Having trouble pinning down my future kitchen location and shape!
I first posted over in [Design Dilemma[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/small-island-with-small-peninsula-or-huge-island-kitchen-dsvw-vd~4680800) (DD) and someone suggested I pop on over here.
DH and I are going to build a post frame house so we can have as few or as many interior walls as we want. I'm putting up 3 photos. The first is where the kitchen last stood over in DD. I'm showing the entire living room/dining/kitchen/canning room plan.
I'm just not happy with the kitchen tucked off in the corner so I have flipped the canning room to the front of the house, the table to the back and the kitchen to the left. I like the kitchen location as it's open to the living room but now I have to deal with the hall to the bedrooms, the front door, etc. (I already tried the table to the right of the kitchen instead of the canning room but all that pantry storage had to go to the far right wall.)
The grid is 1 foot squares. I made the exterior walls black, those can't be moved. The red squares in the walls are the posts that cannot be messed with, the doors and windows can be moved around between them, but not to the far left as that's a small bedroom wall. (house is L-shaped, bedroom wing starts just to the left of the kitchen window.)
I rather like the 2 island thing, sort of, it's out of the box for me and haven't had a lot of time to think about it yet.
A little more info. DH and I are the only occupants. The 2nd and 3rd bedrooms are for guests which happens at Christmas. So other than using one of those rooms as my den, there isn't a lot of traffic. (laundry is over there, too.) Master bedroom door is just above the fridge. I placed the sink so it's centered on the front window.
Should I go back to the 2 island plan but put the sink island up on the wall? So many options, I think often new construction is so much harder to figure out than remodelling! (we've done both before.)
So, what do you think?
Comments (9)
Buzz Solo in northeast MI
6 years agoHere is one more version with the island swapped with the peninsula. It certainly divides the living room from the kitchen, but puts the fridge and probably the coffee maker further from the master BR. Still thinking the 2 island concept might be the best of these 3.
cpartist
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Opinions on my future garden
Comments (9)jayo, I strongly advise that you don't accept that survey as the final soil test for your garden. Soil content can vary from one block to the next, from one neighbor's yard to the next, it can even vary within your own yard. Some people may be on land that was once farm land, or an orchard, some people's top soil is trucked in. Nothing will beat an actual current test performed by a lab. And even if you have the actual test done every 3-5 years in your own yard, you can see changes. If you want to know your drainage, you can perform a simple percolation test yourself. test the drainage with a percolation test by digging a hole 8 inches wide and 8 inches deep. Pour a bucket of water into the hole and allow it all to infiltrate. Pour in another bucket of water and monitor how long it takes to sink in. If infiltration is slower than 1 inch per hour you’ll have to do extra work to improve the soil’s absorption ability. Before you amend your soil any further by guessing, get your soil tested. Your Extension Service can provide you with soil testing information. Mine was only $9.00, less than the cost of some strictly pH tests, and far more thorough. No guessing at what might need to be added, no money wasted. Check with your state's Extension Service. Each county should have it's own Cooperative Extension Office which provides free publications and information for the asking. They will have valuable vegetable/gardening tables available specifically for your area determined by universities and horticultural research scientists who have collected data from growing those crops in your state. Your tax dollars are already paying for this service so you may as well get some use out of it. Vegetable Planting and Planning Calendar for Missouri (download the pdf) complete with spring and fall planting dates (underneath the spring planting dates for appropriate crops), how much to plant per person, etc. They can also tell you the average last frost date for your area and ideal planting times for specific crops and varieties in your area. See how detailed this example is: ...y idea is to kill the grass without using chemicals so I figured I would lay newspaper and sheets of black mulch to shade out the grass throughout the fall and winter. Come spring I would rent a roto tiller to remove the dead grass, mix in compost and begin planting. Like I said earlier I know nothing. Please critique my plan and gimme some advice. earthworm73, The best thing you can do is start reading books from the best authors on the topic: Best Books about Vegetable Gardening Don't bother removing the grass or tilling. Since you're planning this far in advance you don't need to, you have plenty of time to do Lasagna Gardening. If you read the information at the link and tilling is still the chosen method, then do so at least six weeks in advance, and preferably months in advance in order for the soil tilth to build back again as well as for dormant seeds to sprout so you can skim them to kill them as they come up. Do this a few times for a couple of weeks until they've subsided, then you're ready to plant. Next you need to prevent weeds by mulching and mulching well (2-3 inches). This will prevent further sprouting of weeds and prevent migrating wind born seeds from taking root in your soil. If you plant vegetable seeds, you can mulch with a thin layer of shredded leaves or grass clippings or compost or straw, etc. When the seedlings get 3-4 inches tall you can mulch at a greater thickness and more as they get larger....See MoreHaving trouble making pieces into a whole
