Living in Your Ashburn Home During a Kitchen Remodel

Will you have a kitchen at all?

It depends on scope. A full remodel typically leaves the kitchen unusable for part of the project, while a targeted update such as countertops or cabinet refacing usually does not. Ask your contractor which stages will take the sink, range and refrigerator out of service, so you can plan around them. Kitchen Kings walks through what to expect for your project before work starts.

Set up a temporary kitchen

Pick a spot away from the work, with an outlet circuit that can handle a few appliances and ideally near a sink. Depending on the house, a laundry room, a finished basement with a wet bar, or a dining room near a powder room works well. Then stock it:

• The refrigerator, if it can be moved and plugged in safely, or a smaller one
• Microwave, toaster oven or air fryer, electric kettle and coffee maker
• A slow cooker or multicooker for one-pot meals
• A folding table for prep, and a bin of everyday dishes, utensils and a cutting board
• Paper plates and a wash tub for dishes, so the bathroom sink is not the dishwasher

Avoid overloading a single circuit with several high-wattage appliances at once. If you are unsure which outlets share a circuit, ask your contractor before you set up.

Pack the kitchen properly

Empty every cabinet and drawer before work starts, including the ones you think will stay. Dust travels. Label boxes by where things will go in the new kitchen, not where they came from; it makes unpacking faster and is a good time to declutter. Keep a box of essentials in the temporary kitchen.

Protect the rest of the house

In an open-plan home, there is no door to close between the kitchen and the family room, so dust control matters more. Ask how the work area will be separated and how floors along the route from the entry to the kitchen will be protected. Move electronics, artwork and soft furnishings out of adjoining rooms where you can. Change HVAC filters during and after the messiest phases.

Plan around kids, pets and work-from-home

• Agree on work hours with your contractor and on which entrance the crew will use.
• Keep children and pets out of the work area entirely; demolition debris, tools and open walls are hazards.
• If you work from home, choose an office space away from the kitchen and plan calls around the noisiest days.
• Tell neighbors if a dumpster or contractor vehicles will be on the street, and check your HOA's rules first.

Meals and routines

Plan simple meals for the weeks the kitchen is out of service: things that work in a microwave, slow cooker or toaster oven, plus some takeout nights. Batch-cooking and freezing a few meals before demolition helps. Move school lunches, coffee and breakfast to the temporary kitchen first, since those are the routines that suffer most when the kitchen disappears.

Dishwashing is the chore people underestimate. Without a kitchen sink, you will be washing dishes in a laundry sink, a bathroom or a tub. Reducing dishes with disposable plates and one-pot cooking makes that much easier.

Make decisions before demo day

The single biggest thing homeowners can do to keep a remodel moving is to finish selections before construction starts. In the Kitchen Kings process, cabinets, countertops, fixtures, flooring, lighting and finishes are finalized in the Select step, before Build. A decision made mid-project can stall work while a product is ordered.

Expect the unexpected

Older drywall, wallpaper borders and patched sections can turn up during demolition. The photo above, from a Kitchen Kings remodel in Herndon, shows an original kitchen wall during demo with an old wallpaper border above the subway tile and a patched drywall section. Ask how surprises like that are documented and handled before they affect the schedule or the budget.

Keep a simple project log

Keep a notebook or shared note with decisions made, questions for the contractor and photos of anything you want to check later. It makes the final walkthrough easier and keeps everyone working from the same information.