It is difficult to believe, but we are all prepped for pouring the roof. I’ll share some pics of the latest build, but I want to spend this post talking about the process of designing the kitchen.

This is THE most critical room in the house for me. I started cooking at a very early age and it has remained the one thing I’ve been consistent doing throughout my entire life. My first solo cooking experience was cooking a stir-fry. At six years old, I was basically mimicking my dad – chopping things loudly and mixing all sorts of chinese sauces together. I don’t remember the end product, but I’m sure it wasn’t that good. I bet the veggies were all different sizes and I’m sure I overdid it on the seasoning, but I was hooked. The process of bringing a bunch of ingredients together to produce something yummy that you got to eat at the end is magic to me still to this day. Now, almost 40 years later, I have strong opinions about how my kitchen should be organized and this is my first chance to build it exactly the way I want it.

When embarking on this journey, I realized that I’ve been lucky enough to have cooked in many different styles of kitchens. From houses and apartments to Air BnB’s and vacation rentals; cooking in these different configurations has helped me form a pretty clear idea of what will work and what won’t.

To start, I imagined my ideal cooking experience. What would make me happy? We all know that the kitchen tends to be the place where everyone ends up at a party. This is doubly true for me because when I host, I’m also likely cooking. Thus, open format makes sense, where the kitchen is open to the adjacent living spaces. I also wanted a barrier to keep guests out of the work space, but wanted to be able to converse with them and include them (island). Two more requirements for movement would be to have room for two people to comfortably walk past each other (4′ wide space between the island and cooking area) and ability to watch the view while doing dishes (kitchen sink on the west side).

Once those major pieces were decided, the rest is nit picky. We came up with a drawing of the floor plan and then engaged our designer who could help with drawers and appliance configuration. I’m a pretty intuitive cook and like many tools within reach, so ease of access and intuitive use was the most important factor. For example, getting a space for taller bottles (oil, fish sauce, vinegar, wine) to the right of the stove required a bit of asymmetry. I went with two stacking ovens, because I’ve loved using them in my Aunt and Uncles kitchen in Bellingham. A range top will allow for drawers underneath to conveniently store sheet pans and cutting boards vertically – easy to pull out in a pinch. Big shallow drawers will flank the sides of the stove for cooking utensils and hot pads. Lighting should be plentiful but not right overhead so you don’t cast a shadow on your work area while prepping and chopping. I want a hood that actually works so I can cook peppers and cajun blackened fish without performing chemical warfare on myself and everyone else near the kitchen. And so on.

An exercise I learned to improve rock climbing skills reminds me of this process of thinking. Instead of following a specific route, you look for the next hold and wherever your eyes rest, that is where you place your hand or foot – regardless if there is a good hold there or not. The principal behind this is that your body knows what will keep you balanced. I have so much muscle memory built up for cooking over all these years, my body just knows where I want things to be.

All that and we end up with drawings like this:

I can’t wait to make my first meal in this kitchen. Now I just have to figure out the best dish to christen it.

I’ll leave you with a few pics of the build. The concrete roof will be poured next week and then I’m considering us in the home stretch. WOOHOO!