Kitchen adventures
The kitchen here is as old as the house, I don't think it's ever been updated. Oh, finally found the age of the house--1902! So maybe the kitchen had the enameled sink section later than that, but that would be it. I would guess that that portion might be as old as the '30's, and no later than the early '50's.
Meet my new best friend-- a rolling step stool. Everything is high, the ceiling is 8' 8" and the cabinets go all the way up. Even my 6' 8" brother-in-law would have to stand on his toes here. This is the type of stool that our library has; it rolls easily on casters, but locks into place when you put weight on it. I can't quite dribble it like a soccer ball, but I can nudge it along with a foot if my hands are full. It's a lifesaver--but I am still hard pressed to reach the very top shelves. There is only one cupboard which I would consider to be at a normal height. I have my plates and bowls in it, on the theory that they are the breakables which are moved in and out every day, and need to be where they are not in danger of being dropped while I strain to reach or return them.
This little gizmo has an unanticipated advantage--I can also sit down on it, so I don't have to bend over for those things which are on the floor or nearly so. I think this is terrific, it solves too high and too low.
We sit on a corner, and the house runs from front to back rather than from side to side, so we have windows facing the cross street all the way through the length of the house. The only one with blinds still installed (and fortunately in good shape) is the dining room window. Curtains for the kitchen window are a priority, as we pass through to the back in view of the whole world. There is also a corner breakfast nook with windows on both the back exterior and side exterior walls, so there's lots of light. The nook even has a very little pedestal table with a top in the same marbelized red as the counters.
Of course the counters are an interesting challenge--because they're only 16.5 inches deep, though they run almost all the way across the side wall. (The sink, in the picture above, is on the other side. Facing it, the door to the back bedroom is on the left and the way to the back door and bathroom are on the right.) This means, I have realized, that you have only four or five inches of counter forward of the overhang-line of the cupboards above, and I can't put my mixer where I thought I wanted it, because you can't pull it out enough to lift the top and insert a beater. It's going to have to sit in front of that window.
One worry turned out to be groundless--sort of. Along that wall, there is the normal cupboard with plates etc., then the 54-inch window, then an open section--the counter just ends--with an overhead corner cupboard. I suspect that's where the original icebox was, but that's just a guess. I have a large convection microwave that I can't live without, and I found a cart from friends large enough to fit there and hold my oven, but I was afraid I might gouge my forehead someday on that corner, sitting in semi-empty air space as it were, while heading through the doorway (to the right, no door in it) into the dining room.
Now Hubby might be in danger, but that cupboard is not a hazard to me, at least not in my bare feet, because it's a quarter inch higher off the ground than I am tall. Since I can't wear heels, even in shoes or sneakers I might scrape the top of my head, nothing more. Of course, that doesn't answer the fact that the whole microwave tilts...I've been musing on whether I could bake a cake in it. How much would the rotation of the turntable compensate for the definite sideways effect of gravity? How badly uneven would it be? Pretty bad still, I would guess. These floors dip and tilt and apparently this is on a dip.
But here is the view from the living room couch, filled with blossoms, yesterday afternoon, through the window in the entry. There's a camellia bush on each side of the front, and I don't know what the white tree is, but I'm loving it. In the summer, that will be all green shade.
We're settling in, day by day.
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| the indispensable kitchen helper |
Meet my new best friend-- a rolling step stool. Everything is high, the ceiling is 8' 8" and the cabinets go all the way up. Even my 6' 8" brother-in-law would have to stand on his toes here. This is the type of stool that our library has; it rolls easily on casters, but locks into place when you put weight on it. I can't quite dribble it like a soccer ball, but I can nudge it along with a foot if my hands are full. It's a lifesaver--but I am still hard pressed to reach the very top shelves. There is only one cupboard which I would consider to be at a normal height. I have my plates and bowls in it, on the theory that they are the breakables which are moved in and out every day, and need to be where they are not in danger of being dropped while I strain to reach or return them.
This little gizmo has an unanticipated advantage--I can also sit down on it, so I don't have to bend over for those things which are on the floor or nearly so. I think this is terrific, it solves too high and too low.
We sit on a corner, and the house runs from front to back rather than from side to side, so we have windows facing the cross street all the way through the length of the house. The only one with blinds still installed (and fortunately in good shape) is the dining room window. Curtains for the kitchen window are a priority, as we pass through to the back in view of the whole world. There is also a corner breakfast nook with windows on both the back exterior and side exterior walls, so there's lots of light. The nook even has a very little pedestal table with a top in the same marbelized red as the counters.
Of course the counters are an interesting challenge--because they're only 16.5 inches deep, though they run almost all the way across the side wall. (The sink, in the picture above, is on the other side. Facing it, the door to the back bedroom is on the left and the way to the back door and bathroom are on the right.) This means, I have realized, that you have only four or five inches of counter forward of the overhang-line of the cupboards above, and I can't put my mixer where I thought I wanted it, because you can't pull it out enough to lift the top and insert a beater. It's going to have to sit in front of that window.
One worry turned out to be groundless--sort of. Along that wall, there is the normal cupboard with plates etc., then the 54-inch window, then an open section--the counter just ends--with an overhead corner cupboard. I suspect that's where the original icebox was, but that's just a guess. I have a large convection microwave that I can't live without, and I found a cart from friends large enough to fit there and hold my oven, but I was afraid I might gouge my forehead someday on that corner, sitting in semi-empty air space as it were, while heading through the doorway (to the right, no door in it) into the dining room.
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| picture me standing exactly under this cupboard |
But here is the view from the living room couch, filled with blossoms, yesterday afternoon, through the window in the entry. There's a camellia bush on each side of the front, and I don't know what the white tree is, but I'm loving it. In the summer, that will be all green shade.
We're settling in, day by day.
What a gorgeous view out that window!
ReplyDeleteYes, isn't it? If you're standing, passing through, you can see the intersection where we sit, but down at couch level all you really see is flowers. This is the little vestibule where the front door--out of sight on the right--comes in.
ReplyDelete