Because we did 99% of the work ourselves, our renovation progressed not along some deeply-reasoned timeline, but in fits and bursts, governed by the alchemical interaction of necessity and ability.

For ex: for an excessively long time the only thing we had in the kitchen was a table with three good legs upon which we arranged our coffee station (a kettle, cafetière and a couple of chipped ‘work’ mugs). The table sat in front of the interior wall as we removed the window and doorway and rebuilt the wall with new studs. It still sat there, presumably judging us, as we realized we needed to take down the studs again in order to get the old appliances out because the hallways were too small. (How did they get them in? Magic?) We eventually closed that wall for good and put the floor down, and still that rickety table was there, now burdened not only with the coffee maker and mugs but also with any other implements (tools, gloves, fasteners, wipes, water, contractor bags, speaker, phones) we had nowhere else to put.

There you go: kitchen storage became a necessity. As for the ability portion? Well, the way I approach each new project is first by leaving the house: nothing requiring great imagination was ever achieved in the middle of a worksite. We took ourselves to a coffee shop and I began to draw plans.