kitchen

Plumbing – Kitchen and Laundry

Make sure you have thought about all the following plumbing fittings:

There are a wide range of sinks the choice is a lot wider than one basin or two so you need to spend some time looking at various options.

Similarly there a wide range of mixers.

Boiled /Chilled Water Service used to be an office fitting but they are becoming more common in homes. (I think they can waste a fair bit of energy and are a scalding safety riskn so I can’t recomend them myself).

Dishwasher are normally installed as cold fill but there are some hot and cold fill machines around or you can just use the hot water.

If you like refrigerators with a chilled water you will need a water supply to the refridgerator location..

Butlers Pantry

In many larger houses a Butlers Pantry is included rather than a simple larder.

This is somewhere where the messy part of food preparation can be done when you are entertaining.

Depending on how much room you have these can be almost second kitchens so they may need a similar range of plumbing fittings

Laundry

Do you really want a laundry trough?…….. why not have a standard sink basin?

If you go for a trough why not think about a smaller size.

Whatever your choice you will need either a mixer or taps.

Washing machine – although you may only have a cold fill machine its always worth getting a hot water service installed.

People that do a lot of gardening like a toilet with wash basin off the laundry to avoid them going through the house with dirty boots.

Roof Water / Recycled Water

With roof water tanks and recycled water becoming more common in suburban properties you need to think about where you will use this supply, which has to be kept separate from the mains supply.

Will it be toilets only? or are you going to use it for the laundry?

Its simpler if you live on a rural block because it will be all roof water!…………. If so I would seriously think about a domestic water filter, although I wouldn’t bother for a suburban house with mains water.

Addititionally

My son is a concretor and I work for a drainage company so my wife prefers to wash our overalls in an old washing machine on the back veranda and keep the newer washing machine for her clothes and our non work outfits.

For similar posts see Plumbing

More plumbing information and 24 pages of Check Lists

in the ‘Selection / Pre-Start Guide’

Kitchen Drawer Fail

Have you ever wondered why kitchens with all the unit along a wall are so popular with builders?. . . . . and island units?

Why are drawers without a large handle common?

Well it stops mistakes like this happening!

I would have thought most kitchen installers would have made this mistake once, but only once!

One thing to think about though if planning a kitchen space with corners is the storage volume in those corners is very hard to access.

The picture is from Furafuwa.com

For more Fails and unusual houses go to What the………….?

Kitchen Fail

Do you like this kitchen? …………The photo is from Kitchy Living

In the 1960’s this was probably the height of fashion!

I wonder what people will think of todays fashionable kitchens in 20-30 years?

For more Unusual ‘Houses’ go to What the………………….?

Sink or Cook Top on Island

I see a lot of island kitchens in display homes and when visiting friends……..one thing that puzzles me is that they all have the sink in the island unit.

In my opinion it’s better to have the cooktop on the island (like the above photo) and the sink under a window, or wall, for the following reasons:

If you are having friends round for a meal, or even just talking to the family, you will be facing them while you cook.
Because of the extra pipe distance to get to the island bench it generally takes a long time for the hot water to get to the mixer.
Washing pans, or peeling veggies, are tasks where you don’t need to concentrate so its nice to look out of the window.

One problems is you will have less choice when it comes to range hoods, and perhaps need a more powerful model for the same effect.

If you really want a sink on the island, have the main one elsewhere but have a smaller sink at one end of the island. You will probably only need cold water to this sink but make sure you have a high outlet, so its easy to fill pans with water.

For similar posts see Selection

Thanks to Galloway Granite for the photo.

Mission Control

Although we have a study in our house most of the organising the household, paying our bills, writing letters and using the laptop happens on the kitchen counter. So do we really need the study?

If I was going to build again I would probably look to organise the kitchen area differently and set up a ‘Mission Control’ next to the kitchen bench. This would consist of a filing cabinet, with some shelves on top for:

A computer printer.
A rack of filing trays for printer paper, and envelopes.
A stand for bills to be paid.
A cordless phone charger (perhaps with mobile and Skype there is now no need for the cordless phone!)
A cup with some pens and pencils.
A phone point for the wireless router.

I would also want a drawer near the counter for sticky tape, more pens, blue tack staples, paper clips etc. Next to the filing cabinet would be the shredder which could then be emptied into the kitchen compost bin.

All this would save the cost of having the study and be far more convenient for the everyday paperwork around the house.

The only trouble with this idea is you could be too close to those jars of tempting biscuits! . . . . . (See this link: Is Modern Kitchen Design Making Us Fat?)

If you had a Mission Control what would you want in it?

Tag: kitchen