Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: common house stoves

[MelaSilva (MelaSilva]

We built right after the hurricanes hit Florida in 1992. The price of lumber
doubled, and all the wonderful things we had planned for our common house
went out the window. We did the absolute minimum, including putting in two of
the cheapest stoves made, about $279 each at Sears.
 In looking around at stores and in  various community kitchens, I found that

1) Kids come in and out of kitchens with home stoves ("Shane hit me. I need a
drink. Can I go to Rhisa's house?"), but the intense heat from commercial
stoves makes this very dangerous. 
2) For very little more money - about $600- we could have gotten stoves with
one or two 1200 BTU burners, which boil water in half the time of our 900 BTU
burners. You can get a seperate burner just for stir frying, by the way.
3) We have dozens of large quantity cook books, but folks won't use them.
They prefer to cook what they know,  and make 6 batches of a familiar recipe.
Just because you buy a commercial stove doesn't mean that people will take
the time to learn how to cook on it.
4) Noise is such a big issue in the common house. When I visited Chico, they
unplugged the refrigerator so that we could have a conversation in the
kitchen! 

Pam Silva
Southside Park
Sacramento CA