Kitchen Work

My house isn't technically a Tiny House -- it's a small, old farmhouse, originally built in the late 1930's without electricity or running water.  Those were added later, and a bathroom tacked onto the side of the house.  It didn't have any insulation when it was built; some was added to the roof later.  

We've lived here almost five years.  In that time, I've had the plumbing and wiring redone, and -- so far -- two of the four downstairs rooms have been gutted, insulated, draft-proofed, and re-sheetrocked.  My nephew and my brother plan to start on my 12' X 12' kitchen within the next few days.  12' X 12' may sound like a pretty good-sized kitchen, but for a working farm, it's really not that much.  And there were initially three doorways in the room, though I've blocked off the one to my daughter's bedroom.  (It can also be accessed from the tiny hallway at the foot of the stairs, which also opens to the bathroom addition and the office.)

I mentioned our project in another thread, and someone asked if I'd start a thread on what we are doing.  

First, a couple of pictures of the temporary kitchen setup in my office, where I'll be cooking until the kitchen goes back together.  I should be able to access the frig while they work, and will have to wash dishes in the bathroom for a few days, but that will be manageable with paper plates and plastic utensils.  Not what we'd normally use, but in a situation like this, they are a Godsend.

Then, I'll add some pictures of the kitchen itself, as it is right now.

Kathleen, your kitchen setup looks very workable while your new kitchen is in the works.

I am excited to hear more about this new farm kitchen.

I am sure you have spent many hours planning how it will work.

Do you have a sketch of the new kitchen?

I hope you will share your plans.

Something I found very helpful while we were building our house was a washing station. Two dishpans, one for soapy water and one for the rinse water.

While paper plates are handy for sandwiches, etc. I cooked a lot of crockpot meals of soup, stews, and chili that like real bowls.

Best wishes for your new kitchen!

I think I may have to post pictures one at time with an explanation.

This is a picture of our house, taken from my brother's new house at Thanksgiving.  I gave them the front one acre of my place to build on; in return, we get a lot of help, and some human company (my daughter is severely mentally handicapped -- I love her dearly, but it's almost impossible to hold a conversation with her).

The basic house is 26' X 26'.  There are two enclosed porches that are a little over 5' wide inside, and just over 19' long inside.  The front porch isn't heated; the back porch is, and is our utility room/pantry.  I'll add pictures of it later.

The bathroom is tacked onto the east side of the house, out of sight (the front door you are looking at is the north side).

The attic is where I sleep; it's finished, but has a low sloping ceiling, and the chimney goes right up through the center of it.  

Oh, and my partially-fenced future garden spot is in front of the house -- the back yard is too shady.

This is the view from the doorway to the kitchen, standing in the front room.  It's the first wall the guys will be working on, because the window and under the sink are terribly drafty.  We have a 'new' recycled window that will replace that one -- the 'new' window won't go below the countertop like this one does.  The downside is that we'll have to patch the metal siding on the outside of the wall.  

Normally the metal rack on top of my sewing cabinet in the first post sits above the kitchen sink; as you can see, there's not a lot of counter space on either side of the sink for drying dishes.  The sink cabinet came from the clearance aisle at Lowe's.  On either side of it right now is a 1940's Hoosier cabinet (I love them!); the brown one closest to the doorway is going to be relocated to make room for a kitchen range in that location.  Though I'm not absolutely sure I really need a kitchen range....

You can also see that the flooring hasn't been installed in here yet.  I have it, but what I bought, while very good quality, is harder to install than I was anticipating.  That's one of the things that needs to be done before this job will be finished.

Most of the wall between the kitchen and the front room is going to come out.  It's not a bearing wall, and will make both rooms a lot more useable if it's opened up.  (I will post a floor plan in a few minutes.)

This is the south wall, with the pantry (former porch that's been enclosed) on the other side.  As you can see, there used to be a window in this wall.  That's going to get covered up, although it means I'll lose some natural light in the kitchen.  The refrigerator is going to get moved -- I'll show where in a minute.  I don't like it there -- it feels like it's looming, possibly because it's SS instead of white, and possibly just because it's so big (most of the time we really don't need such a big frig, but when we do, I'm glad to have it).  And the doorway in the left corner is going to get shifted over a couple of feet, so cabinets can go right up to the wall there.  I think that will help a lot with traffic flow through the kitchen.

And you can see my island cabinet.  That's where I actually do most of my food prep.  There isn't much room around it; I'm hoping that once the work is finished, there will be a few more inches of clearance on each side.  That will help a lot, too.

This is the east wall of the kitchen, with my daughter's bedroom on the other side.  The brown dresser with the bookcase hutch was originally meant for a bedroom; I love it in the kitchen!  But the top wasn't meant for hot things.  I need to find something to put down to protect it, because that's where the hot plate usually sits.  The range next to it is gas, brand new, and I'll be trading for the glass-top electric stove that came with my brother's new house (sis-in-law prefers cooking on gas, and my kitchen isn't plumbed for propane -- I'd planned on having it done, but it's a nightmare trying to find people to do any kind of work around here.  So when they were first looking for a place to live, I offered the stove to them.  My brother could plumb the propane line for me, but I'd already said they could have the stove, so....)  Anyway, if our measurements are accurate, the refrigerator is going to JUST fit into the doorway opening!  So the door comes off; the guys will put an outlet on the other side of the wall, and the frig will get tucked back in there, give me a few precious inches of clearance in the kitchen!  And hopefully reducing the 'looming' refrigerator to something more comfortable for the space.  

