RE: design of kitchen area | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Deborah Behrens (debbeh![]() |
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Date: Wed, 25 Feb 1998 14:50:50 -0600 |
Stephanie - The following is a mishmash of my opinions about our common house kitchen and dining room design. Others in my community may have different opinions, and they're welcome to speak up. Some of our problems were necessitated by budget constraints, some of them were miscommunication amongst us, the subcontractors, the builder, and the architects. Some were just lack of foresight on our part. Much of this I've mentioned on coho-l in the past. Sorry I don't have the details you want about amounts of shelf space, etc. We only do 2 meals a week, generally so far, but sometimes it's hard to get cooks to sign up, so often they're potlucks. We shop for each chef prepared meal, and only keep staples on hand - but not generally bulk stuff like rice or flour. If we have leftovers, we sell them after the meal. We try not to have left overs hang around - except condiments and maybe icecream in the freezer. Our staples include napkins, condiments, spices, dish soap, plastic wrap, garbage bags, etc. We do keep a supply of various soda pops in the refrigerator for sale at 25 cents each. Meal prices are usually $2.50 residents, $1? kids, $4 guests. Cooks have a $2.25 /person budget, the other 25 cents goes towards staples and breakage. If an expensive meal has been planned, they can raise the prices, but some marvelous meals have been prepared within budget. We occasionally do vegetarian meals, but not often. Our pantry has some problems. They put in wire shelves, which would be ok, except that they're not adjustable. It's going to be a real pain to move to optimal useable heights (they've been there 3 years, and we still haven't tackled it. For instance there's no shelf space high enough for a popcorn tin - not even under the bottom shelf. We have had mice problems in the past, and popcorn tins are useful for bulk storage of things mice like, what little bulk food we have. They left room for us to put a freezer in there, but didn't include a vent fan in the design. There's no separate janitorial closet, so our cleaning supplies such as mops, etc, are stored in there too (not very sanitary IMO). The dishwasher - the choices for commercial included either chemical or heat boost sterilization. We chose heat boost as being more environmentally friendly. There was no place in the cabinet next to the dishwasher that the heat boost piece would fit. In order to keep it within required 3? feet of the dishwasher, we had to go thru the floor and install it near the ceiling of the laundry room underneath. It's very heavy, needed very secure installation. You can't dishwash some plastics with the heat boost tho - they soften/melt. The placement of our dishwasher / cleanup area is right out in the open, between the kitchen and dining room. Very noisy, can't do cleanup when meetings going on. A walled in area with a pass-thru would have been quieter. We still haven't gotten the washup organized well. some communities have well positioned soaking tubs that diners put their plates, etc in after a meal. Our dirty dishes just go willy nilly somewhere on the counters around the sink/dishwasher. We've got soaking tubs, but no really good place to put them. Allow space near the dishwasher for spare racks. Recycling, trash - make sure to allow space for a number of wastebaskets in the kitchen, and also in the dining room. Shouldn't need to go into the kitchen just to throw away a paper napkin or pop can. Cabinet doors make the kitchen look neater, but at the expense of difficulty finding things. Put labels on drawers, etc so things generally end up in the same location most of the time. Crockery - some people really don't like corelle, but it's VERY lightweight, takes up little space on a shelf, and is less breakable than other types of crockery. 60 plates, in a couple different sizes, 60 bowls in a couple different sizes, etc, can take up LOTS of room. So can the glasses, especially if you've more than one size. (We've used small glasses or coffee cups as icecream bowls, because we don't have small bowls yet.) Portable bins/boxes to put the flatware in are handy. Dishwasher safe bins, that you could stand the flatware in would be even better. Stored very near the dishwasher and yet accessible to the dining room would be great. Pay attention to little things like salt/pepper shakers - make sure they're not just pretty, but functional too. Ours are pretty but the holes are way too big. Our water pitchers and some serving bowls and utensils are not dishwasher safe. How many of what size casseroles can you fit in the oven? Refrigerator - we have a donated one from a resident. It's a side-by-side which is good because the location where it is hasn't really got room for a full width door to open. It has a built in ice maker which is also good because even tho ice makers are prone to trouble, it's easier than doing trays - less likely that people will remember to fill trays. (but I think our ice maker might be broken at the moment) We have someone delegated as 'Rot Patrol' to make sure nothing stays in the fridge too long and gets too disgusting. Tables, chairs - mismatched is ok to start with, even if it looks funky. When replacing with new, replace the chairs first - table cloths will cover a multitude of sins on the