Kitchen extension - how long were you without a kitchen?

[katerose2022]

And how did you cope with it please?

We are planning a small 3x3 kitchen extension plus knocking through one internal wall, and one of the builders we asked was saying that the project could last 4-5 months and we'll be without access to the whole of ground floor from day one??

I'm slightly panicking now and trying to brainstorm / plan how we are going to deal with the cooking/dishwashing/laundry.

We have a pressure cooker and plan to buy a portable cooker. Will move fridge and freezer to another room. But how do we deal with the dish washing and doing laundry? Is it possible at all to keep some appliances still plugged in on the ground floor? Would love to hear some tips from people who had such experience (living onsite while doing extensions). Thanks a lot!

Just stayed with a friend who is doing similar. She had freezer, WM and TD in the garage. She had a "kitchen corner" in her sitting room with a microwave/ air fryer, a hotplate, fridge etc but admits they ate a lot of takeaways or ate a proper meal at lunchtime and just had sandwiches in the evenings. Washes up in the bath and just really limits it- so keeps the same mug and glass all day and just reuses it. She is admittedly totally sick of it.

We just finished ours in November. We were lucky in that we only had to do without a kitchen for around one week. They repositioned our base units containing our oven and sink to the bottom end of the room so we could use it in the evenings.

The washing machine was plugged in intermittently. We had some times when we didn't have it for three weeks at a time, but I either took it to my mum's or the laundrette. I could fit four loads in one of the laundrette machines and I just found a coffee shop nearby to go with a book.

We had the washing machine plumbed in in a jerry built way in a corner of the downstairs and the tumble dryer moved around as needed round the house. Had a portable induction hob and a microwave. And the fridge moved around the ground floor as work went on. We luckily still had a sink and hot and cold water downstairs.

The builders blocked off the kitchen entirely (they could access it from the street at the back) and put a temporary sink on the other side of the kitchen door. We had a small fridge, microwave and Baby Belling stove in the dining room. Laundry was on the first floor already so not an issue.
I think it was six weeks? Am I crazy? No must have been longer as we had a large extension done. I had a toddler at the time. Quite a few ready meals were consumed, plus simple pasta dishes that didn't require much prep.

Thanks a lot for all your comments! Sounds like we'll need to ask the builders to be creative and help accommodate our needs and it should be possible.

About two weeks. We moved the microwave, kettle and toaster into one end of the sitting room onto a kitchen table, and ate in there. Ready meals and takeaways too. We don't have a separate dining room.
Buy large containers or bottles of water .The worst thing was having get any and all water for cooking, drinking, tea and coffee from an outside tap, and washing up.
The builders turned off the water downstairs (inside) off quite a lot anyway.
We have a downstairs cloakroom but the basin in it is tiny, you can't use it to fill a kettle or even a large water bottle.

Fridge freezer was in the garage. Used the laundrette if necessary.

A couple of months, had front room and temporary sink in hallway, then through to building site, and then through to conservatory which had air fryer and hot plate in it. Mostly could walk through the building site as our builders were amazing, but spent a couple of weeks in December last year having to walk round the outside of the house to have dinner, then back round to wash up. 3 kids including a 1 year old, in the dark and cold 🤣

Honestly though it was surprisingly a lot less stressful than I’d anticipated and the build has been life changing.

We were without for 4 months. Main build took 6 weeks, had to wait for floor to dry before tiling and a few weeks for kitchen units to arrive. Cooking was ok with hot plate and microwave. No washing machine was a nightmare, frequent trips to laundrette. But we survived and it was worth it. Renting elsewhere was £££.

A few months - we had a portable induction hob, microwave and pressure cooker, moved our fridge freezer into the old dining room as well, and the builders put up a partition with the old dishwasher, sink and washing machine plumbed in for us to use. They mostly didn't have to come into our part of the house at all. However, they did say it would take longer overall for the work to be finished accommodating us like that than if they'd had an empty house and been able to just come in and do it all at once.

