Any PWS parents want to weigh in on their "dream" design? Or parents with young growing children in general?
Since this is a short blog entry and I'm basically begging you for advice, here's a little clip of recent pictures:
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| Modeling one of the custom headbands at Lily and Rose |
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| Playing with cousin Maisie |
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| Desperately trying to get to the bottom of her toybox! |
The Starkweather family who was featured on Extreme Makeover Home Edition had a fabulous kitchen made. A large food pantry was built in the kitchen. Inside the pantry, they also put the refrigerator. The pantry was then locked with a combination lock (whose combination could be changed if necessary). What I loved about this concept, was the kitchen area could still be used as a "gathering area" but all food was kept securely locked and more importantly out of sight. Also, there were no keys that could be misplaced or discovered. Garbage was put under the counter in a locked receptical. There may be some information you can access on the Extreme Home website.
ReplyDeleteSome families have created kitchens with a door access that can be locked when not in use.
How exciting....building your own home! Good luck to you both. Such lovely photos of Lillian!
I always love southern living home plans. Im sure you could customize any kitchen to fit the needs of your family.
ReplyDeleteYour daughter is so very beautiful! Love the pictures of her.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have those issues with Olivia yet, but for the last six years I've had a walk in pantry in the last two houses and it has been wonderful. So much easier to see the food items and keep them categorized.
My first one was what looked like a closet door in my kitchen, but when you opened it up it ran the whole length of the kitchen wall, with shelving on the right hand side only (it was a nice space but longer and narrow). Shelves went all the way to the ceiling and they were wire shelving for ease of cleaning. I stored my items by categories - grains, flours, baking supplies, spices, asian ingredients, hispanic ingredients, middle eastern ingredients, beans, pastas, vegetables, fruits, snack foods, etc... you get the idea. The shelves weren't too deep and it was perfect and close to the cooking area.
Now I have a walk in pantry inside my laundry/mud room with a door that closes. It's square and has shelving on 2 sides, with the third side for spice racks and larger box storage (ice cream makers, specialty cookware, etc). It's between the garage and the kitchen.
Pros and cons: I love having all the food in a seperate room where I can see what I have without opening a dozen cabinets. I can stock up and not have to go to the grocery store as often. The con is making sure that you know what you need and make only one or two trips to the pantry - in my current kitchen the work space is kind of far away from the laundry room, and while it's not much in the big scheme of things it's enough to be annoying when I'm in a hurry and forgot a few ingredients.
If I didn't have Olivia, I would like the first pantry the best. With Olivia, I think the second one, with two doors to lock and completely in a seperate room, would be the best.