Laowai

Every time I start complaining about the inconvenience of my kitchen remodel I get a wave of guilt. Because, HELLO SELF – YOU ARE GETTING A BRAND NEW KITCHEN!!!

But what the hell – here are my complaints:

• It’s getting tiring having strange men in my house – aka contractors. They are mostly nice and professional (aside from the cursing electrician) and they all do great work, but…
• I have no privacy – strange men mentioned above come and go at a (almost) all hours.
• Contractors act like men.
• I have no stove, I have no oven – well I do have a stove and oven but they are currently sitting in my garage. 
• You can’t make noodles in the microwave unless it’s pre-packaged frozen mac and cheese.
• We’ve been eating SO MUCH prepared food and I’m loosing all self control trying to fill the void of home cooked food with junk.
• Nothing is where it belongs because I decided I needed to redo the floor in, not just the kitchen, but in the mudroom, bathroom and sewing room. So good luck finding a pair of scissors, any crafty supplies, your raincoat, matches or anything else that used to live in those rooms. All those things are stashed in boxes and random places around the house.
• There is a toilet sitting in my living room. Yeah at least it’s a clean new toilet. The girls find it sooooo funny.
• There’s a toilet in my backyard – that’s the old blue one – and the sink is still there too.
• I have a temporary kitchen in my basement. It seems like every time I do dishes in my utility sink the contractors start banging around upstairs and dust and chunks of stuff falls from my old basement ceiling all over anything that I was trying to keep halfway clean.
• The girls are back to school and it’s killing me not being able to bake bread and cookies to put in their lunches.
• Not only can I not bake – I can’t sew – Halloween is coming up and I am itching to get started on some costumes. 
• I don’t like paper plates.

Ok that’s enough now I’ll show how it’s looking. 

This is the area that has the most change. Before, our giant fridge was next to the doorway and it blocked any good happy flow and open feelings for the kitchen and hallway area. Now our (more appropriately sized) fridge will go to the left in the picture below.

I am stupidly picky and we need a custom size table for our existing banquette area. Now I fancy myself a table designer. What have I gotten myself into? I hid from the contractors and sketched tables in my bedroom today.

Earlier this week I picked out soapstone and went to the fabricators to lay out which countertop goes where. The fabricator shop was not in the nicest neighborhood in Chicago – I’m pleased I didn’t get shot. 

This is what my bathroom looks like – that’s all I have to say about that:

This is my sewing room – that’s all I have to say about that:

The floor was installed in the kitchen today:

Every night I go in my kitchen and just stand there by myself for a good half hour. All complaining aside, I know I’m fortunate to be doing this and I think I might just maybe possibly be in love with my new kitchen!