Garden Kitchen/Processing Room

[EddieWalker]

When I built my house, it was mostly a workshop with a living area attached to it and a lot of plans that I no longer have any interest in perusing. Along the side of my shop I built an area that I've been using for storage with a porch area in front of it that was only 4 feet deep. I also had a very limited budget to build the it, so I went cheap on my exterior siding. I used Hardie 4x8 panels, which I've regretted, and come to hate. I love Hardie lap siding and I'm in the process of covering the existing Hardie with Zip siding, and then Hardie Lap siding.

In the picture, you can see how ugly the siding looks, and also how small the porch area is. All that porch did was hold water at the base of the wall. Totally useless.



Part of the changes is relocating all the utilities in that area. I have a 100 amp power line coming out of my attic area above the storage room, down the wall and then under ground to an RV pad and a shed. That had to me moved into the wall so I could put a window where that conduit is.





Then I ran new water lines, a drain line with vent, and power through the room. I also added two outdoor spickets so we can water the garden easier, and also fill the chickens water bowls. Everything is done with PEX and copper at the threaded ends. I like to use copper where I will attach valves because of how durable it is and how solid I can attach it to the studs.

 

[EddieWalker]

The room is 12 feet wide and 24 feet long. There will be a 3 bay sink, electric range, dishwasher and refrigerator. There will be plenty of storage and counter space. Our goal is to have a place where we can make a mess and not stress over what it looks like at the end of the day. If we need to leave stuff out, then that's not a big deal.

Here is my wife installing insulation. The walls are R13. To get as big an R value as I can, I doubled up the existing 2x6 rafters with another layer. Add the thickness of the purlins and I was able to get R49 with two layers of fiberglass put in perpendicular to each other. While not ideal, I went with paper facing the metal roof on the top layer, and paper in on the bottom layer. With such tight spacing, I felt this was my best option.





Last weekend I installed 4x8 sheets of sanded beedboard for the ceiling. At $23 a sheet, and using 9 sheets, I felt this was a very economical way to get a wood ceiling at a minimum price.

 

[DFB]

Nice project Eddie

Summer kitchens or second kitchens are definetly a great idea, Extra sinks for washing pots and cleaning garden produce and another stove for hot water canning and pickling stuff especially when using vinegars hate that smell or processing messy stuff like tomatoes for sauce etc.


What to you plan to use for the finish wall material?

I covered many walls with FRP for the commercial kitchen and fruit processing areas where I work, being the inspectors wanted washable wall surfaces. The donut shop walls are sheetrock with a stainless wall panel behind the fryer.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you. I'm hanging sheetrock and will use tile for a backsplash behind the counters. My goal is to make it a happy place that my wife enjoys being at and wanting to be in there. Raising the ceiling too a long time, but the results have been more then worthwhile. I'm hoping that a little extra effort on the rest of it will also add to it's appeal.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you. I'm hanging sheetrock and will use tile for a backsplash behind the counters. My goal is to make it a happy place that my wife enjoys being at and wanting to be in there. Raising the ceiling too a long time, but the results have been more then worthwhile. I'm hoping that a little extra effort on the rest of it will also add to it's appeal.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Looks great Eddie. Hope to have a place like that one day myself. How well does the drywall lift work? I have seen them for years but never seen one used. Ed

 

[gsganzer]

Eddie,
What's the Hardi ZIP siding? I haven't heard of it.

While you have your walls open, have you thought of outlets for freezers and a dedicated 20A for each one? Outlet for an electric stove, or gas line for a gas stove for canning? Vent hood/ducting for over the canning area? I can see this project snowballing!!:laughing:

Looks great, that's a nice sized room. You can probably find some good surplus restaurant stainless counters/sinks, unless you're planning to go the country cottage feel, so it doesn't feel like a laboratory.

