If you’ve never done it before, a kitchen remodel can be extremely daunting. Where does one even begin? Who do you go to for help? But most of all, how can you make sure it will be both beautiful and affordable?
What follows is a beginner’s guide to remodeling your kitchen—Here are 13 survival tips to get through the kitchen remodeling process.
How To Approach A Kitchen Remodel
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1. Preplan A Mini Kitchen
Before renovations ever begin, set up a station outside of the kitchen that can serve as a makeshift space to prep and store food while your real kitchen undergoes its face-lift. In your mini prep kitchen you can relocate your full-size fridge, or set up a mini-fridge. You may also want a small table of some sort to serve as a preparing station for food. A simple makeshift kitchen can make life a lot easier, plus it ensures you don’t have to eat out for every single meal.
A guesthouse, spare room, or even an unused corner in the laundry room can make a decent space for your temporary mini kitchen. There are a number of places you can set one up, it might seem strange now but you’ll be so glad you have it once your real fridge is off limits and unplugged.
2. Wait To Start Until Almost All Materials Have Arrived
The best way to improve your kitchen remodel experience is to make the process go by faster. Kitchen remodels can drag on and on, causing people to go without a fully functional kitchen for months upon months. This usually happens because renovations begin before all materials are decided upon, ordered, and delivered.
If the kitchen cabinets you love turn out to be unaffordable, or the floors are backordered, there’s no telling when renovations will pick back up again. By having all of your final selections picked out and ready before you start knocking down cabinets and uninstalling appliances, you prevent the possibility of a big time delay in renovations.
Important to note, cabinets must be installed before measurements for countertops are taken to ensure a proper fit. So while you might not have all of the materials on site prior to starting, you should have almost everything other than the countertops.
3. Small Appliances Make Mean Meals
Eating out is fun, but it quickly gets old. Before long you and your family will be craving a home cooked meal. You don’t need a full kitchen to provide a good meal, a slow cooker, electric griddle, microwave, panini maker, camping cook stove and toaster oven can all become your new best friends.
There are so many different meals you can make using these small cooking appliances. Plus they are small enough to fit just about anywhere. Wondering where to eat? You can always throw a fun indoor picnic by spreading a blanket down on the ground to all gather around. Hey, at least indoor picnics don’t include any bugs!
4. Cook Ahead Of Time
By nature of having your kitchen torn down and rebuilt, you won’t have the same access to foods you are used to. Be prepared for eating out and eating fast meals at home to become a part of your life. There are many meals you can make ahead of time that can be stored in the freezer and made in the oven or microwave while the kitchen is not accessible. Great meals to make and freeze include chicken potpies, an egg and vegetable quiche, homemade pizzas, or meatballs. This provides a fast way to make more substantial meals while your kitchen remodel takes place.
5. Stock Up On Disposable Utensils
If you do plan to eat at home during your kitchen remodel, how do you plan to wash your dishes without access to a dishwasher? The bathtub, swimming pool, laundry sink… all of these options sound a bit messy. Even if you never use paper and plastic utensils, now might be the time to start. Biodegradable utensils are available for purchase and will make your life so much easier while renovations are underway.
6. Cover Everything
Any kitchen remodel includes a good deal of dust and debris. In order to protect the rest of your home, be sure that all surfaces are covered. The path that contractors will be using to walk in and out will become very dusty, and so you should set down tarp to prevent this dust from ruining your floors. Any furniture near the kitchen should also be properly covered and protected.
Most kitchen remodeling contractors will cover surfaces before starting to work, but it’s best to make sure that this happens.
7. Enjoy The Process
Nothing worth having is ever easy to obtain. You save money in order to afford a kitchen remodel, and then you go through the pain of not having a kitchen while the remodel is completed. You do it all because in the end you are rewarded with exactly what you have always dreamed about: the perfect kitchen.
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