...the onset of rennovations and cleaning up the mess.

First off, if you know me, you know that I hate mess and disorganization more than anything. (Hmm..almost anything.)  I can't tell you how many times I've been mistaken for a sales clerk because I straighten up the shelves/racks when I go shopping. 

So with that being said, please appreciate how hard it was for me was when I had contractors come in and remove a six inch, load bearing brick wall.  Because it made my entire house was one giant, disorganized mess. Every square inch.

I tried my damndest to tarp everything off. I had tarps over the staircase, the cabinets, what little furniture is on my first floor. I sealed off doors with tape. I put my small appliances in the basement. I moved a bunch of kitchen stuff to my bedroom. I put cereal and snacks in the refrigerator. My once overly organized kitchen was in disarray. And covered in plastic.

When the dust literally setttled, I had a nice new open floorplan and about 1/4 inch of red dust EVERYWHERE. It took me two days and an arsenal of concentrated heavy duty cleaner, windex, a shop-vac, and the help of local take-out restaurants to make my house liveable again. I still haven't tackled the basement and I'm afraid to see how much dust wound up on my kitchenwares stored there.

The saving grace in all of that is that the kitchen rennovations have officially commenced! I hope that within the next 6-8 months, my kitchen will look like a combo of this:

and this:

Wish me luck, because holy crap, I will need it.