If I ever build a new house with a kitchen, I'm paying closer attention to pot, lid, utensils and appliance storage. I hate digging through drawers and shelves clanking around pots and lids trying to find stuff. I like where they have pots/lids hanging from a rack, where they're easier to get to.

 

[EddieWalker]

Ed,

The lift is awesome. I remodel homes for a living and usually just do sheetrock repairs, or small jobs like a bathroom. Every now and then I get a job where I need to do a big ceiling. I will only use 5/8's sheetrock on a ceiling because of the 24 inch span of the joists. I also work alone. With the lift, I can place the sheetrock on the lift, wheel it into position tight next to the previous piece and then take my time screwing it in. It is easy, fast and simple. I rented them a few times before realizing that it's something that I needed to own. This one is from Northern Tool, and I highly recommend it.

Gordon,

The ZIP siding isn't a Hardie product. I wasn't clear. Hardie makes the cement fiber siding that goes over the ZIP System. It's a higher grade of OSB that is denser and heavier. Not a lot, but enough to notice it when cutting it and working with it. It has a coating on it that makes it water proof so it can be left exposed to the elements a lot longer then uncoated OSB. I've heard it will last a year somewhere, but know for a fact it will last a lot longer without any issues. It's probably twice as much money as OSB, but then you don't have to buy or install a house wrap. You do have to seal the ends with special tape that runs about $25 a roll, so the price goes up a little more there. I use the same tape on my windows.

The big advantage to it and why it's worth the extra money for me is that I'm doing my entire house a little at a time. It would be impossible to get the house wrap over OSB and then move on to the next stage, and then come back to finish off a section at a later date with as good of results. For brand new construction, I don't feel it's worth the expense. For this, it's ideal.

Another thing that I like about ZIP System is that you can get it in longer sizes then just 4x8. I've used 9 foot sheets for my walls that are over 8 feet tall because of my rafters being on top of my walls. I can run a solid piece of siding from my sill plate to my rafters and tie it all together!!! I think they come in sizes up to 12 feet, but I've only bought the 8 and 9 foot lengths.

ZIP System, Huber ZIP System Sheathing, ZIP System Wall Sheathing | Huber Engineered Woods


I have two 200 amp panels in my house. For this room, I'm running 20 amp lines for every three outlets. The garbage disposal and fridge share a 20 amp line. The stove is electric. We plan to start off with just one refrigerator, but have space and outlets for half a dozen fridges or freezers if that's what we end up wanting. There will be a vent over the stove. I also ran a cold water line to the stove so we can fill large pots. I've never done this before, just seen pictures of it and on TV.

I'm a member of a bunch of Facebook Groups that have just about everything for sale in my area. It's better then Craigslist!!! One of my Facebook friends used to sell food at Canton and listed all of their equipment for sale. I picked up a 3 bay stainless steel sink with faucet for $200 over the summer. I've seen other great deals for more stuff, but really don't want to buy anything else until I have a place for it. I've been tripping over that sink for too long!!!!

 

[downsizingnow48]

Looks great Eddie. Hope to have a place like that one day myself. How well does the drywall lift work? I have seen them for years but never seen one used. Ed

I bought one to do the 900 sq ft workshop ceiling. Worked great.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Thanks Eddie and downsizing, I have wondered and i tend to have projects and no help so it just might be the thing for me. Ed

 

[EddieWalker]

Sheetrock is up and taped with the first coat of mud. I was hoping to get a second layer on today, but there are a few spots that are still not dry, so I'll do the next coat another day. Nice thing about doing projects for myself is that I don't have a deadline or any need to rush.

Today I finished off the beams. Seemed like a good idea considering it's Valentines Day!!!

 

[s219]

Nice work as usual Eddie!

 

[TnAndy]

Ed,

The lift is awesome. I remodel homes for a living and usually just do sheetrock repairs, or small jobs like a bathroom. Every now and then I get a job where I need to do a big ceiling. I will only use 5/8's sheetrock on a ceiling because of the 24 inch span of the joists. I also work alone. With the lift, I can place the sheetrock on the lift, wheel it into position tight next to the previous piece and then take my time screwing it in. It is easy, fast and simple. I rented them a few times before realizing that it's something that I needed to own. This one is from Northern Tool, and I highly recommend it.

