In the kitchen

Out of all the rooms in the New Norris House, the kitchen gets the most use. The majority of our meals are eaten at home, so when it’s time for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack we head to the kitchen. Every day we use the cabinets, cooktop, counter, sink, and fridge—and have the added bonus of the view from the window on each visit. I love the design and layout of the kitchen, and know I’ll miss it when our time here is up.

fridge and freezer are on bottom right

The appliances in the kitchen as it was designed are an undercounter refrigerator and freezer, and a cooktop and oven. These serve basic food storage and preparation needs. Two appliances that are often considered essential in kitchens today are a dishwasher or microwave—we have neither, which means less energy use. But, there are times that the immediate conveniences offered by a dishwasher and microwave are missed. Washing dishes by hand and reheating leftovers on the cooktop both take more time and some planning.

making chicken with herb-roasted carrots and potatoes for dinner

The undercounter refrigerator and freezer not only fit the design scheme of the kitchen, but also use less energy than full size models. Previously, we had a full size refrigerator with a bottom freezer—another convenience. For two people, a full size fridge is more than adequate, but we were skeptical about how we’d be able to fit groceries in a much smaller space. It turns out that we’re able to store a week’s worth of food along with the essentials that are always in the fridge (salad dressing, mustard, jam, etc.). We discovered that removing the bottom wired shelf allows half gallon cartons to stand up, and also frees up access to a built-in shelf in the back which provides more storage space.

a peek inside the fridge

The only problem we’ve experienced with the fridge is moisture build up on lettuce/spinach leaves. After a day or two, the leaves have so much moisture on them that they turn soggy and limp. We’ve tried adjusting the temperature, different storage containers, and different storage methods, but haven’t found a solution yet (any ideas to try are welcome!).

It’s time for lunch, so I’m off to the kitchen!

Living in a small home, Part 2

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single house in possession of occupants, must be in want of plenty of closed storage space.* Although the house has a relatively small footprint, we’ve found the cabinets and closets provide just enough storage space for the two of us (just enough = everything we moved to the house fits, with a bit of room to spare). The house was designed with attention to storage space; there are three closets (bedroom, broom, and 24” wide freestanding wardrobe), and cabinets in the bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, swing space, and loft.

Bedroom and swing space

The cabinets were designed and built by students. They’re painted white, which provides uniformity throughout the house, and without any hardware, the cabinet doors have a clean, sleek look. In a way, the beveled edges on the bottom of the cabinet doors in the kitchen and swing space are the hardware; the edges are easy to grasp and pull open. The soft-closing mechanisms mean they are quiet. The cabinet doors (and drawers) under the kitchen counter and in the bedroom have beveled edges too, but they’re opened and closed by spring action. Pressing on the corner of a door releases a spring, and pressing the door on the same corner back into the cabinet housing compresses it.

Beveled edges and spring

While unpacking, it became clear we’d have to come up with some storage locations and strategies that were different from how we stored things before. The bathroom has one cabinet under the sink with some small shelves next to it; before, we had several cabinets and drawers. New strategy: daily use items stay in the medicine cabinet and under the sink, and the occasional items stay in the drawers of the freestanding wardrobe. The bedroom closet has one hanging rod; before, our closet had two different rod heights, so both shirts and pants were on hangers. New strategy: shirts and dresses hang in the bedroom closet, while pants are stacked horizontally in bedroom cabinets instead of hanging vertically. Other solutions were made for the kitchen and swing space too.

Bookshelves in the loft

Adapting to the storage space here as it was designed to be used, and organizing our items to fit within, has meant thinking about space in a different way. And, it means being conscious of what we bring into the house, not filling cabinets just because there’s room.

*With apologies to Jane Austen.

Cabinets & Casework

As the house continues to advance, we have come to a point where we need to buckle down and make some pretty important decisions about the interior construction and aesthetic. One major component is the built-in kitchen casework. We know that we are trying to achieve a clean, simple, and elegant look, but we are unsure as to how to advance with the construction. One method would be to order premanufactured cabinet boxes in standard sizes and then complete them by producing our own cabinet doors and custom components. While this limits us to standard cabinet sizes, it gives us the advantage of saving some time - keeping us from fabricating all of the components ourselves.

But in the interest of saving some cold, hard cash, we are pursuing the option of fabricating all of the casework ourselves. More than just saving money, this will allow us to produce more custom cabinetry to suite the needs of the house and it will prove to be an invaluable educational tool for all the students involved in the design and construction of the cabinets. In addition to the traditional woodworking tools found in the woodshop, we also have a CNC router available to aid in our attempt to create beautiful casework. Using CNC (computer numerical control) router, we can build a 3-dimensional model of the cabinets in the computer and have each piece precisely cut out on the router. This ensures precision and helps save material as it fits the most amount of pieces possible on each sheet of plywood. After the pieces are cut out, we just need to assemble them with a minimal amount of finishing of the materials.

We plan to use this week to ensure that we are competent to complete the casework in a timely fashion. By the end of the week, we will finish designing the cabinets and hopefully build one cabinet box using the CNC router, recognizing any weaknesses we have in our process.