Well, the interior walls are out, the bead board has come down and the electrical schema has been written all over the walls. And all of this after only a day and a half. The dads have been busy at work with their pry-bars and hammers and are rounding the corner from demolition into plumbing the electrical for what is sure to be the most well-lit kitchen in America [3 hanging pendants, a billiards style fixture over the sink, 4-6 can lights and under-cabinet halogens for all work surfaces — and all on dimmers, to boot!].

We have found some interesting treasures along the way: the tounge-and-groove redwood bead board that originally covered every wall in the kitchen, the old school plaster and lath, the old “California Cooler” (aka modified root cellar), not to mention the realization that, top to bottom, our house is built out of redwood (not counting our douglas fir floors).

The logistics of living without a functioning kitchen are not as bad as one might think. Although it is not the most efficient of systems, we have a sink (laundry porch), food storage (laundry porch), refrigerator (garage), dishes (garage), prep counter (garage), stove top (gravel) and brand new gas grill (gravel). We dug out every paper plate and paper napkin we could find, and have determined that marinading meat in ziplocks and then grilling it provides NO dishes! Some might call this lazy — we call it clever.

More to come as the adventure unfolds…..