"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?"

"A Discourse on the Original Kitchen"

This house was built in 1971 and has a kitchen from that era, which seems a somewhat pretentious way to describe a time within my own memory, but in "kitchen years," especially with the fairly recent phenomenon of two and three hundred square foot kitchens with all the accouterments, including islands and high-priced appliances, our kitchen really is from a different era. That said, the 150 square feet of the existing kitchen, if differently arranged would have been more than sufficient. But during the "era" this kitchen was built, people tended to eat in the kitchen, so all of the appliances are crowded together, and there was almost no counter space at all in the original kitchen, that there might be room at one end of the kitchen for the table and chairs.

The original home owner designed and built an add-on that almost doubled the size of the house (it continues on the other side of the south wall of the family room—an addition that doubles the size of the master bedroom), and when he did so, he made an arch where the sliding door to the outside had been and added an L-shaped counter to the kitchen, which provides the only workable food preparation area this kitchen possesses.

The good news about the room addition is that the original home owner was a wonderful amateur architect and carpenter. Not only is the work done quite professionally, it is done in such a way that it seems always to have been a part of the home.

The bad news is that, like many carpenters, he was not a very good cabinetmaker, so the workmanship of his cabinetry leaves a bit to be desired. The countertops are glazed tile and mismatched, the newer counter being topped in a different color tile than that in the original kitchen. Also, where the two countertops butt together, he did the best he could with counters that differ about half an inch in height. And the Douglas fir used to rim the new countertop, because that particular wood is soft, is not a choice I would have made.

The flooring, which was once acceptable, is now some twenty-five years old and needs to be replaced. Also, the appliances, although still in working order, are old and mismatched.

Finally, and this is the part that most grinds my soul, the original cabinetry, which they actually installed in a brand-new home, is unbearably cheap. They used veneered particleboard throughout, and compromised on every possible detail, in order to line their own pockets. The raised panel doors are, in fact, cheap veneered imitations that are edged with finger pull molding (thereby avoiding the expense of knobs) and hung on cheap, self-closing hinges. The drawers are finished with simple butt joints and employ plastic slide glides (attached to the drawer box with staples!) that, even thirty-seven years later, can be purchased for less than a dollar.

The obvious solution to our kitchen woes is to expand the size of the room, but for reasons already stated, we have decided not to do so. Neither will we move the plumbing, stove, or other items. All of the plumbing and electrical lines will remain just as they are, except moving a ceiling light a few feet and adding a water line to the new refrigerator. However, we will completely demolish the existing kitchen and replace everything within it.

Joseph

NEXT WEEK: "Cabinetry"