From "The 1950s Kitchen Gets an Update/With today’s wellness kitchens, it’s farewell to the pantry with shelf-stabilized foods, and hail to the composter" (NYT).
I clicked on this article because I wanted to see photos of 1950s kitchens and how they might be thoughtfully renovated, but "1950s Kitchen" just refers to the homeowner's lifestyle, which used to involve more processed and shelf-stable food. So, get rid of the extra shelving and do something to help people with the problem of fresh food going bad. Then there's the idea of treating food like endless self-improvement — and not only for your body but for your mind.
Well, the truth is, I'd like a kitchen oriented to the assembling of fresh wholesome food, but I know from experience — I remodeled the kitchen, once, 30 years ago — that remodeling a kitchen is not a wellness experience. Whatever you can do with the new kitchen after it's done, what you have to do to get there is not calming or rewarding or social or meditative.
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29 comments:
Good God, the upper reaches of our society, our intellectual betters, have way too much money and way too much time to waste.
Minimalism in moderation is a meditative gourmet.
Whatever you can do with the new kitchen after it's done, what you have to do to get there is not calming or rewarding or social or meditative.
That's exactly what Hannibal Lector said.
I don't know how NYT readers can consume this type of drivel and then believe the news pages are serious journalism.
This makes me miss our old friend Chip Ahoy. He was creative with all the indoor and patio growing.
My dentist had a TV mounted where the patient could watch it. He had it tuned to thee HDTV channel. I pointed out the similarity between pulling teeth and remodeling kitchens. He didn't think that was very damn funny.
"1950s kitchen" evokes the Nixon-Khrushchev kitchen debate - maybe just for me
I’m pretty sure all of the components that go into making a wellness kitchen aren’t good for the environment. Which is fine, that’s how things are built now. But it does make this just performative.
A large pantry adjacent to the kitchen stocked with "shelf-stable food" is man's gift to himself.
In the 1970s the big kitchen design decision was whether the appliances would be Avocado, Harvest Gold, or Coppertone. We in the appliance trade called these colors snot green, piss yellow, or shit brown.
Do they still sell those dishwashers with the two hoses you have to pull out of the thing and connect to the faucet every time you want to run it?
Althouse said...
"I remodeled the kitchen, once, 30 years ago — that remodeling a kitchen is not a wellness experience."
How could anyone do something so vicious?
"It was easy, my dear. You forget that I spent two years as a building contractor"
@Wince
LOL
Builders are a nasty greedy bunch.
Rare or impossible to find a good one.
Find a collection of good sub-contractors, and do it yourself.
A lot of work - but acting as your own contractor has benefits.
Agree. Remodeling is hell.
What is this fascination with calming, with passivity? Isn't stimulation superior? Isn't passivity akin to satisfied smugness, to repletion?
I dunno about youse guys, but I don't want anyone else with me when I am cutting and dicing up stuff. Not only do they get in the way, but they start talking to me and they are not concentrating on what they are doing, they look away, and WHAP, there goes a slice of finger.
Builders are a nasty greedy bunch.
Sorry you had a bad experience with a builder. The bad apples don't give the rest a bad name on their own though. It also takes people who are willing to engage in unfair sweeping generalizations to accomplish that.
Going through a building project is stressful and expensive for most people, especially if they don't have much experience with the process. Keeping people happy in that situation can be challenging.
People who need lawyers are also often going through a stressful and expensive time and don't have much experience with the process. You often hear things like, lawyers are a nasty greedy bunch.
There are nasty, greedy people in every walk of life.
You could find people who say Buddhist monks are a nasty, greedy bunch.
"I dunno about youse guys, but I don't want anyone else with me when I am cutting and dicing up stuff."
It seems like something done fakely by Tiktokkers and by Meghan Markle on that show "With Love, Meghan."
Said Lorena to John Bobbit, with a notably green penis machismo.
It a poor craftsman whom blames tools. Residential contractors tend to suck because the best work commercial. The same is true for residential vs commercial real estate brokers. It's because no sane man wants to do business with a housewife.
I recently built an outdoor kitchen with a wood-fired pizza oven. My green-thumbed daughter-in-law is planting an herb garden right beside it, as soon as the Arizona desert cools off a bit. Winter gardens down here can be fantastic. I'm not sure what all the upcoming pizza feasts will do for my physical wellness, but my mental wellness will be off the charts.
Another NYT article seeking a topic where none exists.
"Bob Boyd said...
Builders are a nasty greedy bunch.
Sorry you had a bad experience with a builder. The bad apples don't give the rest a bad name on their own though. It also takes people who are willing to engage in unfair sweeping generalizations to accomplish that."
Wild guess, Bob is in the trade and has a cabinet guy, a tile man, a plumber, and electrician he can count on, and can do an entire kitchen with cabinets, appliances, plumbing and floor in a normal work week. Just like other competent contractors.
Probably do a bath remo in 3 days.
A residential contractor's job is to make other men's wives squeal with delight.
"Bob Boyd said...
A residential contractor's job is to make other men's wives squeal with delight."
And resist offers of sex in exchange for upgrades
Mostly
My last comment got moderated.
I’m five weeks into my kitchen reno and wow am I over it. I have none of those dumb things that break. I do have a second sink so someone else can wash dishes while I cook. Haven’t explained that to my someone else yet.
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