"Where Do We Go From Here?"

One of the things we most enjoy doing is making pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving, Christine making the filling while I roll out the crusts. When we were first married, we rented a townhouse that had Formica countertops which I was able to use as a wonderful workplace. From that day to this, though, we have always had kitchens with tile countertops, which has always necessitated my pulling out the breadboard and rolling out my pies on that.

This time round we will have solid countertops. I have been dickering back and forth for some time as to the choice I thought would best fit the bill. One of the most spectacular choices, of course, is granite countertops, especially the upper end granite with that marvelous grain that makes such a pronounced design statement. One of the difficulties with that particular choice, of course, is the cost. Formica has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive, and since I know how to apply it, it becomes a choice that is surely up there.

But what I most want for the countertops is something spectacular, but something too, that looks as though it has my hands all over it, which brings me to the obvious choice, wooden countertops. As part of the blogs I have been writing for our sister site cft411.com, I have explored a great many topics for kitchens and bathrooms, and one of the things that has most intrigued me is wooden countertops. There are a number of companies that are making countertops that can only be described as spectacular, but in the end, because wood is actually my medium, I believe that I will tackle the wooden countertops myself.

The sink will be a single-basin farm sink which will eliminate one of my pet peeves—all of the grunting and straining that is necessary to wash large pots and pans at Thanksgiving. The faucets have been chosen to complement the look of simple elegance we are striving to achieve, and also to provide us with a separate sprayer that will help with cleanups and filling large pots.

All of the existing appliances will be replaced. The new choice will be KitchenAid, a choice we have made for the product line’s reliability, practicality, and affordability. There are a number of reasons for this choice.

First, the available room in the kitchen immediately eliminates anything but a range, as there simply is not room for a separate oven. Also, we are relegated to a range no wider than thirty inches, for the same reason. Finally, we neither have, nor wish to acquire, enough electrical power to drive anything but a gas-powered range. So, many of the more exotic choices have already been lost to us.

Beyond that there is the issue of what kind of kitchen appliances we actually need. We are not, as has been previously stated, gourmet cooks, but even if we were, I really do not understand the attraction of the pricier line of appliances which have, as a sort of center attraction, 15,000 BTU burners. A short order restaurant cook, which I once was, does what he must to get out the largest number of orders in the shortest amount of time. He can put that excessive heat to good use. I’m not so sure the rest of us need that sort of thing. Certainly, we do not.

We have cooked in the current kitchen for almost sixteen years. Prior to that every other kitchen we had was no more than average, when it came to appliances. And there is also my Army experience. I have cooked for hundreds of men under some outrageously primitive conditions. While stationed in Berlin I cooked for five hundred men in a company-size mess hall designed to serve no more than two hundred. Those years are long since behind me, but in memory, they are evergreen, and ever influential in what I regard as necessary to a kitchen. Just damned near any burner will do fine for me. So beyond the look of a coordinated line of new appliances, we are just not willing to spend so much for what is essentially aesthetics.

We decided on KitchenAid because the side-by-side refrigerator is quite a bit smaller than the one we currently have, while losing just one cubic foot of storage space. We’re not sure if stainless steel is in or out, but we mean to coordinate it with a more traditional kitchen that will use nickel-plated hardware. As Christine always says, "If you stick with the classics, you won’t grow tired of them."

Sadly, these plans, like the plans I have already discussed for our bathroom, are still some time away from completion. As I pursue my many options, though, I will be sharing the results of my research on CFT411. One of the things that has most amazed me since my partner and I took it on, and I began writing the bulk of the blogs (he does the software; I do the writing), is the incredible amount of design ideas that are available, especially in the field of appliances. I have no trouble at all maintaining an air of genuine enthusiasm for my blogs, because what I have found often astounds me.

So, in a way, I am unhappy that I will not be able to get right to work on our new kitchen, but on the other hand, I have to believe that I am certain to find something new and different that will be just the thing—even for a kitchen as small and limited as ours. Perhaps you’ll care to join me in my search for the new and different on CFT411. I can promise you a journey that is never boring.

Joseph

"Cabinetry"

Cabinetry is often described as the most important facet of a kitchen, but that axiom is particularly true in our case. For reasons already stated, the kitchen is much too small and will remain so. The counter we love so much takes up quite a bit of room, and in order to fit it into a much too small space, the original homeowner held the base cabinets in his counter to a depth of only twenty inches. After much analysis, I can do no more than bow to his wisdom.

I was once going to move the sink, split the counter, and install fake beams and custom-made lighting, but this design, though much more innovative than what I feel obliged to go with, creates as many problems as it solves, mostly because of its reducing the one substantial counter we have from a 31" depth to only 20".

Given these many restrictions, the only thing I can think to do with these confined quarters is to make of it a jewel box. It need not be overly ornate, but it must, to my mind, be highly crafted. My first thought was Greene and Greene, but as our plans have evolved, I have found myself yearning for less. In designing our cabinetry, the one thing I found myself consistently writing in the margins was "simple elegance."

