Kitchen

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It still doesn’t feel like home — for two years I kept from going crazy with impatience by referring to “the job site,” so it’s taking a bit of mental adjustment — but I am unpacking and I like the place.

This is most of the kitchen. Not all of it fit into the photo and not all of it is there. Note the missing door hardware. That door is solidly closed but right now there is no way to open it.

The Lacanche stove is a delight. The induction cooktop is more responsive than gas, so it was easy to make the adjustment from looking at the flame to looking at the. numbers. I can’t wait for the weather to cool down enough to justify using the oven. However you can easily see that the steel panel that should go behind it and the range hood are not installed yet. Long story, not fun. Let’s talk about it another time.

The boxes hold my garbage disposer, not yet installed, and my cookbooks, which will go in shelves that are promised for next week. We shall see.

My contractor, SSH Developments, made the cabinets. The bar stools, stained glass roundel (we put it so close to the window to disguise some cracks in the glass) and bust of Gandhi (why Gandhi? Can’t tell you, I inherited it.) came with me from California. The light fixture is from a great little shop in the center of Melle, not so far from here. It’s a Jura coffee maker, the E8. The frig is a Liebherr, I forget which one, but it’s wonderful.

The sink faucet looks gadgety but it’s not. It is actually very easy to use. I am much happier with it than I thought I would be.


And the knife rack is up. Now it feels like a working kitchen.

24 thoughts on “Kitchen”

  2. I know those knives.

    You know its home when you have a kitchen. Its very nice but yes, a bit less than Kensington. Are you sure you don’t need a house sitter? I get money. You don’t have to feed me at all. Haha.

    Erin

    >

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    1. Hey, I’m sure I do need a house sitter, especially one with an RN. The contractors were joking about that the other day and they’re pretty good handymen. So, there you go. Which do I need more? Hard to say, hard to say…

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    1. Thanks. The whole idea has been to have a deluxe bolthole. Once I get the garden in, I think I’ll be there.

      My Wolf range had a simmer setting. I can assure you that it would let things simmer for hours because sometimes I forgot I had turned it on, so things not only simmered for hours, they simmered without being stirred. So I thought a good gas range was the best.

      I was apprehensive about induction, so I was glad I could test it in a rental. It was good, not great. I went for induction here because I knew I could live with it and because I was apprehensive about a huge propane tank in the garden. Living next to a potential fireball is not for me.

      This stove is amazing. I realize that I am blessed to be able to afford all this, so I didn’t feel comfortable doing a whole post about my crazy expensive stove. I’ll tell you, though. Those knobs are functional. You turn the stove on just as you would a gas stove. It is this great combination of analog logic with digital functionality. At the lowest setting it matches the Wolf in the “simmer all day” competition. At the highest setting it takes water from room temperature to a full boil in about two minutes. When you think “oops, that’s a little much” and turn it down, the response is instant. I don’t know how they can do that but I absolutely love it.

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      1. We have a Falcon, which is much less expensive. We went for it when we changed to electric heat…and got rid of the huge propane tank behind the house. The first time we cooked on it, we just played with it like kids, watching it go from nothing to boiling in a flash, then stop boiling instantly as we adjusted the knob. Our gas stove wasn’t nearly as good.
        Also: it’s great that the heat is from the bottom–the handles of the pot don’t get hot. Amazing.

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        1. All this new stuff is great. When I was making my first buying decisions I always went for old stuff because it was so solidly built. Then one day I realized that new cars had some really cool features like built-in GPS. Now the new stoves are the way to go.

          Where is a Falcon made? One reason I went for the Lacanche was that it was made in France, where the labor laws are so strict. There are so many scandals about exploitive labor practices in developing countries. I really do not want to look at my new toy of the week and wonder how many children helped build it, how many workers jumped from the roof of the factory, all that. If the Falcon was manufactured responsibly, you probably made the better decision.

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          4. Sweet, a new source. Thanks. It may be too late for me but people are always asking. And why spend a ton of money if you don’t have to? I’m all about functionality.

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  4. Tasteful, relaxed, functional and chic …. I love it! Induction hobs are a revelation …. I was a cooking on gas bird forever in England but in France with no gas and a dislike of the bottled variety we went for induction and I wouldn’t go back now.

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    1. Thanks, glad you like it. I knew I had made the mental shift to induction when I started thinking of even a natural gas stove as a bit of a fire hazard. Really, where did that come from, but it tells you how my thinking has changed.

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      1. We were in the process of buying a house 18 months ago and got the documents which flagged, amongst other things a Cat 3 gas hazard with the propane. When we investigated what that meant in France it transpired that it equates to a risk of explosion. We didn’t proceed!

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          1. That was our suggestion and the notaire declared it was our problem. We pulled out and the seller said she would fix it but by then my husband was cold on the deal – he’s the head, I’m the heart in the partnership 😂😂

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  5. The color of the walls and wood together are perfect. Is it a table in the center or a built in by your contractor? Would love to see another angle of the room to get a sense of its size. Really well done. Kudos!

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  6. Oh now I see that it is a counter. I initially thought there was a table next to a counter with the sink!

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    1. Yeah, it’s a kitchen island. I’m surprised at how many French kitchens I go into that have cabinets along the walls but no island — and not much working space and no place to put stuff. I’m glad you like it. I’ll work another angle into a future post.

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