I don't know yet what I lost or what can be recovered. The worst thing is digital photographs. Most people probably could resend whatever pictures they've sent, but I hate to ask, having lost them through my own stupidity. The other thing is the additions and corrections to my address book that happened during year-end card-swapping.
Merp.
So. Saturday we took everything out of the kitchen (and the house) except the fridge, and moved the dead fridge out from the basement; Sunday we hurled money at Home Depot and CostCo; Monday we moved the working fridge from kitchen to basement, and sealed the kitchen off from the rest of the house, mostly. It has three doorways: one, to the sunroom (where the dishwasher pines for me), which is the house's spleen? gall bladder? the one that's nice to have but you can do without? is sealed, but needs to be breached once. because the bills are in there. Two, the dining room doorway, is entirely taped and sealed: no construction dust in the finished parts of the house. Three, to the back landing, is taped on the top and one side. It is strange to have to go to the kitchen from the dining room by way of the basement and two flights of stairs, front and back, but we will survive.
Our "kitchen" is now the back of the basement. The back of the basement has been a workshop for some time: it has a long countertop over four cupboards and an open area with a sawbench and a toolbench and my bike, narrow shelves in one corner, cut to fit around plumbing, a fridge in another corner, a watercloset, and tub-and-sink room.
I laid some planks over the tub, making space for a dishdrain and paperplates. I've been pretty good (it's Day 4) about scraping dishes into the trash and washing them immediately after I use them, but we're not going to use a lot of dishes: mostly Blake's, since paper ones don't hang in his cage right. The microwave's at the shelved end of the long counter, the coffee grinder and the toaster. I might dig out the popcorn popper too. We had used the shelves as yet another pantry, for warehouse-size purchases of Pellegrino and craisins and soy milk, but now they're primary storage. The workshoppy element means that we might have sawdust in our food, but that's good bulky fiber.
The cabinets are due March 25, and today They said they would like to install them the week after they arrive. That means all the wiring and plumbing and plastering and painting has to happen between now and March 18, when RDC's nephew, mother, and her husband arrive for several days. The water plumbing is, supposedly, not a huge hairy deal, and the gas plumbing can wait, if it has to, until after the cabinets are in place, since the range, not a cabinet, will be in front of the gas. The plastering is scariest to me partly because we've never done it before and mostly because, since it doesn't involve forces that could burn or blow up the house, I'm going to be doing it.
After the cabinets, They have to measure for the countertops, and I have no idea how long the wait will be between template and installation.
Sometime in between all this we will coarse-sand the floor, install a ventilation hood and range, repair the ceiling, rip out and replace the window frame, install track lighting on the ceiling (yet not remove the glarey recessed floods, a design duplicativeness that I am not One with) and build a new windowsill (extra wide for cockatiel pleasure). After the cabinets and counters are in place (and the new sink undermounted, as we are nothing if not slaves to trends), They will be gone, and we'll fine-sand and otherwise finish the floor. And then ruin it by rolling in a new fridge.
Last night RDC suggested that since we will be at this point On a Roll, we should commence with the bathroom. Ha!