I'll 2nd the recommendation on the drywall lift. I bought a used one from a rental place (they sell off used tools at some point) relatively cheap because I was going to build some rental houses and do my own drywall. Since used to to do my shop, and several remodeling projects. If it involves more than a sheet or two, I get it out. The ceiling work is especially nice....no more 2 people straining their guts out to hold a sheet in place while trying to secure it.....one guy can load, stand right on the ground and maneuver into place, then fasten easy as pie. Don't use it a lot, but when you need one, you'll REALLY appreciate the guy that invented them !

 

[TnAndy]

Our room addition I call the Auxiliary Kitchen. Added a 12x22 room on the back of the garage, and it became the Primary Kitchen for several months when I remodeled the kitchen in the house.

I cut a hole in the back wall off the garage to start, and cut my garage floor concrete to tie in new drains. Also built a block flue for a wood cook stove I couldn't work out space for in our house kitchen. Door opening is for a pair of 30" doors to make it easy to roll freezers in/out, or a cart with pork halves to hang in cooler, etc.

Property on the back of the garage drops off sharp down into a wet weather creek, so I had to dig a footer and lay a few courses of block on the lower side to pour the slab onto. I'd already extended the deck around the back of the house a year before when re-doing it in anticipation of this addition....that is Geo-Deck artificial decking.

Poured the floor, built the outside walls out of 2x6 cut from white pine off our place on my sawmill. Inside ceiling height to be 9'. The hole framed in the back wall between the 8' and 10' stepladders is for the window AC unit that will provide the cooling in the walk-in cooler that will go in that corner. The other outside corner will be a U shaped pantry for canned goods.

Roof is 2x6 rafters with 1x6 decking tied into the back side of the existing garage.

Walk-in cooler framed to the left, pantry to the right. Cooler door is a used commercial pre-hung unit (Craig's List). Also put a 60amp subpanel in here to run my branch circuits for this new room.

Left side of the room now finished. Tiled the floor, sloped to a floor drain in the main room as well as the walk-in cooler. Tiled the walls halfway up so I can take a water hose (stored in the cabinet with the 30gal electric water heater) and hose the whole place down with hot water. Wood cook stove installed. (Bought it used years back, kept on a pallet in barn).

Walk-in walls are 4" foam with white fiberglass panels interior, all easy to hose down as well.

 

[TnAndy]

Continued.....

Pantry inside shot:

The other side of the room. Homemade cabinets (didn't have doors done in this pic, but are now). Sink is a 2 compartment commercial job (CL). Dishwasher is out of the main kitchen, still worked fine, but she wanted all SS to match in there, so I simply moved it out here. Great for jar washing. The tops are Corian knock off (Samsung). I bought slabs at a local salvage building supply, and made my own counter tops. Very easy stuff to work with, as it turned out....but sand OUTSIDE if you use this stuff....the dust is finer than any flour you'll ever see, and gets into everything in your shop.

You can see the WH, and the hose (buy hot water rated hose if you do this). Window is an Andersen casement pulled out of the main kitchen, wife wanted a bigger one there, and there was nothing wrong with this one other than being 20 years old. My All American 943 canner (holds 19-20 quart jars at a time) sitting on the counter. We use a 30"x60" stainless table in the center for work space and meat cutting.

One eastern white tail deer in jars. Bought a small meat bandsaw, seen in corner. Things like this store in the walk-in when the cooler isn't being used, so it does double duty as storage most of the year.

