Weekend Journal

~ Laura

As part of Ian’s constellation of neurological quirks, he has a slight case of OCD. It’s not huge, but it’s there in the background.

We have two cars, a green one and a red one. The red one is an old 1990 Toyota that we keep for that rare occasion that both Steve and I need to be in different places. So, the red car is always parked first in the driveway. If for some reason, the green car is pulled in first and the red car after it, Ian loses it. Things are not right with the world. Things are out of order. He even has an expression for this wrongness in the universe. He’ll say that things are cackieer or cackety-cack.

Well, things are about to be really cackety-cack in our home. The wrecking ball arrives on Wednesday to tear down our old kitchen. The contractor is estimating six weeks for life to return to normal and I’m a bit nervous about all this.

I keep a lot of balls up in the air around here. Just getting the two boys and myself out of the house in the morning involves a pretty strict schedule. Our routine is much more loose than last year when I was teaching four classes and Ian was in all that therapy. But, still, I’ve got my eye on the clock all morning.

I started packing up the kitchen over the weekend and setting up a bare bones kitchen in the diningroom. We’ll park the old refriderator in there and have a table for a microwave and a toaster.

I’m imagining clouds of dust everywhere. I’m imagining doing homework with the kids and preparing my own classes when the guys are hammering in the kitchen. I have a stomach ache.

Published by Laura

8 thoughts on “Weekend Journal”

  1. We found that the construction guys were out by 3. One of our workers picked up his daughter from school and generally had to be done by 3.
    It really will suck, but it won’t be as bad as you think. Buy lots of plastic utensils and paper plates/bowls for your own sanity. Yes, I believe in being green, but not when you have 2 jobs, 2 small kids, and a kitchen under construction. That is precisely what disposable paper goods were made for.
    Good luck! I hope you love your new kitchen as much as I love mine!

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  2. Laura,
    Be careful! I haven’t owned a house or remodeled, but I’ve been reading a lot, and I hope you are going to meter out payments prudently, so there’s a reason to keep showing up to work. The construction market is soft, so a lot of contractors will be paying for old jobs with the money from new jobs (i.e. you). Under that model, if there is no next job after you, there may be no money to pay for your job that you already paid for. Being careful goes double if this is a contractor that you know personally, since you could lose both a friend and a bunch of money.
    Good luck, and have a good time!

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  4. Oh, good luck! Having dealt with both contractors (and our sense was that to get a true estimate of the time it will take, one takes theirs, doubles it, and adds five) and with a child with OCD, I am totally sympathetic. I’m not sure I have any useful things to say, though.

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  5. As a veteran of kitchen remodel, I highly suggest getting out of dodge. Go stay with your parents for a while if you can. (Don’t they live nearby?) Or make arrangements to have somewhere else you can be if you need to.
    Also, I recommend clearing your schedule as much as you can. The contractors will get stuff wrong. Renovation is complex, and it’s hard to make yourself completely clear about what you need. (And it’s even harder to find someone who truly cares as much as you do about all the details.) The first time you walk in the house and find that the wrong floor/cabinets/windows/fixture has been installed and it all needs to be ripped out — that’s when you will need lots and lots and lots of time to handle all the scrambling. (“Well lady, we can fix it if you tell us what color it’s *supposed* to be, and find a toilet that will fit, in the next two hours.”) You’ll have your new kitchen for what, 30 years? It’s worth it to give yourself extra time to make sure it’s done right.

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  6. It’s funny — we were all prepared for youngest to meltdown when we moved houses this summer. She handled that effortlessly. On the other hand, not having “the right hat” in the mornings can start a really bad day.
    I expect you will need to allow for extra time all around. Both in getting ready during the chaos of the renovation but also for getting yourselves back together in the afternoons and evenings. Escaping, when you can, will probably help.
    If Ian enjoys this, watching some shows on home renovation that illustrate the process (although they speed it up incredibly, of course) might give him an idea of the order/disorder/reorder he can expect.

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  8. “I highly suggest getting out of dodge.”
    Seconded. When they start applying stain to the hardwood floors, or polyurethane sealant, you will HAVE to be out of the house. Paint sucks too, but not as bad.
    By-the-week, suite-style hotels (Hampton Inns, Amerisuites, Homestead Suites) probably go for 200-400/week. It’s totally worth it.
    At the very least, tape up the heavy plastic sheeting, and insist they maintain negative air pressure in the kitchen area with an outward blowing fan. That way air will only flow into the kitchen from the rest of the house, and fumes and dust will stay where they should.

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