AliG Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 +1 for silicone utensils and baking pans. Much easier to clean. We have 2 sinks but they are just used to rinse things out. A waste disposal is a must, cheaper than the boiling water taps we all love and at least as much use. I actually did away with the draining grooves in the current house as I fund they get dirty compared to the rest of the worktop, they don't actually direct water into the sink and they cost a few hundred pounds. No issues at all so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 7 minutes ago, newhome said: Out of interest why can’t aluminium go in the dishwasher? It oxidises and turns a horrible dark grey. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 19 minutes ago, AliG said: A waste disposal is a must, I have dogs . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 21 minutes ago, AliG said: A waste disposal is a must, cheaper than the boiling water taps we all love and at least as much use. Not a fan of putting food down the drains - seems a waste. I recently started using a bokashi bin for the first time in 10 years. Works well, although I'll admit it involves a little more work than a waste disposal unit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 That reminds me, when we had our sewerage plant commissioned the chap asked if we had a waste disposal unit as they don’t work with treatment plants! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 28 minutes ago, PeterW said: Has the novelty of not having to turn the heating on to get hot water worn off yet ..?? Nope! Still a novelty! And now I don’t need the heating on as it’s warmer I am thankful that the kitchen isn’t roasting because I needed the heating on to take a shower! It’s the little things ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 1 hour ago, joe90 said: That reminds me, when we had our sewerage plant commissioned the chap asked if we had a waste disposal unit as they don’t work with treatment plants! this is something that bothers me. The council wants all plastics in the recycling bin, but they have to be washed out. Has anyone considered the load of this extra food waste on either individual or municipal treatment systems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitpipe Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 2 hours ago, jack said: Buy a decent dishwasher and you'll barely hear it. Our Siemens makes a very occasional groaning sound as it changes mode, but other than that it's virtually silent - certainly the noise isn't in any way annoying, and I say that as someone with distraction issues and bat-like hearing. Ours (also Siemens) is so quiet I often open it by mistake when it's on and get a free wash. Yes, I know there is a light that shines on the floor but I never notice that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliG Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 I wondered if a waste disposal is considered environmentally unfriendly. As far as I can find from the internet, they are actually considered one of the most efficient ways of getting rid of waste and it is easily dealt with in treatment plants. Composting is a good idea, but it is not practical particularly in apartments and the reality is a lot of food waste is still just thrown away. Consider what is gong down the average WC and ground up food waste mixed with water is negligible. Don't put fat down it though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 41 minutes ago, dpmiller said: this is something that bothers me. The council wants all plastics in the recycling bin, but they have to be washed out. Has anyone considered the load of this extra food waste on either individual or municipal treatment systems? We rinse our plastics for recycling. The amount of extra "food waste" that goes down the drain is insignificant and no concern to our treatment plant. You do empty as much as you can into the normal bin first? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 38 minutes ago, AliG said: I wondered if a waste disposal is considered environmentally unfriendly. As far as I can find from the internet, they are actually considered one of the most efficient ways of getting rid of waste and it is easily dealt with in treatment plants. Composting is a good idea, but it is not practical particularly in apartments and the reality is a lot of food waste is still just thrown away. Consider what is gong down the average WC and ground up food waste mixed with water is negligible. Don't put fat down it though! In our house, any fat gets poured into the normal wheelie bin as long as there is plenty in there to absorb it, if not into some form of container, it does NOT go down our drain. Composting is good and when we get into the house we will set up a compost system. If it can't be composted then it is solid waste for the wheelie bin as far as I am concerned, not to be mashed up and hope my treatment plant can process it. We have a problem with society in that they think anything can go down the drain and it is not their problem. Witness the big problem in some places with fat burgs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gone West Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 14 hours ago, jack said: We don't put our pots and frying pans through the dishwasher, but they clean up very fast in the sink. Why is that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 On 12/06/2018 at 22:01, Russell griffiths said: I try to never comment on these Nor me. But having been to @Joe90's and @JSHarris's places, I notice a similarity. Large kitchens one side, living room other side, separated by hall/stairs/corridor/extra room. Similar upstairs. Master bedroom/en-suite on one side, spare rooms other side. Landing in-between. Just like it should be. Both done without an architect too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 20 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: Large kitchens one side, living room other side, separated by hall/stairs/corridor/extra room. Similar upstairs. Master bedroom/en-suite on one side, spare rooms other side. Landing in-between. Mine isn’t dissimilar to that either. There are definitely things I would change (hindsight being great!) but the basic layout seems to work. We didn’t use an architect either but the foundations were already in so we had to go with the external design and weren’t allowed to change it without submitting a brand new planning application. We played around with the internal layout a fair bit and the TF company did the BC drawings for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 1 hour ago, PeterStarck said: Why is that? According to the Le Creuset website, if you use the dishwasher you should treat their pans with oil every time you put them through the dishwasher: "When frying in an uncoated pan for the first time or whenever the pan has been cleaned in the dishwasher prepare the pan as follows: Add some vegetable or corn oil so that the base is covered. Heat the oil gently and turn the pan to coat the inner side walls. Remove the pan from the heat, let it cool and clean with kitchen paper." I can't be arsed with that, so I tried just not putting them through the dishwasher. Since doing that, I find that food doesn't stick as much, and the pans are more or less wipe clean rather than needing scrubbing. I do treat them with a bit of oil now and then. