It's a real kitchen again! Well almost.

The kitchen is usable again. Lots more to do, but we have water and drainage at the main sink. Most of the remaining cabinet building will happen in the workshop and then each section will simply be carried in and fixed in place. I will begin prepping and painting the walls over the next week or two.

The fabric is cheesecloth I just rinsed ready for the next batch of yoghurt cheese.

Yep, still dust everywhere!

 

Our wood stove heats our hot water, keeps us warm and the shelf above the hot plate is perfect for proving dough. I’m planning to fix a few extra shelves to the wall above the stove to prove more dough, make yoghurt and dry herbs. 

Behind the Rayburn wood stove you'll see my beautiful Bakbar oven. 

 

The square bench in the foreground has been the center of my last few kitchens, I made it about 15 years ago. It’s made from a redgum tree that had been ringbarked (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girdling) maybe 70 years earlier, I bought the tree from a farmer and had it cut into slabs by a gentleman with a widow maker (also known as a  Hargan Saw, imagine a huge circular saw blade at one end of a pole and engine in the middle and you strapped to the other end. It has handles like a wheel barrow and you pull it toward you through the log). The tree cost me $35.00 and turning it into useable slabs cost about $250.00. To date it has been used to build a kitchen and all the finishing timbers in one house, the bathroom and some kitchen benches in another house and parts of a kitchen and bathroom in a third house. I still have 8 slabs and lots of assorted timber left, and will use some to finish this kitchen.

Looking forward to a coat of paint and tiles.

 The cabinet doors will be removed one at a time and refinished in the workshop. Handles will be replaced and then they will be reinstalled using new hinges.

Progress!

The first 2 coats of sealer are on, enough to protect the timber. The top coats will go on once all the work is complete and that could be months away. 

Ready for the sink and plumbing.

Sink in.

I do a huge variety of tasks in my kitchen and have found the way to make each more efficient is to create many different workstations throughout the room. I work out what I’m going to do most frequently then give those things priority. My main workstations are ready to go at any time, these are bread making, meals prep, farm produce processing (mostly vegetables at the moment, but when we are milking it includes milk, cream and butter). Areas that are ready to go with minimal effort, general baking, preserving (canning, bottling, drying, freezing etc), cheese making and brewing. There are also things I do at longer intervals like soap making and butchering.

The kitchen reno

This not the first kitchen I’ve built but it is the first I’ve made from so many cobbled together materials.

I bought a very knocked about timber kitchen from ebay, I have a steel frame and grey laminate bench top and I will make a few cabinets and assorted doors myself.

As we are doing all the work ourselves and saving for extras as we go it’s going to take a few weeks to get it to a usable stage and probably many months until it’s finished.

The chaos.

 

I like this type of project, it will evolve as we find or make all the components. I like a lived in look, if it looks like it’s been here for 100 years when I’ve finished I’ll love it. 

So much dust.

 

One section of bench top is sanded and ready for the first coat of sealer. Time for a big clean up.