That old adage: you know, the one about biting off more than you can chew?

We started our kitchen renovation this weekend. I'm ridiculously excited to get to the finished product. We'll have a DISHWASHER!!!

Over the weekend, Jevon and I painstakingly took everything out of our kitchen and re-housed it elsewhere. On Saturday morning, we took possession of 166 Ikea packages. Thankfully, some of those packages are very small, but 166 is one HECK of a jigsaw puzzle. We squirrelled the packages away in our house and continued to empty the kitchen and take down the cupboards.

Yesterday morning, Habitat For Humanity came and took our dismantled kitchen away. Yay!

Last night, reinforcements in the shape of my father-in-law arrived. He convinced us that removing our chimney was the right move. You see, the chimney is not used for anything any more; all of our new, efficient, appliances vent out the wall. The chimney is brick, and the brick is starting to crumble. If we leave the chimney, this will eventually become a large problem. Taking the chimney out re-claims a few square feet of kitchen space, which will equal more counter space. We need counter space. So we agreed.

Thing is, the chimney also goes through Alexa's room. So, instead of doing a very large kitchen renovation, we're doing an even larger kitchen-and-bedroom renovation.

As I mentioned, I know this is the right move. It's just that the sheer immensity of the work ahead of us is freaking me out a little. Imagine that scene in "Game of Thrones" when Jon Snow looks up at The Wall and knows that he's got to climb it.

Yeah.

That.

Add two little kids to the mix and you'll see where I'm coming from.

A friend of mine from high school went through a complicated and - from what I hear - problem-filled kitchen renovation last year, also with two little kids at home. When I really start to freak out, I'll be sure to ask her for moral support. I'm sure I'll need it!