Also, once the doorway to the pantry has been shifted over, one of the Hoosier cabinets will go in that corner, to make room for the kitchen range over by the sink.

The cabinet with the microwave and toaster oven is on wheels and has a granite top, and has also been very handy.  When we first moved in, I priced what it would cost to buy new 'normal' kitchen cabinets, and just the base cabinets, unfinished and in kits, were going to run about $6,000.  All of the cabinets in this kitchen totalled just over $1,000, and while I don't have quite as much clear deep counter space for working as I'd like, it's actually very functional, and has lots and lots of drawers!

This is the doorway where the refrigerator will go.  My middle daughter is an organizer (she had her own business doing that for a while), and when she was here for a visit last fall, we were looking at my plans; she's the one who suggested tucking the frig into the door opening.  

My two Hoosier cabinets!  I bought them separately, paid $175 for the white one and $250 for the brown one.  They are nearly identical, other than color.  The white one still has the flour sifter.  The brown one still has the tin lid on the tin drawer.  The countertop on the white one pulls out and goes back in just fine; the countertop on the brown one is stiff.  I'm hoping maybe the guys can find the problem and fix that.  But these cabinets are so handy!  I've wanted one for a long time.  I'd hoped for one of the older, really pretty wood ones, but these are very functional even if not quite my favorite style (and they are about the same age as the house, so that does work).  

Picture of the old flue in the chimney, which is the exact center of the house.  Been a long time since the chimney was used.  There's a flue opening on the other side of that wall, in the front room.  I plan to put a small wood stove in there, once the guys check the chimney, and make any repairs necessary.  (It's probably full of mud dauber wasp nests.)  I'd like to put in a rocket mass heater in the front room, but there's not a lot of space, so still thinking about it.  I have a Vermont Castings Aspen, the smallest stove they make, sitting in one of the barns.  If I put that in, I will at least build a brick surround around it to catch heat.

On this side of the wall, though, in the kitchen, we are going to build a little broom closet here.  It will hide some wiring that has to be shifted from the dividing wall that's coming out, and give me a much-needed place to put things (like the broom!) that keep getting set down here and there and lost because they don't have a clear-cut home where they belong.

ETA:  A view of some of the many layers of old wallpaper, on the wall that's coming out.  Taking this wall out will greatly help the traffic pattern through both rooms.

A picture of each end of the pantry, on the south side of the kitchen.  I'm really thankful to have it, but it's so narrow!  Just over five feet wide inside -- washer and dryer at one end (I'd love to relocate them closer to the bedrooms, as currently all the laundry has to get hauled through just about every doorway in the house to get from the bedrooms and bathroom to here).  Other end has the water heater and our two small chest freezers.  It's a tight space, but it does work.  I'm going to have to rearrange it somewhat, too, because moving the door between the kitchen and the pantry will put it where a set of pantry shelves is right now.

These aren't the latest version -- not sure where I parked that one, LOL!  But pretty close.  As you can see, the downstairs is four rooms.  My daughter's room has the stairs cut out of it (there's a closet under the stairs).  And at present I'm not going to move my bed downstairs to the office -- I pinched a nerve in my back almost a year ago, which left my left leg partially numb, and I almost fell a number of times while I was getting used to it.  But I'm pretty stable right now, and not as concerned with going up and down the stairs.  

The room with the corner couch in it, and the office, are the two downstairs rooms that have already been insulated and have their new sheetrock in, though neither is quite finished yet.  I love the corner couch idea, but will probably eventually look for a loveseat and chair for that corner, instead.  They'd be easier to find and to get into the house.  

The kitchen drawing is not quite the way it's going to end up, but really close.  I'd drawn in a couple of wall cabinets that we don't have, and after thinking about it, we really don't need them.  Otherwise, this is what the finished layout should be.

Even though this house isn't 'tiny', I've learned a lot just from studying tiny houses.  I think the only time I may wish the kitchen was a little bit bigger is when we butcher a full-grown steer, and even then, the dining table, while in the front room, will be part of the kitchen work space once that dividing wall has been taken out.  

One thing I wanted to add is that I paid $46,000 cash for the property -- old house in need of work, but basically sound, two barns and several outbuildings, a well, a small pond, all on 2.68 acres with only one neighbor that we can see from our yard.  We are completely surrounded by a cow pasture/hay field (which used to be part of this property, but they were separated about 17 years ago).  I've spent close to $10,000 getting work done on the place (and have spent everything I can spend on it), so under $60,000 total.  It would be hard to build a tiny house for that, to be honest, though I know some very determined people have done it.  But something like this could be an option for people who have a few skills and are willing to work -- and determined enough to see the project through.  You have to be very selective on the house, if you intend to salvage it.  I looked at several that probably could have been salvaged, but would have needed a lot more work than this one -- and this one has needed quite a bit!

I would have liked to have more land, but I'm 65 and somewhat disabled, and knew this would be enough, and more than enough, for me to take care of, especially as I also have my daughter to care for.  

Looks like you're creating a lovely home there, Kathleen. So much work, but worth it!

Jane Mulberry wrote:Looks like you're creating a lovely home there, Kathleen. So much work, but worth it!

Thank you!  It's been a long project, but I do believe it will be nice when it's finished.  

This house isn't laid out the way I would lay it out if I was building a new house for a permaculture property, but we are going to make it work.

My house is the same. Really difficult layout to start from, not how I would design a house at all. As it's earth-built, it's not easy to move doors or walls. But like yours it can be made to work better.
Please keep updating the post as your project progresses!