Before.

Tomorrow is the big day! KITCHEN DEMO DAY! I am of course, a little panicky. Not about the kitchen itself - I know it's going to be great, I trust our contractor (while also knowing that something will not go according to plan, so no dinner parties scheduled for the estimated completion date) and I know that this place is going to be a filthy mess for a few weeks. I mean, heck, I've done renovations while pregnant before. It's what I do!

I am mostly nervous about Ellie and the cats. I hope E and I will be able to get our daily walks in (which is selfishly more about me, probably) and I hope that she can get her naps in okay (knowing though, that if worse comes to worse, I can go and put her down at Gigi's house.) The cats are both lunatics already - Lulu has scratched her chin raw with anxiety over the boxes in the office, and Thor has been on a weird food strike for a few weeks following a brief food switch, so he's wandering around and yeowling. He will be REALLY pleased when there's strangers in the house and lots of banging noises (the cats don't get to escape to Gigi's though. They will get to live in our bedroom.)

So let's get into the Before pictures of our kitchen. Please note that this is true to life - unmopped floors, and cat food everywhere. I want to remember this little white dump the way it really looks.

Standing in the pretty room. Lots of appliances, lots of cheap white cabinets, total lack of counter space.

Crappy ovens and useless phone nook. A pantry with deep shelves that allow me to constantly lose things and rebuy four bags of sugar (but no extra flour for baking, of course.) Plus baby beginning to get into trouble.

Here are my favorite parts of the kitchen:

So well insulated! So wonderful and spacious! Perfect for using tiny cookies sheets and burning the heck out of your hands!

Plus we have great, high end counter tops.

Here's the first time I accidentally set down a hot pot and burned the counter top. I didn't know any better! We had cheap crap in our apartment, but it didn't burn.

Here's the second burn mark, from probably a month ago, because I am an idiot. I was making popcorn for dinner after a long night with the baby.

I will be so sad to see it all go. GO STRAIGHT INTO THE TRASH.

In other fix it news, I spent $25 in parts to fix our laundry sink, because first off, I was too stupid and thought the problem was the trap, when it was really the pipe above - you know, the part of the pipe that was fixed with TAPE. Then I bought the wrong pipe. Last night, I finally fixed it. Basically, I showed myself why there is no way that I could take on a renovation project on my own. Kudos to those who can, but I am happy to just write some checks and supervise the work. And the cats. And Elizabeth.