4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Lydia]

Well it's taken 10 years and bit of good luck but we are finally getting the kitchen done.

 

We've been given an estimate of 6 weeks of disruption as we are also taking down a wall and combining the dining room, as well as gutting both and moving just about everything. This effectively means about half the downstairs of our house will be out of action

 

While I am looking forward to the end result, at the moment it's all a bit daunting. I'm not sure how I'll manage not cooking for that long

 

Does anyone have any tips on how to get through this painlessly? All advice gratefully received.

Edited December 10, 2008 by Guest

[Rhapsody]

Barbeque and a patio heater.

[Guest]

Minii fridge, George Foreman & a microwave.

[redhotchick]

How about a slowcooker? (£15 from John Lewis if you don't have one already) and some disposable plates/bowls?

[Plum]

Well you wash up in the bathroom and microwave in the lounge. . Just keep telling yourself how good its going to be. Hope its not too traumatic.

[jackiepoppies]

Hi Lydia,

 

If you are having a new kitchen, plan on getting a combination micowave which only has a normal plug but will give you a micowave, oven and grill all in one and can be moved easily from room to room.

 

If you haven't got an operative dishwasher, have a couple of plastic dish drainers [the type that sit on the sink ] in your shower plus the largest plastic washing up bowl you can find. [This can be used later as a dust bath!] It makes carrying dishes safer and easier to stack. If you have got a trolley or something similar to put it on, even better. Saves bending over and getting backache and gives you somewhere to keep your everyday crockery!

 

Plan in advance! If you haven't used it in the last 3-6 months chances are you won't miss it Have a boot sale or pack it away in the loft......then have a boot sale.....it'll pay for your combi. micro

 

For seating and eating meals: cheap garden furniture and folding chairs. Lightweight,easy to move from room to room and wipes down with a jcloth. Also surprising how smart it can look with a tablecloth

 

Anything you can get disposable....use! How far you go with that one is up to you! Plates ,knives ,forks etc., glasses, kitchen roll..[a godsend] the list is endless!

 

Remember, you are likely to get LOADS of dust! Keep a spray bottle of water on hand to damp it down and if you have any asthmatics in the house try and keep the windows open and doors to the rest of the house closed to try and disperse it.

 

I wish you the very best of luck. It will be worth it in the end!

 

Jackiex

[Chickvic]

Slowcooker. George Foreman grill and a decent microwave should get you through! We managed just fine

[craftyhunnypie]

Remoska & one of those Sungas portable cookers!!! Good excuse to buy a remoska!

Or lots of eating out at 2 for 1 pubs!

 

Emma.x

[Guest]

Well you wash up in the bathroom and microwave in the lounge. . Just keep telling yourself how good its going to be. Hope its not too traumatic.

 

you make it sound so simple! We had our kitchen done last year, I nearly had a nervous breakdown and almost moved back in with my parents

 

The spare bedroom was full of packets and tins of food from the cupboards, I had to wash up in the bathroom and then put the crockery and cutlery in our bedroom!

 

I had no washing machine for a week.

 

just making a cup of tea was a nightmare.

 

Next time, I'd rather move house to a new house with everything already done or save up for a hotel!

 

good luck, I feel for you, I really do!

[Egluntyne]

Wash up in sink in downstairs cloakroom and get a remoska.

 

Best of luck.

 

I've done this twice over the past 20 years or so.

[Olly]

Set up a 'kitchen' - even if it's in a bedroom; somewhere that you can make a cup of tea, make sandwiches and cut up fruit. Pack away ANYTHING non-essential, but yes the George Foreman, the microwave and the slow cooker will be your best friends for the next six weeks.

 

Get takeaway menus for all the local places and keep them handy!

 

Call in lots of favours with friends - now's the time to visit all those people who ask you for Sunday lunch but you never get round to seeing.

 

Work out a menu of things you can microwave/slow-cook/grill, and don't try too hard.

 

Above all, don't let it get to you. So you can't cook for six weeks - so what? "Ooops, word censored!"ody in the family is actually going to die of malnutrition or have their growth stunted by eating sandwiches/ready meals for a few weeks. Focus forward to your marvellous, wonderful new kitchen and all the things you'll be able to do in it, and enjoy a 'holiday' from having to cook proper food. It is immensely stressful, I agree, but it's worth it!

[Ardene5]

Hi

We went though this when we bought our bungalow, we had a property stuck in a time lock of 1959 with a kitchen to match.

The first thing we did was to ensure that there was space in the garage so that the sink out of the kitchen would fit in a corner and as a temporary. We had hot and cold water pipes lagged and sent from the bungalow to the garage.

We bought a George Forman, a camping gas cooker, micro wave but wished we had a caravan to help us as could have cooked and served meals easier.

Washing up was easy because of the sink and we also had the washing machine put under the sink so could still do the clothes etc.

We did managed, the kids enjoyed it but at times it was hard as things where not to hand.

 

Good luck in your building work, hope it runs soothly.

 

Best regards

 

Ian & Valerie

William & Harry

Missy & Millie dogs

9 Hens

Purple cube & eglu

Winter run

[Guest]

Microwave chips. Not for the entire six weeks, obviously. But every now and then they are Ok, if a little revolting (like politicians, funnily enough )

[Ardene5]

Hi Everyone.

Ensure that the fridge is to hand somewhere were the door will not get blocked.

Have a picnic table with tea bags, coffee, sugar, metal tea pot, salt and pepper

to hand. Depending on how you boil your kettle ( gas / electric) get a cheap jug

kettle which could live on the picnic table with everything else have cups or mugs

to hand, therefore making a brews easier. All this near to the fridge if possible.

