Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: How are your great room and kitchen connected?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Mar 11, 2008, at 8:20 PM, Kay Argyle wrote:

> Something that I have really wished the architect had done would be  
> for all
> the dish cupboards to be on the shared wall, with doors on the  
> dining room
> side.  Put dishes away on the kitchen side after washing; get them  
> out on
> the dining room side for meals.

We have a system of trays that hold the dishes and glasses so they can  
be put in the trays to send through a commercial dishwasher. When they  
come out on the other side, the glasses and mugs stay in the tray and  
are stacked on carts with rolling wheels. The bowls and plates are  
removed and stacked vertically in a rolling cart.

Both carts are rolled under the counter, open below on both sides, so  
they can be accessed on both sides. They can also be rolled around the  
dining room. Sometimes we put the glasses near the beverage bar, and  
the plates and bowls may be rolled over to the beginning of the  
serving line.

The Monday night Soup n Simple group puts the plates, cutlery, and  
glasses on the tables, often rolling the carts around to distribute  
the items, depending on how many people are eating.

Before you ask, we use Fiesta Ware. It's done very well. The glasses  
are a problem because we have difficulty replacing them with the same  
style. We would love to find an inexpensive cutlery that is fairly  
heavy weight but inexpensive enough to replace all to often. It seems  
to disappear into the ether.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org