Temporary kitchens are a terrific idea if it takes the pressure off you, but a bad one if it takes the pressure off your GC to get your kitchen done on time.

Oh, how funny! I actually have one of those. It's probably 50 - 60 years old. We got it at an estate auction, thinking it would be great in a little cabin getaway somewhere cool. Well.... As our plans tend to go nowhere, it's been in storage all this time (we got it in the 80's!) and now might be the time to set it up as temp kitchen so I can tear this on out.

Now if you could rent it.....

My full sized refrigerator rolled to our family room where we set up a microwave (inexpensive countertop purchased a year or so earlier and set in place because the built-in one died) and a toaster oven (inexpensive one I bought just to get us through). I had my crockpot, outdoor grill and a camp stove and pulled in a folding table and bookshelf to serve as our counter/cabinets/pantry. The $30 toaster oven was the only thing we didn't already have. Look around and see what you already have before you go buying temporary tings.

That "temp" looks better than some of the "afters" I've seen ;)

For me, the temporary kitchen would be too expensive: there's the cost of the unit itself, plus having to hook up plumbing to the sink and having upgraded elec to the burners (I assume you can't just plug that stove into any ol' socket).

We cobbled together a temporary kitchen based around a $200 Ikea cart. The top is our work surface; the middle shelf has the toaster oven; the bottom shelf is storage. Next to the cart is our little cube refrigerator, with a microwave on top. The one thing we don't have is plumbing, so all food items get washed in an upstairs sink, and dirty dishes get stacked in a dishpan in the temp kitchen, then washed in the bathtub. The only thing we bought new was the mini-fridge.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Ikea cart

Honestly, thatâÂÂs cute, however without some ingenious use for it afterwards, I believe it would be a waste of money.

It needs a 220 outlet for the little stove. Also some way to provide (hot) water and sewage for the sink? If those resources are available in the garage why not use the old stove and set up a real kitchen including diswasher?

Our kitchen has been torn out for a year, so at this point I feel like a âÂÂtemporary kitchenâ expert! LOL. I can say without reservation, the ONLY reason that we havenâÂÂt killed each other is that there IS a working dishwasher.

Cooking, or making something to eat is fairly easy with only a hot plate, a microwave, and even nicer if thereâÂÂs an espresso maker! Clean up happens whether there is cooking, having takeout, or just making coffee. Washing and sanitizing dishes by hand for any length of time in a bathroom, laundry room, or even that tiny sink in your photo -- is much, much tougher. Even with only two of us living here, amazingly we still run the dishwasher nearly every day.

For us to make a dishwasher possible, we did a temporary conversion of a TINY powder room. We removed the sink and itâÂÂs cabinets, storing away for reinstallation. We removed the toilet and sealed off the sewage drain (who knew that would be easy). The drain pipe/toilet flange sits proud of the floor so we built a plywood platform over the top. I bought a new stainless laundry tub because I wanted one anyway for my laundry room. We placed it into a cabinet carcass and installed the old kitchen faucet. We found a full-size portable dishwasher on CraigsList. Hubby screwed two of our old kitchen cabinets to the walls that hold our dishes and coffee makings. A couple more of the old cabinets were placed just around the corner which hold food and flatware. The old refrigerator, a 21 year-old GE Profile, is still serving.

It took us an afternoon to complete the whole thing. A real contractor could probably do it in an hour.

"That "temp" looks better than some of the "afters" I've seen ;)"

True that! And it definitely looks better than my "before" kitchen. I actually had a similar kitchen in studio apartment near the beach that I rented when I first moved to California. You opened a closet and there it was! It was adorable and actually quite functional. I loved it.

We have a biiig unfinished basement that had a nasty utility sink, so our contractor pulled out the utility sink, cut the counter with the sink from our demo'ed kitchen and installed it in the place of the utility sink. Stove and micro were from old kitchen, we also have fridge across the basement (logistical problems getting everything in one place).

So we have this "luxurious" faux kitchen, complete with washer and dryer (useful for extra counter space) and, on the other side of that plastic sheet, a toilet! I finally got creeped out enough at staring at the toilet while doing dishes that I put up the plastic. Fancy.

Hubby is a pretty strong extrovert and there is no way he can survive without having guests, so we've made a lot of pretty good food here, on the gas grill and the Komodo Joe outside. But unfortunately, all the dish washing has been by hand. Wish I could have gotten the old dishwasher included in this setup!