Comments (27)One of the principles guiding the design is to minimize floor/foundation space - I've got TOO much space up on the 2nd if I use the space above the garage. Scratch that, both of my master suites are actually larger than I think is optimum but if I make them smaller, the left over space can't really be consolidated into a central additional room and even if it could, I don't really have a need for another room. There is something odd about my personality - I just can't stand the thought of wasting cheap 2nd floor space when it comes to the 1st versus 2nd floor layout process. Putting more space on the main floor will involve foundation and roof expenses. When I pay for foundation and roof, I want to squeeze 2 floors out of that investment which means that it irks me to only get 1 floor for that roof and foundation. Now what makes this quirk particularly funny is that my roofing is going to be high pitch and metal, which means very expensive, but for some reason the idea of spending money there doesn't bother me. Your idea of first floor flex space with nothing above it or below it, just slab and simple roof, would probably cost me less money than doing what I'm doing which is trying to squeeze maximum use out of space. All I really want on the 2nd are two bedrooms and 2 full baths. I've actually solved the layout problem by rejigging the roof lines- very steep pitches and gables allow me to treat the spacious attic as a complete 2nd floor, almost, while still maintaining the look of a 1.5 story, and because of the high pitches, I'll actually have attic space above the 2nd. My 1st floor is 1,100 sf and my 2nd floor is about 1,000 sf. The 2nd consists of the open stairway, hallways, elevator, 2 masters, 2 master baths, and 2 walk in closets. All pretty spacious and there are some interesting ceiling lines where the roof intersects into the living space. My latest conundrum is whether I should do something with the 600+ sf above the garage. I've laid out the 2nd floor so that a hallway leads to that space, rather than simply incorporating the hallway space into a room, and this is my concession to a.) keeping my options open and b.) thinking about some future buyer - it would be easy to fit 2 more bedrooms into that space with only some modest renovations. The thing is though I really don't know what to do with that space right now. I'm giving serious thought to walling it off but then, as per above, I'm peeved that the garage space is not being used to its highest potential. Oh, the problems of being ME! Not using that space bugs me but I don't know that I need that space so building more livable space than I need or want bugs me too. I don't know which is the lesser evil....See MoreIs 20' wide too much for my U shaped kitchen?
Comments (67)One of our most fabulous layout experts, Rhome410, is great with zone layout. You've gotten some good advice here already from Liriodendron and oldtimecarpenter, but you might want to check out Rhome's blog. I'll link to her post about her kitchen and how its set up with zones. She also answers questions and you can email through her blog. She's busy with her 10 kids, construction project, and a DH's surgery this summer so hasn't checked in much. I know that she, too, would give you kindly advice to rework your appliance layout. Buehl is also great at explaining work zones, but I don't see her much anymore. I think she has some good info on the 'New to Kitchens' thread (usually on page 1) on zones. If you still have questions after all that reading, try posting a separate thread specifically titled to get guidance on zone setups. The title of this thread seems to indicate more about kitchen size than zones. My kitchen would have been a layout mess if not for the advice I received here from Rhome, Buehl, Lascatx, Bmorepanic, and so many others. After hundreds (not kidding) of hand drawn layouts (after the help of our house designer/draftsperson who I thought would have known better), I finally found one with zones in the right place. I've been using my kitchen for more than seven months, and its truly wonderful to work in. Sure, I could have gotten by with an OK layout, but when you've got a great one your kitchen is so easy to use because everything is exactly where it should be without walking all over the place and crossing zones. I encourage you to keep working to improve your layout. Here is a link that might be useful: Rhome's blog post on her kitchen zones...See MoreMy homemade plant food, plans for future, what I should have done, etc
Comments (18)I've decided to transform the leaf mould bin into a compost bin sooner rather than later. Instead of emptying out all of the leaves, I've started incorporating grass clippings and kitchen/garden scraps into the bin, making sure it gets a good green/brown ratio. Over time, by turning the existing brown materials in with the new green materials, it should make good compost. The negative about this is that I won't be able to use this stuff for about two years, when I could have actually collected leaf mould in one year. The positive is that compost is more nutrient rich but can also be used the same way, as a top dressing or mulch, for water retention and weed suppression, but giving those plants a boost that leaf mould may not do. I'll work green materials in for about a year (or unless we get it so full that it absolutely can't hold any more) then setup another swimming pool composter up. On appx April 2018, the plan is to collect compost from the first bin. On appx April 2019, I'll collect compost from the 2nd bin. Then, April 2020, from the first bin, and on and on. Meanwhile, I'm slowly building up a small farm, with rabbits, cows, chickens, and eventually, ducks, possibly turkeys, etc. Rabbit poop = instant garden fertilizer + worm food, for vermicomposting, to collect worm castings for the garden, and the worms themselves could feed some fish, for a future aquaponics setup. Cow, chicken, duck, and turkey poop will be composted. As of right now, it's all about slowly moving forward, to try to obtain a balance, where everything works together....See MoreBuzz Solo in northeast MI
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago@cpartist here is the whole house plan thus far. The exterior walls and locations of the posts (in red) is set in stone. I'm still not satisfied with the bathrooms and definitely not the MBR closet. It would be much easier if I didn't want that separate soaking tub. But the only way those would affect the kitchen is if I moved that bathroom wall into the kitchen and made it smaller.
We must have the living room and master BR in the back for the view and not facing the road. Yes, those 2 other bedrooms are small but other than one being for my 2 week guest at Christmas and the other for my sewing room, they won't be used.
@buehl, I'm looking at the building home forum, oddly they have no FAQ. But we already have the land, the site is picked, we know where the view is, etc. But perhaps I can still try posting there and see what happens.
(edited to add photo)cpartist
6 years ago
Buehl
6 years agoBuzz Solo in northeast MI
6 years agocpartist
6 years agoBuzz Solo in northeast MI
6 years ago
Buehl