The Front Porch Swing

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Ooh I like your chriteria... I hate those dead spaces in cabenetry.... especially in a small kitchen where every inch of storage is valuable real estate. If your wife is vertically challenged how about making the bottom drawer a pull out step stool.. I have seen them and they have wheels on the front underside and a lid which you can lift to store things in but its sturdy enough to use as a step stool.

I toyed with that idea and it wont work for me. for the same reason I will never live in a house with stairs. I have to climb three steps up to get into my front door and that is too much for me right now. Working on getting rid of those.... Ideas wise.

What I want is a single counter fastened to the wall with build in drain grooves to drain to the sink. The sink will be a handicap sink so I can do dishes sitting in a chair. The the cabinets will be on casters and each will have a cutting board top on them. I only have room in my kitchen for about four of those.

That way I can run the floors wall to wall and can get to them to clean them. As in the picture I only have two walls for sink and stove. the stove wall is about nine feet. The sink wall is about eleven feet.

Opposite the sink wall I have space that is approximately 15 inches deep where I can put pantry cabinets. Then there is a six foot wide by three foot high window... That opens into my bedroom. its covered by a sheet put up there probably 20 years ago. I want to take that window out and remove the cripple wall ? and put my refrigerator and freezer in the space flush with the pantry cabinets. Of course somoene will have to come and frame out a back for it... But with the cabinets being 15 inches deep and the walls being 12 inches deep I suspect the framing will be nothing more than a big picture frame on the bedroom side. Plus I could have the added benefit of hinging it or making the back removable for cleaning. AND good ventilation for the refer.

No I am not a cleaning fanatic.... but In the land of the desert fine talc like dust gets EVERYWHERE.... and in places you'd never expect. LOL

deb

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Sorry for the multiple posts, I am trying to catch up and guess I want to hear my voice ... ha, ha!

About the kitchens and canning kitchens... I love that picture Deb, I saved it into my "inspiration folder". Can't wait to get this house sold and move to the new place in Wisconsin. DH has been brainstorming kitchen remodels - I keep telling him that I refuse to make any decisions until I can live there for a bit. He is talking about putting the canning kitchen in the basement, or out in the garden shed, but possibly in the basement. Then last week, he made a frozen pizza in the oven. It barely fit, it seems the ovens are only 12" deep and just wide enough for a medium size cookie sheet. He was all depressed that we may need to put that out into the garden shed for canning use only and use the nice gas oven that we moved to WI. He really likes the look of that range I guess. I suggested that we could just add a wall oven to the kitchen for using large pans and such. I always wanted a wall oven, I hate pulling a heavy, hot pan of food out of an oven at knee height. It is hard on the back.

Here is a picture of what my DH is in love with. The six top burners are really nice, 2 of them are high heat burners. It has a broiler, a convection oven and a regular oven.

Absolutely, if it is still working, keep it. It may not end up in the kitchen, but it really is NICE.

Aga is the brand of "cooker" that is THE thing in England. Snobby Ukes (a word I invented to balance out always being called a Yank by my British friends) can't say "oven" or "cooker," they can only say "Aga." Take a look at this website to see what they look like ... a whole arrangement of little oven doors like your "old fashioned" oven. I gather Agas are "always on."

http://www.agaliving.com/

BUT ... having at least one big wall oven is SO nice.

You know what I also sometimes think I want ... an industrial broiler ... overhead ... like these ... http://www.wolfstoves.com/Wolf/Salamander/Salamander.htm

In England, one of the things they say they "don't understand about Americans" is why we cook outside. Maybe because a good BBQ is a fraction the price of a Salamder broiler? And the smoke isn't a problem. Neither is the heat.

 

[perchie.girl]

Sorry for the multiple posts, I am trying to catch up and guess I want to hear my voice ... ha, ha!

About the kitchens and canning kitchens... I love that picture Deb, I saved it into my "inspiration folder". Can't wait to get this house sold and move to the new place in Wisconsin. DH has been brainstorming kitchen remodels - I keep telling him that I refuse to make any decisions until I can live there for a bit. He is talking about putting the canning kitchen in the basement, or out in the garden shed, but possibly in the basement. Then last week, he made a frozen pizza in the oven. It barely fit, it seems the ovens are only 12" deep and just wide enough for a medium size cookie sheet. He was all depressed that we may need to put that out into the garden shed for canning use only and use the nice gas oven that we moved to WI. He really likes the look of that range I guess. I suggested that we could just add a wall oven to the kitchen for using large pans and such. I always wanted a wall oven, I hate pulling a heavy, hot pan of food out of an oven at knee height. It is hard on the back.

