Sunday, March 11, 2012

believe it or not...


this is going to be my new kitchen.  husband began digging it out and tearing down the old in earnest mid-February. in order to have a proper height to the ceiling, we have to dig down more than a half a meter. and by we, i mean husband.


sabin was allowed to spray paint a bit of graffiti on one wall. it doesn't matter much, as everything has to go. the graffiti says "far is cool, and mom is too." she's not a teenager quite yet.


this was part of the barn and we've heard tales from the neighbors that those who lived here before kept a boar in here. when we moved in, we could see that they'd had chickens inside. we've just had things stored here. with some straw bales and a smoke machine, its natural cobwebs made for a wonderfully spooky room for a halloween party.


the bearing beams in the room are metal and were salvaged from a little old railway track that once ran down to our lake, from back when they were digging out peat for fuel. it's really the only nice historical detail in the room. otherwise, husband is running into a wide variety of materials - apparently whatever they could scrounge to cobble things together over the years.


he found a lot of perfect round paving stones when he dug down about 40cm, so it once had a nice cobble floor (you can see a few of those in the foreground on this shot). he's saved them, so we can reuse them somewhere - perhaps in the patio area that will be outside this room when it's finished.


husband's working on the foundation for a new pantry - that's what all this nice brickwork is for. he's never really bricked before, but this is good practice and since he's such a perfectionist, it looks pretty awesome.


he wants to see the new pantry go in, because he says he needs to see some progress. i have to admit that i will be happy to see some as well.


the plan is for this to be a rather industrial kitchen - i've called it the curry kitchen in my head all the way along - as in the kitchen where you make your curries, to keep the rest of the house from smelling like curry all the time. but ultimately, it will be for canning and processing juice and even butchering the odd hog or perhaps even sheep. we'll tile with white subway tiles, have a stainless steel sink and countertop and everything will be easily hosed down and rinsed. i'd like it to be ready to have approved as a restaurant kitchen if we decide to go the bed & breakfast/café route someday.


it is going to be our real kitchen for some years - and as soon as it's in, i can get rid of the horrible pink one and we can tear down that part of the house. eventually, we will build an addition that will have a big new kitchen, heated by and built around an Aga. but this will be pretty good in the meantime. there will be room for a big island and for our kitchen table, so i'm certain it will become our favorite room in the house.


husband wanted me to include a closeup shot of his pretty brickwork. so please praise him! i will keep you posted on how it's going. as you can see, it's a rather big undertaking. and we've only found a few pig bones (at least i hope that's what they were) along the way.

5 comments:

Tracy Golightly-Garcia said...

Hello Julie

Please tell husband, I think his brickwork is lovely!! :)

Numinosity said...

Wow, that's quite a project. I wouldn't even know how to begin with it. I agree that seeing the progress of the brickwork is encouraging. It will be interesting to see the transformation. I'm sure it will be a grand kitchen one day but looking at it right now makes me think of dampness and mold.
Your husband must be super industrious!
xoxo Kim

Elizabeth said...

Husband, You are doing a marvellous job. I'm totally impressed by the fact that you are still learning how to brick. As far as I can see you know already very well how to do that job!!!!

celkalee said...

May I just say wow, holy cow and bravo. you obviously have great vision and endurance for such a huge project. My son just poured 583 bags of concrete in one section his barn that he is using to build a camper. Perhaps your husband and my son know each other in another life? While he did this, DIL and I toured high end condo's, already done and decorated. works for me! Best of luck, I am sure it will be just what you want in the end, the distinct advantage of DIY.

Denise at Autumn Sky said...

Wow, this is indeed a renovation. It's hard to imagine the end result so I will just have to keep checking back. Have fun!

Did you know lots of bloggers are no longer leaving comments when you have this awful new word verification? It's too difficult to read.