Welcome to my kitchen! This ridiculously posed photo is my way of showing you just one of the modifications made in my home.
The kitchen is the center of our home. Being married to a (retired) chef, our lives seem to revolve around food for pleasure as much as survival. My family spends a lot of time in here. I have some news for you: kitchens are not made for sitting down.
Think about it…when you’re cooking at the stove, you're standing. When you’re chopping veggies - you're standing at the counter. Below the counters? Cabinets!
I need my hands to move so when I pull something out of the oven or need to strain my al dente rigatoni, everything becomes potentially dangerous. The kitchen can become one big obstacle and burn hazard.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not do a majority of the cooking, but I do a lot of prepping and can now comfortably cook when I need to. My kitchen has been modified to be a comfortable space for all of us to use.
Our countertops are two different levels. One is ‘regular’ height, and one is made lower for me. On one side of my kitchen (the one I am so glamorously posed in front of) there is a cut out so I can roll under. This gives me a place to safely and comfortably use a cutting board or do any other prep work that you would normally stand at a counter to do.
On the opposite side, there is a regular height counter for my husband to work. It steps down to my height again and that is where the sink is placed. I was told it was so that I could reach into the sink and not have to reach up and in which is super uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure now though that this was purposely done so that I can be forever enslaved at the sink washing dishes. We might never know the truth….
My stove is also on the lower counter which allows me to reach all the burners and also see inside the pots and pans when I am cooking. This was really cool until I realized I no longer had an excuse as to why everything was burned or overcooked. The stove and sink are also set close enough together and at the same level so that I can safely get a pot of boiling water to the sink.
Our oven is placed at a custom height so that I can more safely reach in and pull out a pan. There is a counter next to it and the stove directly across so that I can place the hot items down without trying to make it across the kitchen while holding something hot.
All of these things are super cool and I am extremely lucky to have them. If you’ve ever been a home owner you know that a kitchen remodel is expensive - even when it’s done moderately. When you start to add in customization, the cost goes up - immensely. Our last kitchen was beautiful and incredible and made for a chef and for entertaining - but it cost a small fortune.
In our home now, the kitchen is pretty small and we purchased a fixer upper knowing we would have to make modifications anyway. As you know if you’ve been following, my husband is very handy. We were not in the position to remodel a customized kitchen but my man did a pretty amazing job designing and building this one on his own. ✌🏼 #kitchen #custom #reno #accessible #cook #housework #disabledlife
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