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 13 hours ago, AliG said: I wondered if a waste disposal is considered environmentally unfriendly. I'm not really concerned with food going down the drain per se, it's just that I'd rather keep it onsite and have it go into our (poor, sandy) soil than send it into the sewer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 10 hours ago, SteamyTea said: Nor me. But having been to @Joe90's and @JSHarris's places, I notice a similarity. Large kitchens one side, living room other side, separated by hall/stairs/corridor/extra room. Similar upstairs. Master bedroom/en-suite on one side, spare rooms other side. Landing in-between. Just like it should be. Both done without an architect too. Mine is very similar to that. It all stems from my plot suiting a wide, but not very deep house which fits that layout. Perhaps the more "normal" plot favours a narrow, deeper house that would not work with that layout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 44 minutes ago, ProDave said: It all stems from my plot suiting a wide, but not very deep house which fits that layout. I think it is more basic than that and all do do with compartmentalising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 35 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: I think it is more basic than that and all do do with compartmentalising. Not really. You have to work with the plot. It was easy with this plot as it was wide but not very deep, and a house like that, split down the middle very much models the traditional Scottish Croft house so it was not at all hard to design. One of the other plots we looked at was very much narrower and very much deeper and would have been a completely different design of house to the one we have now. One of the things we struggled with when trying to fit a house to that other plot, was dealing with a limited width south facing wall, meaning a lot of rooms would have no option but face north If the plot allows I can recommend a wide house as we have discussed split down the middle with the stairs and entrance, but that is not always possible. Our house is 12 metres wide, add a little over 3M for the adjoining single garage, and another 6M for the double car port. Not everyone has a 21 metre wide plot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 Except that Joe90's place is on a large plot, and his house is fairly square, Jeremy's is on a narrower, sloping one. A lot of it does depend on how you usually enter and exit a house. Why I can not understand why kitchens in small Victorian terraces are at the back. Means you have to traps though, what is usually the living room when you first enter. Great idea when you have bags of shopping and your car is parked other end of street. Then, if you want enjoy your back garden, you can sit in your very narrow kitchen, the one with the bathroom and bog at the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 10 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: Then, if you want enjoy your back garden, you can sit in your very narrow kitchen, the one with the bathroom and bog at the end. That then brings us to plot orientation. We have a south facing back garden, so all the main rooms face the back, look out over the garden and get the sun. The main room is triple aspect so looks over the front and side as well. Only the humble utility room is relegated to only having a north view over a (very quiet) road. So that would rule out a north facing plot. In fact yes that was another big issue with the plot we turned down, the back would have faced north. I sketched all sorts of bizarre schemes to try and come up with a front garden we could actually use and get the sun, without feeling like we were sitting on the driveway, and nothing really worked. Agree about kitchens. Something people don't think about when putting it upstairs either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Our kitchen is at the back of the house, because our building area was long and narrow. Study and lounge are to the right (south) as you move into the hall, and snug, toilet, utility and plant room are to the left (north). We have friends who built a house with the kitchen at the front of the house, and that works really well (at least partly because their house is shallow and wide, so the kitchen is still close to the back garden. We did consider an upside down house due to the steep rise to the back of our plot, and schlepping up to the kitchen was one reason we didn't do that in the end. You have to work with the constraints you have, for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 3 minutes ago, jack said: Our kitchen is at the back of the house, because our building area was long and narrow. Study and lounge are to the right The point I was making is that there is separation between the two. You only have to go into a small house/flat where the kitchen is part of the living room to know what I am on about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 (edited) On 13/06/2018 at 10:13, jack said: I love the idea of balconies (we have a couple ourselves), but realistically, when will you use it? My wife likes the idea of having a coffee up there, but frankly by the time you've got some clothes on, gone downstairs, made the coffee and come back up, you'd have done just as well having it on the patio downstairs. Come on, Jack. Get real. I think the answer to that is that Mrs Jack quite properly envisioned herself waking up gradually and slowly on a Sunday morning, while you put your clothes, trolled downstairs, bought a paper, and made the coffee - and brought it back up to be presented on a silver tray with an exquisitely prepared breakfast of Eggs Benedict and Melba Toast, while she relaxed on a on a steamer chair on the balcony. Perhaps with the traditional Bloody Mary. Ferdinand Edited June 15, 2018 by Ferdinand 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newhome Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 10 minutes ago, SteamyTea said: You only have to go into a small house/flat where the kitchen is part of the living room to know what I am on about. My first house was a Victorian semi in Tunbridge Wells just like you describe. Before I bought it the entrance was moved to the middle of the side of the house to get round the issue of having to walk through the lounge to get to the kitchen. That’s not possible with a terrace house though. Bathroom and loo were still tacked on the back. Avocado green, nice! Victorians didn’t have inside loos in that sort of house though so a single storey bathroom off the kitchen is very common. Should have kept it! They are silly money now. My current house has a pretty large kitchen / family room that takes in one complete side of the house apart from the utility. The kitchen is at the back however but that makes sense as I never really use the front entrance if I arrive in the car as it’s quicker to walk from the garage to the rear entrance. Thus the house was designed for the plot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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