tables. Stackable/foldable tables and chairs are great, otherwise you end up with tables and chairs lining the sides of the room when you want the center clear. You may need to go with more than one style of chair to suit everyone's comfort level. OK to get some non stackable, but make sure the majority are stackable or foldable. A storage closet big enough for some table/chair storage, on the same floor as the dining room would be handy too. Lighting - Lots of separate circuits for different areas of the dining room - flexibility. Track lighting is great for flexibility. You can even get hanging lights for tracks. Dimmers to lower the light level helps keep noise down, but you need to make sure that the light bulbs are suitable for dimmers. Outlets - lots. If there's a possibility that you might set up buffet service somewhere in the dining room, make sure there are outlets nearby - at table height if the buffet might be against a wall; in the middle of the floor if the serving table might be out in the open. (Being careful of the manner the floor needs cleaning tho - wet mopping might not be good for a floor outlet) Holidays - If you're planning on decorating with lights and such, you might want extra outlets at unusual places to accomodate them. Stove - we have a Viking, I haven't worked with the stove as often as some others in the community, but we've had major problems. The model we ended up with is a 4 burner gas with center griddle, high-end residential stove. I'm not sure what the model number is, or BTUs. It was a (used) floor model. Among our Viking problems - 1. Oven Thermostat not reliable - can't keep to the desired temp - it always takes much longer to cook anything in our Viking oven than even in our home ovens. Sometimes, in a panic, we've had to ferry stuff back to home ovens. We've had the thermostat replaced a couple times. I would say this is a sample defect, if we hadn't replaced the thermostat. 2. Oven doesn't have much more capacity than a regular home oven - much of the additional width is taken up in insulation. 3. Stove top burners - at ignition gas flame starts with a big woosh that has burnt the edges of the laminate counter next to the burners. There's insufficient lip on the sides of the stove to protect the counter. 4. Griddle is a pain to clean (but so would any griddle I suppose), grease drips down thru the cracks, etc. into parts of the stove that are hard to reach. 5. Don't know what the BTUs are of this stove, but think takes a long time for water to boil in big pots. We don't have pots big enough to straddle 2 burners. 6. Don't hang your utensils behind the stove - the heat vents up the back and they'll get real hot. 7. The vent fan is soooo noisy. Having seen a few other common house kitchens, there are things I personally wish we'd done differently with the stove (but others in the community may have other opinions): 1. Separate out the stove top from the oven. 2. Get two (stacked?) ovens, residential ok, if reliable brand and fairly high BTU capacity. 3. You'll be able to fit more in two residential ovens than one Viking commercial or residential unit. And you'll have more flexibility for different temperature needs. They probably won't get used that much that you'll need extra insulation. Or you could put insulation in the walls next to the ovens. Or one oven and a microwave. 4. A four or six burner residential stove top (high BTU). Only get a griddle if it's easy to clean around / under / behind it. Make sure the burners are close enough to straddle a large roaster or other big pot over two burners. Easier to boil huge quantities of water for spaghetti or soup, etc. You can store big pots and pans under it. 5. Put a durable countertop next to the stove - something you can put hot pots and pans directly on - steel, butcher block, etc, something that doesn't matter if the burner igniting or the hot pots will scorch the edge. 6. Don't get commercial equipment unless you want to deal with the code requirements of a commercial kitchen - venting, fire suppression, etc. We got around it by getting high-end residential, and assuring them that we don't keep our stove/oven going all day - we generally cook twice a week at the most. We had to go thru a lot of hoops tho, to convince them not to zone us commercial. Our vent/fan is almost commercial grade, however, and VERY NOISY. We hardly ever turn it on because of the noise. 7. Big double boiler pots would be very handy for cooking stuff that you don't want to burn at the bottom - spag sauce, etc. Not cheap tho. 8. For BBQ just have the neighbors bring their gas grills over, and use them outside. - alot easier to clean than the stove broiler. I could think of tons more to say, but others probably could say it better. ~___~ (0 0) +--------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo---------------------+ | Debbie Behrens debbeh [at] auto-trol.com | | Highline Crossing Cohousing H: (303) 797-7779 | | 1611 W Canal Ct W: (303) 252-2215 | | Littleton CO 80120 Fx:(303) 252-2249 | | Rocky Mountain Cohousing Association | +----------------------------------------------------+ >
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design of kitchen area Stephanie Fassnacht, February 20 1998
- Re: design of kitchen area David M. Dobkin, February 20 1998
- RE: design of kitchen area Rob Sandelin, February 25 1998
- RE: design of kitchen area Deborah Behrens, February 25 1998
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