Since it is just me and my husband, we ordered fresh, pre-prepared meals from a company that offers that service. We pick them up twice a week, keep them refrigerated then heat them in the microwave. All we need are dishes and silverware since heating the meals on plastic or paper plates doesn't work well.

It is much less expensive (and healthier) than eating out three meals a day. So far, it is working out great.

Good luck with your renovation. I can imagine having a toddler to look after during all the construction will be a challenge.

Some links found:

http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg052004427255.html?6

http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg122331088771.html?9

http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0510515522570.html?3

http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/load/appl/msg0514014331445.html?6

You have the biggest problem licked. That's washing water for fresh food and clean-up. Don't assume a time frame. Don't go into it thinking you can do it for 3 months. Figure out how to have proper meals from now on, without end, including going into bad weather months.

My GC is wonderful, and he never caused a delay. Materials did. My 2-3 months turned into something like 9 before I had running water in my new kitchen (and I couldn't face food prep in a powder room). I never would have agreed to that all at once. I'd have chosen something else. But it was always another month, and another month. I had no toddler to mind or folks to feed, but I still went nearly crazy, especially when it got cold out.

Definitely do the spare room dinette thing. It will provide nice stability for your little one as well as some normality for the adults. Yes keep the small appliances. Do move the grill so you can use it outside of the construction site. And set up a prep station, even if it's just a board on top of the laundry machines, so that you have somewhere you can cleanly and safely clean and prepare normal, wholesome food.

In addition to the crockpot, any other small appliance you have like an electric skillet, or grill, may also be useful. If the non-construction side of the house also has electricity, bring a sturdy garden table or something near there so that you can also use your small appliances outdoors on stuffy hot days.

Do you know a college kid home for the Summer from whom you can borrow a dorm fridge? Or if there's a college near you, perhaps you can rent one at a cut rate for just the Summer? It would be great to have a little fridge in your spare room dinette for things that are used at the table so you don't always have to take them up and down the stairs.

I found that proper flatware was essential. I mostly didn't mind the cheap white paper plates that don't seem so wasteful, and I used plastic cups, and reused when possible. If you can manage to use real dishes, even if they're polycarbonate or Corelle, at least some of the time, things will feel less overwhelming.

Best of luck!

I kept my crockpot out and my rice maker and I bought a nice electric skillet.

I also used the crockpot liner bags to make clean up easier.

The steamer baggies were good to steam veggies in the microwave.

We did a major gutting last year. They left our stove & old sink in until the last minute. I didn't have any counters though, so it was hard. We ate a lot of take-out or easy dinners.

Our fridge went to the living room, along with our dining room table where we had paper plates, glasses, etc. set up, along with the Crock pot which I used often.

The microwave was somewhere, I forget.

We look back on that time and remember how much fun it was having the fridge and food in the living room. We'd be watching TV and not have to leave the room for snacks! :)

The first thing I'd do though is get all your toddlers food supplies, sippy cups etc., gathered in one place.

You'll get used to it and work out a regimen.

Assuming you have a dishwasher, do you have room in your laundry room for it? You can get a y-adapter from HD/Lowes and connect the supply to the clothes washer hw source, extension cord for power and drain hose in the sink. It would be pretty, but it would work. You could surround the sides and top with plywood to keep fingers out.

you might look into purchasing an induction hot plate. It would be safer for little fingers since it doesn't get hot and won't activate without a pan on top of it.

We used see-through plastic tubs to keep food items - made finding everything easier.
Having access to the microwave, fridge and water for prep/cleanup were the three most critical things, and you have them covered. I think the grill will be very handy - either move it to the other side of the house or leave space around it free of construction materials (nothing else will be ideal, so the grill area can be cluttered too, so long as it is safe)

We have potatoes "baked" in the microwave. Lots of potatoes.

I have relocated my kitchen to the driveway and garage.

Have the refrig, micorwave, toaster oven and of course coffee maker in the garage across from a 6 foot table with cheap table cloth as counter. My DH set up the old sink, washer dryer and even dishwasher on the driveway with quick connect hoses (through window from laudry room)and plywood platforms with wheels. A working sink is a real necessity. The old DR table and chairs are under/in a enclosed camping/sunshade/tent type thing on the driveway near the garage. An old bookcase in there holds plates/silverware and an old rug make it quite comfy. The weather is great this time of year and we are actually enjoying it. Can't say i like the ants and spiders.....

Good luck on your project. You are smart to plan ahead.

I kept my crockpot and bought a small toaster oven. We set those and our small microwace up o a table in out family room along with a shelf unit that served as our pantry. I also precooked and froze some things like cut up chicken for, ground beef seasoned for tacos or taco salad, precooked sloppy joes, some chili, spaghetti sauce, etc. Having things you could heat rather than having to cook made life easier -- especially the clean up. We did use the grill a lot and have a camping stove we used some too. It got old in the end, but we really did pretty well.

An electric skillet would also be a good thing to have also. I think it's worth a $20-30 purchase or two to make the construction time easier and to eat better.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0519523521743.html?13

Here's another thread I started not too long ago. I hate the gardenweb eats posts! I got some great recipes from it.

Here is a link that might be useful: What did you eat or cook during??

10 years ago, DH and I did a DIY remodel. At that time we set up our old frige and a microwave on a table in our family room. At the time, we were both working full time and fairly young. I think we pretty much skipped breakfast and would grab a cup of coffee at the office. Lunches were always eaten out before starting the remodel. It was no big stretch for us to eat out for dinner too. Did I mention we were really young? At that time we'd order large dinners storing leftovers in the frige to reheat for dinner the next night. The few dishes we had were done in a utility sink in the garage, where our W/D were located.

Our current remodel is also DIY, but this time we have 3 kids, so eating out is not really feasible either money wise or sanity wise, 3 more people with opinions who have collectively never agree on anything.

We're not doing a total gut job, but we are doing some structural changes to one wall. Instead of demo-ing all at once, we're taking it apart bit by bit. Our plan is to keep the essentials running at all times. I hope this makes sense, becuase it's kind of hard to describe. This time around we already have our materials, stored in our garage and at a local storage unit. We bought our cabinets and granite from craigslist. We took out our pantry and brought in 2 of our base cabinets to our breakfast nook to store the food. We brought in one slab of granite to span the 2 cabinets. On top of that we've got a microwave and a single induction cooktop I bought at Overstock. We've taking our oven completely out of commission, in fact I just sold it last night on craigslist. So far, we've had successful meals cooked on this induction and/or our grill. I've been trying to make the entree the single hot meal, and have fresh veggies as the sides. This is the perfect time of year for that. DH did frozen pizza on the grill using a pizza stone, yum. Although he did burn the first one trying to get used to the whole set up. Breakfasts are not too different. Cereal, toater stuff. I've got an electric griddle and waffle maker if we want to do pancakes or waffles.

We're trying to be really creative as you can tell : 0 )

Good luck!

I can't really add much more and I don't know how much this will help since you are ready for demo. I planned in advance since we have 3 teenagers and eating out wasn't feasible.

I cooked quite a few meals and put them in freezable containers and then will be pulling them out and microwaving them. I tried to keep them simple and "one pot" type meals so that the kids could go in and grab things and heat them up when they are hungry.

We specifically planned the remodel for the summer so that we could make lots of use of the grill too.

Good luck.