Just outside the door into the Auxiliary kitchen in the back of the garage, I built a cabinet to store empty jars (this one for quarts), the second for pints. Door to the right goes out of the garage to the deck. One of our 5 small chest freezers, all of them on caster bases. We'll keep two in the AK when the room isn't being used for work, then roll out the double doors into the garage to free up room in the AK.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks Andy, you posted this before and it was my inspiration to do the same thing. I was originally planning on using that space for a guest bedroom/apartment, but realized that we don't really like having guests stay over and we already have two empty bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs that are never used. Making it into something useful sounded like a much better idea!!!!

I found a similar sink like yours on FB, except it has 3 bays. Otherwise, I think it's the same thing. I plan on having a garbage disposal on the far left bay. I also want to make it an under mount sink so that we can just wipe what's on the counter into the sink. Have you ever had to change or replace your faucet? In my brain, I'm thinking that the sink needs to be able to slide out so I can get to the faucet if I need to. I'm planning on installing some 90 degree brass fittings to the back of the faucet, and then attach my water supply lines to those brass elbows so I can get the sink as tight to the wall as possible. I installed my hot and cold water valves down low so I can get to them easily under the sink.

Do you cook the meat before you put it in the jars? How do you cook it and what do you do to it before eating it out of the jars?

LOVE LOVE LOVE all your storage ideas. I showed my wife your pics and she wants the same thing!!!!!

 

[GPintheMitten]

Why didn't you put 5/8" drywall on the ceiling for a fire break? The beadboard looks nice but no firebreak.

Nice touch on the beams.

 

[TnAndy]

Eddie,

Yeah....you've already got about 2 extra bedrooms too many.....ahahahaaaaa....

The sink faucet 'guts' are all out front....I have two 1/2" MPT copper adapters sticking out the holes in the sink, and the faucet mounts to them....so unless something happens to the supply, there isn't a need to pull the sink out.

Deer meat I do cook, cutting it down to large sections of bone, and boil them in a turkey cooker pot on a propane burner. I do this so the meat is easy to debone (boil it until it's falling off the bone), and stick it in the jars, and process 60min/pints, and 90 min/quarts. The process time could likely be cut a LOT considering the meat is fully cooked, but that's the recommended time for anything with meat, cooked or raw packed.

I use deer meat for my dogs. Boiling makes it easy to de-bone, plus they get the fat, bone marrow, joint gelatin, etc....everything BUT the bones.

IF I were using it for us, I'd de-bone with a knife, and raw pack in jars...being more picky about which cuts went to us and which went in the dog food pile. That's exactly what I do with beef and pork....keep a meat lug on the bottom shelf, and cuts that maybe have some hair still on them, or dryed out too much in aging, or whatever reason I'm rejecting them for human consumption goes to dog food, mostly canned like the deer meat (even though we're freezing most of our cuts).

We don't can a lot of meat in JUST meat form. Ground beef we make taco meat (add the seasonings, etc), spaghetti sauce, beef stew, chili, whatever, then can THAT. Most of it calls for browning the hamburger meat, or stew cubes, then add what you add to it.

Stew, for example, I brown the meat which has been rolled in flour, then add my veggies/spices, heat it some (but not the 'all day slow cook' that stew usually is), and can it. The 90min process time gives you beef stew that is just like it cooked in a crock pot all day.

I thought I had posted the above before, so for those that have seen it, sorry for the re-run !

 

[EddieWalker]

Why didn't you put 5/8" drywall on the ceiling for a fire break? The beadboard looks nice but no firebreak.

Nice touch on the beams.

Not real sure how that would work. If I have a fire inside there, wouldn't it just burn up the cabinets and walls anyway? I guess the answer is I never thought of it, and don't see how it would change anything if I had a fire.

 

[EddieWalker]

Andy,

Thanks again, you are so far ahead of what we want to do!!! We've started making our own dog food in a crockpot out in the shop. As soon as this kitchen is done, the dog food will be made out there. We never thought of using wild game. We have hogs here and it wouldn't take much to bring more of them in. I stopped using the deer feeder because we where overrun with hogs. I'm thinking that they would make great dog food!!!!