins in which to store all the stuff I couldn't use while the kitchen was under construction, and then filled them - probably very inefficiently - with everything we could pull out of the cabinets. Stuff is everywhere.

I really wish that before they had started the demolition, I had taken time to:
- clean out the fridge. It's still pretty full, and I have my tiny dorm room backup upstairs. I'm really worried that everything in there is going to spoil, because they have the circuit in the kitchen off while they're working on the electric upgrades. At the very least I should have better prepared a place for it in the garage so that it could just be moved there. i think that this is going to be a very stinky mistake.

- clean out all the unwanted crap. I've got two Crock-pots, a stand mixer that I have never used and I am not even sure whether it works, some weird glasses and mugs and stuff that never get touched, and a junk drawer that I just spilled into a bag. I think that I did organize 80% of the bulk fairly well and only have what is necessary, but the remaining 20% caused me such agita last night and this morning.

- prepared some meals ahead of time. Of course this goes against the whole "cleaning out the fridge" thing, but I left so much of the kitchen drama to the last minute that I never took the time to make a few salads or something that I could have stored in tupperware containers and thrown into the little fridge. I'm really worried that I am going to come home and just not be able to deal with the amount of upheaval that this kitchen renovation is bringing into my life, and the added expense (and general unhealthiness) of take-out food is really unappealing to me right now.

I'll post some in progress pic's tonight, and I have to say that I am very appreciative of the professionalism of the crew. Hopefully the offer of fresh tomatoes from the garden will win their hearts and they'll do an extra good job. If only I had a good regular coffee maker, I'd make sure they had coffee every morning to start their day.

I'll keep you uprised of the ktichen's progress.