Kitchen / Dining Area Renovation

[&roid]

18 hours ago, dcarch said:

 

That is a very small sink. Is that the only sink? Is this considered normal size sink in your area? 

Interesting picture. What kind of lens/camera? Doesn't look like a fish eye lens. 

 

dcarch

 

Ha! No that’s just my small prep sink - basically a place to scrape all my veg mess into a waste disposal. The main sink is in the run of units just behind the camera and is about 4-500mm square. That said, the prep sink will be a bit bigger in the new kitchen - it’s just slightly too small as it is. 

 

The pic was taken with the panorama mode on my iPhone - not perfect but an easy way of getting some lateral extension when standing further away isn’t an option. 

[&roid]

5 hours ago, boilsover said:

 

I have seen some modern homes with a secondary "butler's" kitchen, which can basically do it all. I know one couple who have this setup (and one outdoors) and never use any of them.

 

This is something that really grates on me - such a waste to not actually cook in a decent kitchen.

 

When we went stone shopping we were asked if we wanted a worktop to just look good or if we might use it...

 

nothing useless can be truly beautiful and all that. 

[&roid]

So we’ve finally opened up the space into the extension, the ceiling was skimmed yesterday and things are starting to move again. 

 

Were still waiting on the glazing but im reliably informed we’ll be ready to start getting a kitchen back in by two weeks’ time...

 

No less than thirty five fiddly recessed plaster-in downlights and I think my electrician and plasterer are ready to kill me

 

 

[&roid]

While this most recent phase has been going on I’ve had to move all my cooking from my temporary (but really quite spacious) bench into our small utility room. 

 

What you see see below is now the only countertop space I have left - I can either chop or cook, but not both!

 

I’ll be so happy to get back into a proper kitchen but it’s actually been quite fun - I’ve had to be a lot more disciplined about how I prepare food... maybe some good habits will stick... but more than likely I’ll just be so delighted to have space again I’ll spread out to fill it all with mess  

[&roid]

And here’s our site foreman keeping an eye on the work:

[chromedome]

15 hours ago, &roid said:

Were still waiting on the glazing but im reliably informed we’ll be ready to start getting a kitchen back in by two weeks’ time...

 

No less than thirty five fiddly recessed plaster-in downlights and I think my electrician and plasterer are ready to kill me

 

 

"But it all makes work, for the workingman to dooooo...."

[gfweb]

On 10/13/2018 at 5:08 PM, &roid said:

nothing useless can be truly beautiful

 

 

I can think of some human exceptions to that

[gfweb]

15 hours ago, &roid said:

And here’s our site foreman keeping an eye on the work:

 

 

A familiar look 😉

[&roid]

That’s why my Pol Roger and cigar stashes keep disappearing  

[&roid]

It really feels like we’re startjng to make some progress now. Some of the glass went in yesterday - the fixed window and the large skylight. Just got to wait a couple of weeks for the sliding unit now. 

 

Big day tomorrow, the kitchen finally starts getting installed  

 

We’re also starting to make some plans for an outdoor cooking area to house the Kamado grill we got a year or two ago. I’ll post some SketchUp drawings later. 

 

Here’s the space with a bit of light at last:

 

 

 

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by &roid (log)

[&roid]

We have an acer in the garden which is spectacular in autumn. The window which has just gone in looks out right onto it - I was convinced it was going to drop all its leaves the day before the glass went in but we just made it:

 

 

[&roid]

Here's the first draft of a layout for the outdoor kitchen:

 

 

[kayb]

Looks like it's going to be a great-sized space. Anxious to see results.

 

I love an outdoor kitchen. When we move next year, I hope to have one.

[lindag]

4 hours ago, &roid said:

Here's the first draft of a layout for the outdoor kitchen:

 

 

 

How many months a year can you actually use an outdoor kitchen where you are?

[Okanagancook]

Regarding the outdoor kitchen (I don't see one in the drawing)I strongly recommend putting in a sink.  You won't regret it.  We have a large enamel burgundy coloured sink in our outdoor kitchen

[lindag]

48 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Regarding the outdoor kitchen (I don't see one in the drawing)I strongly recommend putting in a sink.  You won't regret it.  We have a large enamel burgundy coloured sink in our outdoor kitchen

 

Doesn't it have to be winterized?

[Okanagancook]

  Our sink is on the house wall where our indoor sink is so the taps for the outdoor sink are easily accessed.  We just drain the pipe for winter.  They may not be able to do that so it would have to be designed properly.

[&roid]

17 hours ago, lindag said:

How many months a year can you actually use an outdoor kitchen where you are?

 

In a glorious year like the one we’ve just had I’d be able to get out there a lot... it’ll probably be  another ten years before that happens again mind!

 

Despite the weather I do find we use the Kamado Joe a fair bit. The thing I’m always wishing I had a bit more of is some workspace around the grill. So while we have builders on site it seemed a good idea to add a bit of countertop and somewhere to keep my bbq bits. 

