I suddenly see that others are also "staging." Good!


Anyone who has cooked with us in this kitchen (Mmario, Dharmabum, Bert, BillD, Dick and Susan, parish class members, local jam groups, etc.) will understand the gargantuan task I began today; this kitchen was built to feed 35 residents plus a host of harvest-workers on the farm.

We ourselves use it, therefore, in the bulk-cooking mode I've posted about before.

WE (and close friends) know it as a kitchen with room for many others to use at the same time we use it. But the average person cannot know this until they see it.

Because the average person does not run a farm operation or a parish kitchen, as we do.


So... we have enough XL appliances to set up a photo shoot tomorrow on the last counter yet to clean and stage. It's the "extra" counter not really needed due to the island I put in (smartest thing in home design I ever did-- spotted an unused double-base cabinet, topped it with enamel, and viola!).

This extra counter is there because, in the last occupancy-era about 30 years ago (several tenants before us), they too had a "little fire." With that fire, the owner closed in the kitchen differently-- it was a kitchen fire. I think they had torn out an old kitchen or two elsewhere and wanted to re-use the cabinetry, because there is a LOT of it, actually two different styles that are almost identical. The laundry room is also full of it and was, before OUR fire, wired for appliances. (We brought some of that cabinetry in to add a second pantry.)

So we have a copious counter between pantries and double ovens (there are two swallow-anything pantries and one has storage on top of it too), where things pile up "a la crap" because we usually use the island and keep THAT "clean enough."


Mudcatters have only seen that extra counter cleared and set up for large-group buffet-ing. I used to try to keep it clear when the hungry teens lived here, but I know that because it is "extra," it will never stay clean for long.

Well, it has room for the very nice 2-burner portakitchen cooktop my son gave me from his Japan-apartment years in the Navy. It is called a hotplate but it ain't like any other hotplate I ever saw. It provides for a whole second cooktop zone on that extra counter, plus electric frypan, roaster, crockpot..... lot of different combos would make sense, and we have them all. Oh and the island is right there adjoining, to work upon as well.

We lost the first applicants partly because they could not envision a kitchen like that. And I do not blame them-- I didn't describe it well enough for them to come SEE it, but now they are sorry to be committed to another lease. Becasue they not only cook, they cook athletic healthfood just like ours. (sniff)

This place cooks like a restaurant kitchen but looks like the ambience of any old farmhouse kitchen. But it has so much storage that there are serious and large pans and appliances under all the counters and island, plus what we stowed in the huge hutch my sister built for us... not even counting Hardi's great all-weather porch grill and stacking cast iron Dutch ovens.....


So tomorrow should be FUN!

After I clean and snap (Hardi helped me clear it tonight), a quick vac job on the kitchen and bath, and I'll be ready for The Blessed Cleaning Lady to keep it all up. Her $$ is gonna come out of the grocery budget till we get a paying roommate. Some people do an annual Spring Cleaning-- I've always been a Fall Cleaning girl myself. I think this is the last year I can (or will have to) do it without paid help.

This house, Hardi finally understands, is not too big for one person to keep up, or two, or even three. At our ages and health situations, this house is too much house for 5 people or more, and if we are to stay in it, something's gotta give.

And we prefer not to move, as if we even could.

~Susan