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Saturday, April 2, 2011

Beach House Views and Kitchen Windows

The last trip out to the beach house left my head spinning!   We met with our HVAC guy, our electrician, our plumber, and our General Contractor -- multiple times!

We still have to climb a ladder to get up into the house, but once you're up there -- oh the view! 

Even on a blustery day like this one, the sea is just spectacular to watch!

I apologize for the poor picture quality-- it was a pretty dark day.    The dark day actually worked in our favor, as we needed to do a daylighting study in the kitchen, and we were able to see the "worst case" scenario.  This kitchen has seven windows, counting the door.  I love the way the light streams in, but I had some concerns.  The view from the middle kitchen window is only marginal -- just rooftops, basically.  On a clear day the windows on the left in the picture below look out over a bay, and you see can see all the way to Mt Rainier!  Imagine, just by turning around you can change your view from ocean to volcano!

The windows on the right look out to crashing surf, but that center window just looks out at roofs and sides of houses....  Another problem with having all of these amazing windows is that there is no space for upper cabinets -- and I love my uppers! 

So, I had to decide if the amount of light gained from the center window was enough to offset the marginal view and the complete lack of upper cabinets.   It's not.  The window is going.  Just that one.  We will keep the other six.  And there is a huge plus to gaining this wall space! 

See the beautiful stove in this 1947 Caloric ad?  I own one just like it!  This stove has a pretty high profile, so it really should have a full wall behind it, rather than a pony wall.  Losing the middle window will give us an opportunity to create a focal point using this gorgeous stove.  And that makes me happy, because I really love my stove.  It even has the original quarter round salt and pepper shakers shown flanking the clock in this ad.

So, although I've been showing this concept for the beach house kitchen, we've kind of known we might be changing things up a bit.  We just had to wait, and study the space after the house was lifted to make up our minds.   We've decided.   The window will go away, and we will place our vintage stove on that wall.

The stove and the sink will switch places.  Something about facing out toward the sides of houses while washing the dishes just hurt my heart. 

But looking out at this?

I'll wash!  Would you like to dry?

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