A kitchen in the garden

Betty suggested I post a pic. I have been busy with this new outdoor garden for my guests. It is on a concrete strip at the back of my house as part of the pool garden so the pool is a few metres away. I designed it as the kitchen facilities inside my guest accommodation were so small with a sink only about 15 cm deep and a plug in small oven/griller/2 hot plates and a microwave. Not good for a large family especially with 4 adults and a couple of kids. It is 3 metres long and I went to a metal fabricator and designed it and had it made in stainless steel. I bought the sink, tap and gas cooktop new all on an on line auction for a fraction of their retail (cooktop was an eighth of retail but was new on warranty). My friend gave me an Asko dishwasher she did not want and it is now in the end facing the table and I am about to buy a stainless steel frig with a glass front to fit beside it. The man who works for me occasionally has made the cupboard interiors (complex as the concrete slopes and it is wet as I hose there and I stipulated it had to be 150% mouse proof) and the doors will be made when he is ready - I am having them made as aluminium fly screens with tough silver wire mesh inside but they will only be 30 cm wide and will have magnetic clips on them. People do love it. Even if the cooktop rock barbecue fused all my power the first time it was used and so it is now being repaired. It has been very hard to design and plan but it means that it is now a lot cleaner inside and .... the really really good part is that I no longer have to clean the barbecue once a week! The wire mesh under the house is because the pool fence now comes down with a gate so that people can close it off if they have toddlers in there or dogs they want to leave and go off for a bit. The lid over the cooktop is so that it is mouse proof and it forms a bit of a splash back.

I will post a pic when the cupboard doors are on. I bought a new melamine crockery set up and so far have it in plastic storage bins. It ended up costing me more than I thought, particularly with the electrical as there is a new halogen spot light over the cooktop as well as the existing lighting. But I think I will have happy guests and return visits is what it is all about.

very impressive Pamela

It all looks very practical and user friendly . I think guests will love it.Well planned.

Very user friendly, Pamela, and easy to keep spotless, so well done! It'll be fabulous once you get it all finished.

wow. that looks fantastic! what reason could anyone have for going inside????

Even I wouldn't mind cooking on that and I don't like cooking... being outside makes it so much more pleasant... lucky guests I can just see you Pamela, ducking out to cook something when there aren't any guests

Looks terrific Pamela..

Thanks all. Yes in spite of the recession, I think we have to soldier on and this will help me market the place to larger families or groups of friends with more than 2 adults who want to cook and it is fun to cook outside as the view is lovely from this end of the garden - it looks over the mountains and to sit in this garden and watch the sunset on the escarpment is lovely.

That's why I put up with the bats as there are no mozzies, just flies. At the moment there are these strange slow moving flies that must have a different metabolism as they are not even knocked by fly spray unless you direct it onto them and that usually makes a mess of the window.

I will post a pic when it is all finished with the insect screen cupboard doors. The man who works for me is only here one day a fortnight and so any project like this goes slowly and I have to be patient.

It looks really nice and the setting sounds wonderful as well.

I am green with envy..... that looks wonderful, Pamela. Best part is it looks easy to keep clean, a job well done.

Thanks all. I would love some advice about how to put a kettle and toaster out there that is mouse/ rat proof. All I can think of is those net thingys that you can get to put over food but a rat could lift that up. I'd really like a metal version that is heavier with steel mesh on it. There have been so many issues about this being outside and things having to cope with being wet from the fog here and me hosing (it has some perspex extending the roof) and rat proof also. I do not really want to go to a metal fabricator again as I am still coping with the errors/ failures of the previous job - I supplied the main leg 50x50 mm in stainless steel a metre long - they mistakedly cut it in half and welded it back badly - and didn't tell me - hmmmmmmmmm. And there is still brown marks on the weld joins of the lid.

I also wish I could find another way to cope with the algae on the cement other than acetic acid (which works like a charm but is $30 at the big red shed for 2 L and that lasts about a month) - I have a Karcher but it is not the way as it draws little pencil lines in the thick green scunge. No guttering means all the water flows off the roof in a waterfall and so on the south side there is a lot of algae on the cement.