Here is a picture of what my DH is in love with. The six top burners are really nice, 2 of them are high heat burners. It has a broiler, a convection oven and a regular oven.

Oh my goodness thats worth its weight in gold.... I would definately put in a wall oven for the bigger stuff. They make counter top pizza ovens too that rotisserate to cook. There are lots of options

Love it love it love it....

deb

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Oh, that sounds simply delicious!!! I wish I could eat stuff like that but I am cursed with a deathly allergy to shellfish....dang it.

Now that's a tragedy!

Besides being my favorite stuff ... okay ... how can I decide what's really my favorite ... are we talking before or after coffee in the morning? I was told that someone conducted a "taste test" to find the most universally favored flavor, and "prawn" won. I love how in other countries you can get prawn flavored potato-type chips (crisps? crackers? Ugh, lost in translation ... but you can google it if you don't already know). Slurp ... those things will make me lick the inside of the bag.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Oh my goodness thats worth its weight in gold.... I would definately put in a wall oven for the bigger stuff. They make counter top pizza ovens too that rotisserate to cook. There are lots of options

Love it love it love it....

deb

Oh how I want a little wood-burning pizza cave in my back yard. I saw one all covered in glass pebbles that made me wish I was a lizard so I could live on it. I'm sure it wouldn't be too tough to make one ...

 

[wyoDreamer]

That is a AGA range, imported from England. DH looked it up on the internet...
The steel for the oven walls is really thick and well insulated. It talks a little bit of time to get it warmed up, but it has really even heating and holds temp well. I can't wait to bake bread in it.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Same thing going on here. I had Rebekah list all the kitchen stuff (food excluded, separate thing) so I can make storage that works and categorize them by:
1) Use daily, stays on the counter
2) Use frequently, close at hand
3) Use pretty often, not TOO far away
4) Use rarely, just have to remember where it is

And at 5 foot not quite 2 inches, she has the same reach range as you. Low ceilings here too.

My aunt has a cabinet on casters. Instead of a 3/4 "Lazy Susan" or "impossible to reach the back corner" corner cabinet, the one on casters is pulled out and you can pull out the "hidden" shelves.

I love, love, love those "pull-out" pantries! It's so nice to be able to SEE stuff. And reach it, of course.

I want some pull-out work stations for my mixers & stuff. I guess that's the heavier "close at hand" stuff from your list. Some people have a row of "garages" across the back of their counters for that stuff. I'd rather have it under the counter, but not so I have to lift it if it's very heavy.

I also want all my under-cabinet storage to be "pull-out" style. I get SO sick when I have to get down on my knees and crank my head around so maybe I can see in there, and then reaching in almost makes me pass out (that using my arms thing that triggers symptoms for me). Sometimes I have to take a little nap right there on the floor ... so I tend to make cooking a multi-step process. Find and pull out the tools, nap. Prep the ingredients, nap. Cook, nap. Eat, nap. And if I take a nice long nap after-dinner nap, I wake up to Dad having done the dishes.

They now sell kits at Home Depot to convert under-cabinet storage to pull-out trays or racks, and I'd love to install them everywhere in my kitchen, but ... I've got a lot of under-cabinet storage.

One "smart" thing we did in our kitchen was to put a strip of plugs (outlets) all around the underside of our kitchen island. That way you can set up the small appliances anywhere on the island. There are also tons of plugs along the walls of countertops. It makes things really flexible. These days the under-island plugs are as likely to be used for charging phones or laptops as they are for plugging in the mixer.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Fish they can do. It;s even good with link saugage and chicken in it. My daughter Brandi once told me she had got a recipe from one of her dad's relatives. Total redneck. It's a rice dish. I ask her what it was and she pulled out the paper and showed me. Spelled Pie Yell casserole. I kid you not. I was hysterical and told her how it was pronounced. Brandi is very kind hearted and fussed at me for making fun of the backwards people (my words) Snicker. Can't help it.. They were dumb. And not the nice kind of people you would like as in-laws. I was the city girl and not much tolerated either. Ahhh, good times. Makes me glad I was divorced. Johnny's on his third wife now and they still don't like any of us.

And the bad thing about it was that relative worked in Dallas for 15 years before coming back to the small town Rayville.

Awwwww. Paelle IS ancient servant food, translated from other languages. Spelling was probably arbitrarily assigned anyway.

 

[LindaB220]

Something I found on Facebook from my SIL Clint Hortman.

http://blog.petflow.com/7-year-old-...hers-funeral-im-in-tears/#WYVrHA2zHSj8yV5F.01

 

[lovingmyhens]

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