This week has been very exciting, so I am posting a mid-week update. The custom kitchen extension is framed and finally I can physically see it, stand in it, and measure for cabinets (we are pretty far from cabinets)!
I am a chef by trade, though on (maybe permanent?) hiatus for SAHM duties. Needless to say, the kitchen is the most important part of the house for me. We designed the house so that it is in a wing off the dome proper. This aids in many things, such as separating the heat/smoke/smells of the kitchen from the rest of the house, allowing for giant skylights for natural light, and paving the way for chimneys that accommodate wood fired cooking in the future.
Inevitably I am asked why we didn’t want the kitchen open to the rest of the house. After all, it is the heart of any home and where much time is spent. I am also designing the kitchen to be beautiful of course, so why hide it behind a door? Well if you have an open floor plan and have ever tried to really USE your kitchen to the fullest, searing meat, boiling canning pots, and all sorts of funky but delicious smells, you know that the result is your house taking the brunt of all that work. Vaporized fat settles in a layer of sticky dust in the most hard to reach places, that delicious salmon dinner leaves a fishy smell lingering in the bedrooms, etc etc. The solution is to eschew the open kitchen and give the kitchen its own space. Ours will have a hideaway pocket door that manages access to the main living space. A solarium on the southern end of the kitchen that allows for light and the growing of culinary plants is accessed by a sliding glass door wall. Time will tell if we regret this layout down the road, but I have lived in many places with open kitchens and I am always cursing them. The heart of our home will be chambered.
In addition to the kitchen framing, the entryway extension, which is a stock Timberline extension, has been started, and a lot of the grading around the house was finished. As finished as it can be at this point anyway. The grade of the patio area by the basement walkout is taking shape. That area will be a poured cement patio covered by a deck.
We are still looking forward to getting the exterior framing complete and the exterior plywood on the dome. Once that happens we can roof it and finally take a deep breath. Once the roof is on and windows and doors are installed, it will be weather tight and we can finish the interior. A few weeks stand between us and a sealed home, so keep us in your thoughts and prayers that everything goes well until then!
Broken Branch Farm 
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