Renovation

It was 11 years coming, but it's finally begun ... the kitchen renovation. We spent yesterday and this morning madly packing away the entire contents of our kitchen into boxes and setting up a tiny area in the dining room for some small appliances, dishes and food storage. The kids helped scrape the old vinyl tiles off the floor. I managed to bake 8 loaves of bread, two pizzas, two extra pizza shells and a double batch of baked beans. Then, at around noon, the three friends we've hired to do most of the big work arrived and divested us of stove, oven, sink and running water.


We have a laundry tub and garden hose arrangement on the deck for washing up. Meals are pretty much organized and manageable on an outdoor propane stove and in the microwave. We'll survive.

The guys doing the work were great about showing the kids what they were doing and how all the tools work. Blake started the day with a little "in-service" talk, showing off what he was going to be doing. Later Barry began chiseling mortar and bricks apart and looked up to see Noah standing there watching him with safety goggles on. Barry sighed, grinned and quickly put his own eye protection on.

We expected the unexpected in removing the old flooring and cabinetry, and we haven't been disappointed -- rat-gnawed wiring, detritus under the cabinets, sorry-looking insulation, bits of concrete in the wrong places, awful smells. But nothing insurmountable so far.

It doesn't look like Fiona has chicken pox after all. I think she's got a cold and more than her fair share of bug bites. But we may never know for sure.