Kitchen developments
May. 11th, 2011 10:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snousleThere have been some substantial changes in the kitchen department lately.
The main goal has been to properly equip the residential kitchen so we can stop using the commercial kitchen for personal stuff. The initial installation was pretty minimal, with a small sink and a tiny under-counter refrigerator. I thought it would work out, given that I could use the catering kitchen for anything beyond cooking for the three of us, but it didn't function that way in practice. For way too long, I've been leaning on the commercial space for everyday use, and the result has been chronic chaos. We had been taking our dirty dishes out there for cleaning, but that proved to be a royal pain in the ass, and resulted in a lot of breakage. It's a very high-maintenance space, and I was always running back and forth between the two getting this thing or that.
So, we replaced the under-counter fridge with a nice dishwasher, added some more cabinetry, and installed a refrigerator that I totally do not deserve, a Sub-Zero with a freezer drawer. They're not cheap, but it's the only full sized refrigerator that fits in a 24" deep space. Shallow fridges aren't the most energy efficient, but it's easy to reach stuff - nothing gets lost in the back - and they look really nice.
The fridge:
The dishwasher. I particularly like the lack of external controls - everything is hidden on the top edge of the door.
This is the view towards the sink. One of the more radical decisions I made was to put in this itsy-bitsy 15" basin, which in this photo you can hardly see. It's only used for getting water and cleaning wine glasses. Everything else - even large pots - goes straight into the dishwasher.
The dining area is just outside the kitchen, which is separated from the rest of the house by half-height walls:
In the commercial kitchen, I had a neighbor install glass tile in the prep and cleanup areas, which is great since I can splash and spray as much as I want:
After a LOT of searching, I got a deal on a 20" piece of custom-fabricated stainless that someone had ordered and then skipped out on, which fits the prep sink perfectly and makes a clean, raised platform to work on:
I added some hardwood feet to keep it elevated, and it also rests in a tipped-up position to facilitate drying:
Finally, the cleanup area with its glass tile. The moulding below the tile is not wood, but instead plastic with a wood finish. It's just caulked in place, so if cleanup sink has to be unbolted from the wall for any reason (i.e. to get at the plumbing) it can be easily removed.
A major motivation for all this was to ensure compliance with EH+S rules. Cooking for ourselves in the commercial kitchen was inviting all kinds of health code violations, and I was very keen to get out of that situation. Despite my paranoia, the inspector hadn't shown up at all in the two years since my opening inspection. Then, purely by coincidence, he called for an appointment while the new fridge was being installed! I was able to get all the crap moved into our regular kitchen before his visit this morning, which was a huge relief - with the commercial fridge entirely empty, there was almost no chance of there being any problems. (Because we live so far out of town and the kitchen doesn't run on regular hours, the inspector isn't going to show up unnanounced, as they do in the city.)
So the kitchen passed inspection with flying colors, and life is much simpler! Can't believe it all worked out so smoothly.
The main goal has been to properly equip the residential kitchen so we can stop using the commercial kitchen for personal stuff. The initial installation was pretty minimal, with a small sink and a tiny under-counter refrigerator. I thought it would work out, given that I could use the catering kitchen for anything beyond cooking for the three of us, but it didn't function that way in practice. For way too long, I've been leaning on the commercial space for everyday use, and the result has been chronic chaos. We had been taking our dirty dishes out there for cleaning, but that proved to be a royal pain in the ass, and resulted in a lot of breakage. It's a very high-maintenance space, and I was always running back and forth between the two getting this thing or that.
So, we replaced the under-counter fridge with a nice dishwasher, added some more cabinetry, and installed a refrigerator that I totally do not deserve, a Sub-Zero with a freezer drawer. They're not cheap, but it's the only full sized refrigerator that fits in a 24" deep space. Shallow fridges aren't the most energy efficient, but it's easy to reach stuff - nothing gets lost in the back - and they look really nice.
The fridge:
The dishwasher. I particularly like the lack of external controls - everything is hidden on the top edge of the door.
This is the view towards the sink. One of the more radical decisions I made was to put in this itsy-bitsy 15" basin, which in this photo you can hardly see. It's only used for getting water and cleaning wine glasses. Everything else - even large pots - goes straight into the dishwasher.
The dining area is just outside the kitchen, which is separated from the rest of the house by half-height walls:
In the commercial kitchen, I had a neighbor install glass tile in the prep and cleanup areas, which is great since I can splash and spray as much as I want:
After a LOT of searching, I got a deal on a 20" piece of custom-fabricated stainless that someone had ordered and then skipped out on, which fits the prep sink perfectly and makes a clean, raised platform to work on:
I added some hardwood feet to keep it elevated, and it also rests in a tipped-up position to facilitate drying:
Finally, the cleanup area with its glass tile. The moulding below the tile is not wood, but instead plastic with a wood finish. It's just caulked in place, so if cleanup sink has to be unbolted from the wall for any reason (i.e. to get at the plumbing) it can be easily removed.
A major motivation for all this was to ensure compliance with EH+S rules. Cooking for ourselves in the commercial kitchen was inviting all kinds of health code violations, and I was very keen to get out of that situation. Despite my paranoia, the inspector hadn't shown up at all in the two years since my opening inspection. Then, purely by coincidence, he called for an appointment while the new fridge was being installed! I was able to get all the crap moved into our regular kitchen before his visit this morning, which was a huge relief - with the commercial fridge entirely empty, there was almost no chance of there being any problems. (Because we live so far out of town and the kitchen doesn't run on regular hours, the inspector isn't going to show up unnanounced, as they do in the city.)
So the kitchen passed inspection with flying colors, and life is much simpler! Can't believe it all worked out so smoothly.