Get picnic plates , forks, knives, spoons to stop your best plates etc getting spoilt.

As the weeks go along you will fine tune whatever you do.

 

Find out which days each take away is open as some close on Mondays after

the weekend.

 

Ensure you are able to get ride of the old kitchen parts easily ...... are you

employing someone ask where they are putting the waste re cycle where possible.

 

Have you got a winter run or want to give the hens some extra shelter in the garden

look and see if there is anything which could be useful.

 

Have fun.

 

Best regards

 

 

Ian & Valerie

William & Harry

Missy & Millie dogs

9 Hens

Winter run

[chocchick]

We used a gas camping stove when we had powercuts. So much good advice on here.

You will be so pleased when it is finished

[Cate in NZ]

Great opportunity for lots of Autumn barbecues as well, it's amazing what you can cook on a barbie . I actually know of people who bake cakes on a barbecue.....they take their barbecuing very seriously down here

[MadMitch]

Two years ago we extended our house, well when I say extended, it was a 1 bed bungalow and we made it a 4 bed 3 bathroom house. We knocked all down but one wall and lived/slept/ate for 6 months in the conservatory. It was hell but as long as you have the essentials as in power and water you will be ok.

A microwave is essential and I occasionally used the slow cooker (there ends up with so much dust around you get fed up with having to clean everything down before you prepare food) but the main thing I would recommend is to have a mad cooking spree and make chillis, curries, stews anything that freezes well as theres nothing worse than having to eat supermarket processed food for any longer than one night.

[lisa33]

We had 4 weeks without a kitchen when we moved in. We used a kettle, toaster, slow cooker, George Foreman, Slow Cooker and a little gas thing for camping.

 

Washing up was done in the bath. That killed my back and clothes washing done at either Andyman mum's or at my mum's.

 

Worth it in the end. I love our kitchen.

[Lydia]

Wow! Lots of good ideas here, thanks everyone.

 

Inspired by your good selves today marks the first day of Operation Casserole Freeze

 

I'm not very good at properly utilising my freezer (it's usually where things go to die ) However, I've worked out that the microwave, kettle and fridge/freezer can move into the lounge if everything else budges up a bit and the gerbils and stickinsects go for a little holiday at my parents. So I can make and freeze stuff now.

 

We have a slow cooker (somewhere). I'd never thought of resurrecting that one. Need to beg, borrow or steal a toaster though

 

Dust will be a problem (yes I'm the asthmatic one but not chronic or brittle) so I'll get some extra inhalers in.

 

Getting to the hens is going to be fun - the only access to the back is via the kitchen door So it'll be out the front door and round the back gate every time. I feel the novelty of that will wear off quite quickly, especially when the weather gets nippy!

 

Cooking cakes on the barbie? Maybe I needn't have put my sugarcraft hobby on hold then

[Cinnamon]

When we bought this cottage we had no kitchen for 6 months

 

No electricity or gas to begin with either.

We had for a kitchen,when the electric was on,a workhorse & a microwave. We had a bucket of cold water for the milk.

 

We also had no children, so we ate out a fair bit

[dancing cloud]

Gas camping hob, remoska, kettle, good sense of humour and plenty of friends

 

I've never lived entirely without a kitchen, but did live for 12 weeks in a converted garage with only a microwave and a kettle (and no friends as I'd just moved here). I would have killed for a bacon butty and probably maimed just for cheese on toast

 

You can always offer to make dinner for the friends later when your shiny new kithen needs showing off.

[Willow]

When we bought our first flat interest rates doubled. We'd been given a microwave as a wedding presentand already had a kettle and toaster from student digs so that was what we used for at least a year...

 

Having had my kitchen done last year dust and asthma may be more of a worry than how to cook with the work you are planning. I wasn't diagnosed as asthmatic until my kitchen was done and the doctor had to put me on the steriod inhalers (brown) as well as the reliever inhalers (blue). It may be worth you checking in with the doctor to check whether it is worth gettign the steroid ones as well for the duration.

 

Hope it all goes well and it is worth it !

[jlo]

I'm not very good at properly utilising my freezer (it's usually where things go to die )

 

I am so pleased that I am not the only one who does that! In the days before our own chooks, my other bad habit (well, one of my many bad habits) was to use egg yolks for ice cream or custard; store the whites carefully in the fridge ... and then throw them out a few days later. I was reassured when this was offered as a suggestion in the Ben & Jerry ice cream book!

[Krysia]

I can only echo all the above, we had no kitchen for 8 weeks and I filled the freezer with casseroles lasagnes fish pie mash potato chicken in various sauces (Money and mustard, sweet and sour etc) I bought the disposable foil cartons (Like takeaways~) to freeze it al in to save washing up as that was done in the bath!

 

We bought Microwave rice and pasta for the duration (Rice was ok but the pasta hasn't been bought since!)

 

Oh and Take-a way at least twice a week, if you get fish and chips you can eat it from the paper with fingers so no washing up at all

 

 

Good Luck it will fly by and be worth it when the kitchen is finished!

[Hen Watch]

I've never lived without a kitchen, but 15 years ago, before children, hubbie and I house sat in an empty house for a relative for 6 weeks. There was no cooker at all. We go by with a combi microwave and a slow cooker.

 

We slow cooked everything that could possibly be cooked in water or sauce. So lamb chops, mince and tatties, sausage casserole, beef stew, chicken casserole...... and so on. I didn't even brown the meat or onions (as I had no cooker to do it on) and would chuck it all in with those Colemans packet mixes (sausage casserole one is lovely) and then go out to work all day. So thumbs up for slow cookers.