Where The Cooking Happens At Almost Heaven South

When we built our house, we used someone else’s plan and just didn’t put enough thought into the kitchen, so a few years ago, we remodeled to make it more cooking friendly. Although we wish it were bigger, the remodeled version used the same basic space, with a little bit stolen from the dining room. Sam Hofer from My Carolina Kitchen, who was here for the blogger get together, recently suggested I post about it, and when Penny, from Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen, initiated a kitchen reveal for today, I decided to participate.

Our major consideration was to have a cooktop that would match-up with what we did and we decided on a 48” Dacor, 6 burner model that will accommodate six 12” pots. When canning, it’s not uncommon to have 5 burners in use and some with very big pots and canners on them. Since we do cook and generate lots of steam, heat and odors, we also wanted a nice hood that would vent everything to the outside.

Another big desire was to make the island a workspace rather than a visitor’s space. What we had was hardly usable as it was small, contained no storage, and often had people seated at it – in my way. We accomplished our goal by moving the visitors to a bar with the barstools in the dining room – which did make it a little crowded but still functional - and using a shallower fridge allowed for a larger island.

We utilized lots of drawers, in the lower cabinets, so it would be easier to get to things from the back, went with stainless appliance fronts, and granite counter tops, which were an absolute must for Bev. The older I get, the more I appreciate the drawers. Rather than just buy cabinets, we first decided what would go in each space then designed the cabinet that would work best. Here’s the visitors bar - the near monitor is an electronic picture frame scrolling our favorite photos and the far one is a TV - another Bev must have.

 We tried to improve functionality by dividing the kitchen in to specific areas for food prep, cooking, baking, and clean up. The prep area contains the fridge, pantry, island with cutting board, food processor, knives, mixing and measuring equipment, and utensils. We considered several refrigerators, but settled on the GE Monagram, as it had the features we liked. Bev is a big food processor user and wanted it to be handy without setting out, so it’s on a pull up shelf. Here's some shots of the general area and some details - island, fridge, pantry on right.

The cooking area is next to the prep area contains the pots and pans, utensils, oils and other liquids, the visitors bar, range hood, cooktop and ready access to the pantry. Since 4 burners will usually do, we keep the other two covered by a griddle with a cutting board on it – so it’s usually just extra countertop. As you can see, this is a place to cook and we keep the utensils handy.

 

The bake center has a lowered counter top (so my short wife can get on top of the dough she’s kneading), the 36” wide Dacor oven, G.E. Advantium microwave/oven, Dacor warming drawer, the baking dishes, dry goods in a pull out pantry (left of oven), and utensils. The door leads out into the walk-in pantry, laundry area and then the garage.

The clean up area has the sink, dishwashers, storage for dishes and utensils, trash and can recycling, and cleaning equipment. We liked the Fisher & Paykel two drawer dishwasher, as it is actually two independent units, each the same size as the bottom shelf in a normal dishwasher. We also found we needed a three section sink and preferred stainless.

Before remodeling, the kitchen had an 8' drop ceiling of plastic, like in fluorescent light fixtures, set in a wooden grid work, which difused the light from the skylight above.  Bev wanted to have it as a vaulted ceiling (as in the dinning room), with the skylight visible, and she had it faux-painted to look like an evening sky. The fan/light has an additional light that shines upward and we leave it on at night to get the sky effect.

I was sure I'd taken a shot from the dining room of the entire kitchen, but it appears to be missing, but I think you can put the pieces together - the prep and clean up areas are opposite each other as are the cooking and baking areas. 

Now I have to admit, we usually have a few additional items sitting out, but moved them for the photos, so you’d think we were really neat.

If we had it to do over, even though the GE Advantium is a combo microwave and oven and can bake a potato just like a regular oven, we’d put in a double oven as well – even though we rarely need it. Fortunately, for those times, such as Thanksgiving, I have a smoker that is basically just a big oven.

I know this was long, but hope you enjoyed the tour and thanks for stopping by.

Larry