I took a big step preparing for construction this week when I cleaned out the room I’m expanding into.  Even though I was only cleaning and moving things it was exciting to be nearing construction!  I always get excited at any tangible signs construction is getting close on my clients homes and my own home was exactly the same.  It never gets old.

Surplus and salvage building materials are often given away on Freecycle.

The room I cleaned out I used as a pantry and I had many open shelves set up for bottles, cans, and small appliances, etc.  But it was also a room that always seemed to collect lots of stuff I didn’t have a place for so I needed additional time for sorting things.  I found some things I didn’t even remember I had so I probably won’t miss those things!  Since I didn’t have a place for everything I got rid of what I could.  I hadn’t stopped to think that getting more organized was going to be one of the added benefits of remodeling the kitchen.  I’ve found through the years that a great way to quickly give away things someone else might want is to use freecycle.org.  Through the years I’ve also found some great things that others were giving away.  Quite often surplus building materials as well as items like old light fixtures turn up on Freecycle but they often are taken quicky.  I’ve been able to find some things that I will be using on my remodeling.

I also got back to IKEA and was able to work with the same person I had met with before after waiting for him to return from break.  Someone else probably could have picked up where I had left off with him but since I will be doing some custom things like cutting down cabinets and using a variety of pieces in unusual ways I wanted to avoid someone new trying to protect me from making a mistake if they weren’t knowledgeable about customization.  I didn’t want to spend time trying to convince them to just sell me the pieces I wanted.  In preparing my final order with the sales consultant I did find there were a couple of areas where I needed to make adjustments because I misunderstood some things but I got it all worked out and got my order in.

Next week I start demolition!