Howdy from the Great Northwet!
We’re almost settled in our new digs, a process which immediately made an impression, AKA going from 1650 sq ft to 910 sq ft does make a difference!
This is especially true when you’re foodies, have a working food blog, and realize that a very significant chunk of that space reduction comes at the expense of your kitchen…
We went from a square design roughly 8′ x 8′ with a 4′ x 4′ x 8′ pantry, lots of cabinets, and a 21 sq ft double door fridge to a roughly 4′ x 6′ galley with a tiny fridge and way less storage space all around: Everybody moving boxes on day one knew all that stuff marked ‘Kitchen’ wasn’t gonna make the cut!
So, first things first, we reevaluated our stuff, identified just what we really need and use, and then gave away the remainder.
Then a few additions and tweaks later, we had a kitchen that will get ‘er done;
the laundry closet became our pantry
Here’s the basic kitchen layout, which we modified with a couple of small shelves and simple baskets;
Pans had to be stored up high; a small step stool makes ’em M accessible!
A couple of book shelves were re-tasked to add yet more kitchen storage.
Kitchen view from the dining room pass.
And finally, this table had been in my guitar shop under years of sawdust and equipment. A good sanding, a few coats of Tung oil and a final coat of paste wax reveals a very nice dining room table that will do great double duty as a production space.
Next came familiarizing ourselves with local shopping options. Several recon trips revealed a great little farmers market located quite close, along with a decent variety of grocery stores that will work just fine for us. Although the selection of fresh chiles we found was pitiful at best, local produce was abundant and very reasonably priced. We’ve found fantastic coffee and local bread, lots of northwest dairy and cheese, and there’s even a real, live butcher a few minutes away. We’ll shift our shopping pattern to a more Eurocentric model of more often/less stuff, which suits us just fine.
So there’s the transition for y’all! We’re looking forward to rejoining the Northwest stream of life and food. There’re a few more boxes to put away, pictures to hang, storage to square away, but stay tuned, we’ll be back cooking in no time!
UrbanMonique 