6 months without a proper kitchen, but for most of that we could still use what was originally the utility room and had a sink, washing machine and tumble drier in as it was right at the back of the affected area and they built an insulated stud wall across the kitchen while the new bit was being built so it kept the weather out. There was a 2 week bit with no downstairs sink or washing machine, and then they jerry rigged the washing machine up and a temporary sink.
We used a rice cooker, air fryer and an induction hob and it worked really well

In total we were without a working kitchen for 2 weeks. We were lucky to have a dinning room where we moved our microwave too and we had frozen lots of meals.

About a month but we went on holiday for 2 weeks of that. Had a fridge freezer in the garage and then set up a mini kitchen on the dining table in the lounge with microwave and plug in hob. Camping fridge for stuff we wanted to access easily without going into the garage every 5 minutes. Washing up in a washing up bowl in the bathroom - that was the worst bit. It's a pain in the arse at the time but worth it so just had to grit teeth and crack on (and occasionally lose shit when it gets really annoying 😂).

Bought a standalone kitchen for a tenner off market place. I believe it's from IKEA. Builder got water routed to it and attached dishwasher underneath.

We did this a couple of years ago. It was stressful but manageable. Do ask them if you definitely can’t have any access at all to the downstairs from day 1 - ours said that and I challenged it, at which point they were happy to board off the back so we had the front half of the living room to live in.

We set up the table as a temporary kitchen with kettle, toaster and microwave, and moved the fridge freezer into the room as well. It was chaotic but manageable. Get those big 5 litre water containers, and a washing up bowl to carry stuff to the bathroom. We got well acquainted with our local laundrette as well.

We were without a kitchen at all from week 4/5 to week 10 maybe (but took until about week 14 to get worktops fitted, although we could perhaps have got things coordinated slightly better.

I spent more on takeaways and cafes with three school aged children to feed in winter months than I would have on some basic kitchenette, portable hob, worktop area, camping sink. It is really worth rigging up a proper temporary kitchen; I didn't and regretted it, especially the lack of sink, hob worktop and small table to eat off. 3 months with no kitchen.

4 months for us

It was painful!

They rigged us up a temporary kitchen and sink and plumbed in our washing machine. We used an air fryer, plug in hob, and instant pot. And had a lot of takeaways/ready meals. I actually lost quite a bit of weight because I am fussy and don't really like most convenience food.

We did a lot of things like quiche and salad, salmon in air fryer and microwave veg, that type of meal

My dishwasher was left in situ along with the kitchen sink (to fill the kettle for their tea making) which was originally on the back wall of the house. They rigged up a temporary drain to the side of the house, they left a brick out. When they needed to move the dishwasher further into the room I rigged up a temporary drain for the dishwasher (largest Ikea Samla tub) and the lovely builders carried it outside to the drain every day.

We were then without it for about 5 days whilst they poured the new floor and then again it was rigged back up to the new water feed at the new end of the kitchen where the water came in. They looked after me because I looked after them. I think it was 4-5 months start to completely finished.

We had a portable 2 ring induction hob, we ate off paper plates when we didn't have the dishwasher. It was an adventure. We had a mini kitchen set up in another room, microwave, fridge freezer, hob, slow cooker. Definitely do the mini kitchen.

Washing machine was in our utility so not touched thank goodness.

Thanks again for all your comments! Definitely gave us some ideas and options so fingers crossed we'll find a solution

I'm in week 20ish of an extension and just waiting for confirmation all appliances are good to go (they are, it's paranoia based on experience)

I should have bought an air fryer far sooner would be my main input. One drawer, basically a top fan oven. Unbelievably valuable.

I didn't miss the washing machine much, my Mum kindly did it until it was per plans replumbed elsewhere. Dishwasher though I'm excited to be getting back. Everything seems to MULTIPLY in the bathroom basin. As a single person though my wm load wasn't vast.

Good luck!!!

Pretty much a year, as we remodeled the whole house.

We set up a temporary kitchen in the lounge with a single ring hot plate and microwave, and had the fridge and kettle in the hallway. Washing machine was plumbed into the shed. Washing up was carried upstairs and done in the bathroom. As above, you end up re-using the same glass / mug all day to reduce the washing up as it is such a pain.

I cooked a lot of one pot meals, chicken and rice, stir frys with straight to wok noodles, and more jacket potatoes than you would ever dream of. I was completely sick of it by the end.

First thing I cooked in the new kitchen - roast chicken, it's the one thing I just could not do in the temporary kitchen.