[&roid]

The track for the large glazed wall went In today, just got everything crossed that the glass for it will be delivered on time - if not our Christmas party on the 15th might be a bit chilly!

 

 

The guys obviously had to board it all up again once they’d finished but it was great to see out into the garden again properly. 

 

Kitchen fitter arrived this afternoon to start putting things back together again, we’re keeping a lot of the old units so they are roughly in place, ready to be fettled and fixed over the next week or so. 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by &roid (log)

[Smithy]

"fettled" ? I know what it is to be in fine fettle (and a fine word it is), but this verb form seems different. Please translate for us Yanks.

[&roid]

2 minutes ago, Smithy said:

"fettled" ? I know what it is to be in fine fettle (and a fine word it is), but this verb form seems different. Please translate for us Yanks.

 

😂 I wondered as I typed that how well it would cross the Atlantic

 

It means to make or fix something, specifically I think it came from trimming bits off pottery or cast metal. In this case they are needing to add new rails for the handleless doors of the old kitchen so are having to rout out some extra material from each cabinet.

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

12 minutes ago, &roid said:

 

😂 I wondered as I typed that how well it would cross the Atlantic

 

It means to make or fix something, specifically I think it came from trimming bits off pottery or cast metal. In this case they are needing to add new rails for the handleless doors of the old kitchen so are having to rout out some extra material from each cabinet.

 

 

In such ways do our vocabularies grow.  Thanks!

[dtremit]

On 10/13/2018 at 8:18 AM, chromedome said:

Apparently the newest thing in some quarters is to have a "mess kitchen" where you do the actual grunt work, and then the "main" kitchen where you reheat things, warm a sauce, and feel like Martha as you mix your cocktails and act blase about it all.

 

I've learned recently that this is extremely common nowadays in Southeast Asia -- where cooking spaces are traditionally outdoors. The "open kitchen" trend has spread to new developments there, but anyone who has ever cooked with shrimp paste knows, doing it in the living room is unthinkable. Hence the closed, "wet" kitchen for serious cooking, behind the open, "dry" kitchen for finishing meals / serving breakfast / etc.

 

In our next house, I'm hoping we'll have a small, kitchen-adjacent room that I can use sort of like this. I'd build a nice, standard-sized kitchen (with an eye towards resale, as I doubt our next house will be our last one). The "back room" would have lots of open, commercial shelving, an extra fridge/freezer, and stations for baking and batch prepwork. 

 

OP -- your kitchen looks like it's going to be magnificent -- I'm so jealous of your skylight!

[&roid]

2 hours ago, dtremit said:

 

I've learned recently that this is extremely common nowadays in Southeast Asia -- where cooking spaces are traditionally outdoors. The "open kitchen" trend has spread to new developments there, but anyone who has ever cooked with shrimp paste knows, doing it in the living room is unthinkable. Hence the closed, "wet" kitchen for serious cooking, behind the open, "dry" kitchen for finishing meals / serving breakfast / etc.

 

In our next house, I'm hoping we'll have a small, kitchen-adjacent room that I can use sort of like this. I'd build a nice, standard-sized kitchen (with an eye towards resale, as I doubt our next house will be our last one). The "back room" would have lots of open, commercial shelving, an extra fridge/freezer, and stations for baking and batch prepwork. 

 

OP -- your kitchen looks like it's going to be magnificent -- I'm so jealous of your skylight!

 

I think this is a great idea - some friends of ours who are originally from Pakistan have exactly this setup in their new house.  I'll definitely be looking at the idea for our next place but with this one space has dictated that we stick with the one big space - thankfully we have a good extractor 😀

 

I love the skylight already, it was our architect's idea and I'm really pleased we went with such a dramatic size (it's about 10' x 5').  When we are all finished the new dining table will sit under this skylight, looking out into the garden.  Not too long now I hope!

[KennethT]

2 hours ago, dtremit said:

 

I've learned recently that this is extremely common nowadays in Southeast Asia -- where cooking spaces are traditionally outdoors. The "open kitchen" trend has spread to new developments there, but anyone who has ever cooked with shrimp paste knows, doing it in the living room is unthinkable. Hence the closed, "wet" kitchen for serious cooking, behind the open, "dry" kitchen for finishing meals / serving breakfast / etc.

 

In our next house, I'm hoping we'll have a small, kitchen-adjacent room that I can use sort of like this. I'd build a nice, standard-sized kitchen (with an eye towards resale, as I doubt our next house will be our last one). The "back room" would have lots of open, commercial shelving, an extra fridge/freezer, and stations for baking and batch prepwork. 

 

OP -- your kitchen looks like it's going to be magnificent -- I'm so jealous of your skylight!

I understand this, but whenever I have cooked with shrimp paste, I could smell it throughout my entire apartment and into the hallway...  How far away does the wet kitchen have to be?