It started out as a make-shift outdoor kitchen, on our deck, using a stainless-steel cart with a hose attached to the faucet, with a bucket underneath to catch the water that went in the drain, and a barbeque grill. Many meals were prepared outside, at what I thought was quite the good set up. I had to haul everything from the other side of the house when I cooked and I couldn’t really wash my hands because the water was cold, but I had water, and a sink, and a work-space bigger than just the grill shelf.

My niece, Julia, and I cooking (a few decades ago), my nephew Axel in the background, and Ginger “in the make-shift outdoor kitchen”.

Soon I tired of all the hauling of plates, food and cooking tools. I started dreaming of real running water and a place that I could store things. A refrigerator, how I wanted a refrigerator!

The plans were in motion, but they continued to spin and spin and never moved forward. Our plans were elaborate, but we had a less than elaborate budget. Finally, in the winter of 2021, in a panic about inflation and tariffs, and still in a pandemic, we decided to bite the bullet and buy the appliances. We knew we only had a 10′ footprint in which to work with and we had it all laid out. There would be walls on three sides abutting the house and a custom door that would lift up to create an awning or close it down to protect it from the elements when not in use in the winter. The problem was finding someone to execute the plan. Or more importantly, finding a way to execute the plan with the money we had to spend on the plan.

A few years went by with no progress. I looked at the boxes of appliances, unused and unsightly taking up the space where my kitchen would someday exist.

Then came the summer where I decided not to cook or even eat very much. I didn’t need an outdoor kitchen. So, the boxes sat there, under a tarp.

This too did pass, and I came back around, cooking and eating and dreaming. Tom and I decided to move forward, but we still had the problem of finding the right help for a price we could afford.

Next, I started questioning the appliances. I kicked myself for not splurging on the grill I actually wanted. I started questioning my decision to go with such a small sink. I didn’t want to see an exhaust fan but bought one anyways thinking it was needed. I definitely didn’t want to build everything into an unusable wall with just one storage door. But that is what we had bought, panicking about the costs back in a time when we were all panicking about everything in the world.

So, there I went, back to the drawing board and drew out the custom cabinets that would be manufactured by Brown-Jordan. We no longer needed all the built-in inserts and accessories that we purchased, which accounted for a fair many boxes that I had been viewing all these years. And we decided to skip the enclosed kitchen with door. We would build a wood slat wall and ceiling later and just for decoration. We just needed to get this done.

Contractors can be tricky. We had quite a bit of outdoor electrical work done previously, however, even though we were specific, the electrician had run it out the basement wall in the wrong location so it would not be covered by our cabinets as planned. The plumber didn’t want to get a permit, because well, it turns out he wasn’t licensed to do the work. Our handyman bought the wrong material to construct the shallow utility wall, even though it was specified and detailed very legibly. We, painfully, got it all sorted out and done (well after the cabinets, that we thought would be the hold-up, arrived and sat in boxes, unsightly yet patiently waiting for their new home).

We hired the guy who installed our stone floor in the living room to do the countertop and clad the back wall, but it got too late in the year and too cold/wet to do the work. So, we were all so close to having it finished, but had to wait the winter out, to be continued in the Spring of 2025.

Spring came and our contractor went. Luckily, we were fortunate enough to hook up with Trio Surfaces who made the installation and execution of our full Dekton backsplash/utility wall and countertop, next level! They even made us a matching Dekton cover for our outdoor side-burner so it feels more seamless when not in use, not to mention a really great install of our floating Dekton-clad shelves.

There was one hiccup with Trio Surfaces, they too didn’t fully read the drawings and cut a hole for the upper cabinet mounting too wide thinking the cabinet was 2″ wider than it was. They did make it right, so all was good. The solution was to have Creoworks build a custom metal shelf to cover up the holes and we are pleased with the result. After that business was taken care of, we spent the remainder of the warm weather season (and into the mildly cooler season), cooking, eating and spending much of our time outdoors. Having the right outdoor spaces helped us double the size of our living footprint during the Spring/Summer and Fall seasons. The fire tables we pulled the trigger on, didn’t hurt either.

Full disclosure, I started writing this post last year and found it in my draft pile as we were closing down the kitchen this year. It is still in progress (the kitchen, that is) with a temporary island and not completed lighting so, hopefully, we can come full-circle this coming Spring to hold a proper welcoming to a long-awaited project completion. Yes, Tom and I are both designers, but you know the saying, “The cobblers’ kids never have new shoes”.