I believe this kitchen should have as much "wow" as I am able to provide for it, but that this "wow factor" must come from cabinetry made so well that even the least sophisticated will know at once that no factory ever produced such work. But, even so, the cabinetry must quietly do its job. To achieve this I will avoid raised panels and elaborate crown molding and opt, instead, for Shaker-like panel doors which I will hang on unadorned butt hinges set into cockbead in such a way that the hinge knuckles almost disappear into the wood. To latch the doors I will use rare earth magnets which I will hide in the wood in such a manner that only another woodworker will ever be able to figure out what in heck keeps the doors closed.

I do not like, and will not make, cabinets with adjustable shelving. Studies have shown that well over ninety-five percent of those who are obliged to use such cabinetry arrange the shelves one time (usually to industry standards) and then never again. But they are obliged to look at a row of holes they will never use. It costs more to make cabinets with fixed shelving (time being money), but the result is a stronger, more aesthetically pleasing cabinet. Also, I have decided to change the concept of having to cover shelves with Contact Paper of some sort, as it is often an annoying process, which is why, no matter how badly it subsequently deteriorates, people rarely replace the shelf paper. Therefore, as a note of unexpected elegance, all of the interior shelves and all of the drawer bottoms will be covered with Formica.

Freed of the necessity of making my own lanterns, we have opted for lighting we will purchase and install ourselves. Despite the regulations now being promulgated for kitchens, we still find Fluorescent lighting to be a flickering abomination that does little more than give headaches to those obliged to work in it. We have decided upon incandescent lighting. I will also design, build, and install my own hood, which will include stained glass inserts for a source of ambient lighting. For as long as we have been married, the first thing we do each day is to turn on the hood light in the kitchen, and it remains on until we go to bed. Now we will make of this light source a bit of magic.

Finally, I will replace the existing pass through doors into the kitchen with new doors of my own design.

Joseph

NEXT WEEK: "Where Do We Go From Here?"

Joseph and Christine’s

Amazing Technicolor

Dream Yard

PART THREE OF THREE

This is a close-up of the area in front of the gazebo. Our soil is very hard clay that drains poorly, and the many structures I put in the yard increased the drainage problems. Rather than try to plant stuff in dirt not much different than concrete, we elected to put in a lot of decorative rock (eight-and-a-half tons of rock, as it turned out!) and then use various pots for our plants. But we did not want to just put in a bunch of the same clay pots. We varied it as much as we could.

I’m standing on the gazebo looking across the yard to the reading porch. That’s the storage shed on the left. The back panel of the storage shed has been deliberately painted to look like that on the end of the casita, which makes the end panel of the casita look even more like just a design detail. More on that in a minute.

This is taken from the gazebo looking down on the area behind the storage shed. In a few places we elected to put trees or shrubs directly into the ground.

The details on the railings don’t show up as well as I would like, but the little cap in the foreground consists of three pieces routed with a bull nose, roundover, and cove. The railings themselves consist of three pieces for the top railing, two pieces for the bottom railing, and all the spindles have coves routed on the four corners.

This is looking toward the rear of the casita. The details of the posts don’t show up as well as I’d like, but they are 4×4s which had coves routed on all four corners. Then I attached 1×2 to the face of the posts which had roundover edges routed on them. The final result looks like a pillar rather than a post. The painted panel on the end of the casita is a wall that can be removed in the event that the spa should ever have to be replaced. My first thought was to install a huge gated door, but I couldn’t see the point of looking at hinges on a door that would be opened only once or twice in my lifetime, if that. Instead, I put in headers across the end of the casita, just as I would have done, had I installed a regular garage door. Then the beam just above the painted area had a lip cut into it so the painted portion of the wall could slip under the lip, thereby ensuring that rain does NOT run into the wall, which would be the way of it, had I not put in a drip edge. The whole thing has been carefully calked and painted and looks no different than the end panel on the storage shed (which IS just a painted detail). If I should have to remove it, it would take about half a day to do so, and another half day to put it back in, but this way I’m not looking at those hinges.

Standing on the gazebo and looking down at the seating area. I made small tables for the outside ends of both the green and blue benches and put a larger corner table in between them, so people would have a place to set down a plate and a drink.

Christine calls these the harmony bells and very much wanted them for our yard. It’s strange how things work out sometimes. I won’t comment on the paranoia of those who arranged things so she had no work the summer we finished the yard, except to thank them. That job… But, as I say, what could have been a bad situation ended up working out beautifully for us! After a while the work all runs together, so it’s hard for me to remember all the things Christine did, just that I know I would not have finished that year without her. Also, thanks to her not having a job that summer we had plenty of time to pick out the pots and plants together, which was a very fun thing to do. And now we have the yard to enjoy next year and every year thereafter. So, if that sounds a little smug, well, you just should have seen the people who ran that department! But they got their pound of flesh, and we got our yard. Bless them.

Joseph