Declutter your kitchen

The kitchen is the center of any home. As in any high traffic area, clutter can quickly accumulate. The mail lands on the nearest counter to the back door; keys follow next. The popcorn popper from last night’s snack is still taking up space. Might as well leave out the rice steamer; it might be used for tomorrow night’s dinner. Dishes need to be rinsed before going into the dishwasher—oh wait, need to empty first. Homework, newspapers, grocery lists… it goes on and on.

Some clutter issues can be solved through better use of space. Poor kitchen design is often the culprit but so is bad organization. Here are a few ideas to help declutter your kitchen.

1) Evaluate your kitchen cabinets. Free up space for those items you use everyday. Put the items you use less often in another storage area, such as an underused closet.

2) Organize your cabinets. Keep all of your baking items such as flour, sugar, and starches together in one cabinet and keep canned goods in another, breakfast foods in another and so forth. This way everything has its place and items will be much easier to find and therefore easier to put away. Dinnerware should be close to the sink or dishwasher and easy to reach. Glassware should also be in a similar position so that dishes are easily put away. Pots and pans should be close to the stove as well as condiments and spices. Food belongs in the remaining space where it will be most convenient for you.

3) Organizational tools There are many clever gadgets. Visit your local kitchen store or storage store.

  • Cutlery Drawer Insets – This will always keep your cutlery neatly together and open up remaining space within your drawers.
  • Utensil Racks – Show off beautiful utensils and hang them on the wall next to your oven. Clean and convenient.
  • Lazy Susan’s – Make difficult cupboards so much easier to manage.
  • Under Sink Organizers – Much space is wasted here. These units provide better storage opportunity.

And for an added touch, check these out:

  • Pegboard Drawer.  Instead of having to heft plates onto hard- to-reach overhead you can stack them securely between adjustable pegs (round or triangular) in this 12-inch-deep base cabinet drawer. An added bonus: The kids have no excuse not to help unload the dishwasher.
  • Flip-Top Cabinet.  If you’ve got a little empty wall space, why not put it to use with a stylish stand-alone cabinet? Because this one tapers at the bottom, it can be mounted lower than a standard cabinet, providing easy-to-reach shelving above a sink or countertop. It also works over a kitchen desk for holding pens, paper, cookbooks, and other miscellany.

Give Castle Rock Construction a call. Let us help you declutter!

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Planning kitchen workspace for today’s families

In days gone by, Mom ruled in the kitchen, which was usually set up in the traditional triangle configuration: appliances, storage traffic patterns and sinks based on a one-person, primary cook.

How times have changed!

In a Residential Design+Build Magazine article, Barbara Barton, CMKBD, summarized Ellen Cheever, CMKBD’s Pathways to Profits Seminar, sponsored by the National Kitchen and Bath Association.

Ellen Cheever, CMKBD credentials: Ellen has spent 30 years redefining the kitchen. Although her focus is specific, her expertise touches many venues. As product consultant, author, designer, and industry spokesperson, Cheever educates and impacts the lives and workspaces of homeowners, designers, and manufacturers. She wrote and teaches Pathways to Profit and Profitable Showrooms.

Barbara Barton writes: ”Ellen Cheever has researched, authored, designed and taught in the industry for more than 30 years, recently made the distinction in space planning based on activity zones, not work centers as previously described. Her recent Pathways to Profits Seminar, sponsored by the National Kitchen and Bath Association and Kitchen & Bath Design News magazine, addressed the, “… phenomena as a change due to what families do in the kitchen as well as what they are eating at home.”

“A myriad of noncooking activities such as watching TV, entertaining, homework and talking on the telephone have been a “but of course” staple for many families. Just as important, according to Cheever, is that shopping for preprepared gourmet takeout meals is more common than “from scratch” meals, impacting the activities we are trying to identify. Her major points are: Continue reading

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Mechanical systems in home building

A house is made up of specific things including the mechanical systems that make the structure habitable for the people living within. The two main systems are the thermal envelop and the mechanical elements. Both are important to the house and its inhabitants. Let’s take a look at the thermal envelop.

The thermal envelop consists of its own three elements. There’s the basement or subsurface, the frame, roof, and siding, and the insulation and air sealing. These are the elements that protect you from whatever may come from the outside. It keeps what’s good on the inside, and what’s not so good on the outside.

The basement, subsurface can be broken into five types:

  • Slab-on-grade, a poured slab of concrete upon which the structure is built.
  • A full basement constructed of poured concrete, laid block, stacked stone when it’s available.
  • A crawlspace, aptly named, made of poured concrete, cement block, or stone.
  • The pier where the structure is built on vertical poles made of wood, cement, and stacked stone.
  • And a basement made of plain wood.

Framing, roofing and siding are the visible elements.

  • Framing falls into five types:
    • traditional wood
    • post and beam,
    • timber frame
    • log
    • steel.
  • A roof can be a joy to behold, but a devil to build. They fall into five types as well:
    • asphalt shingle
    • rolled
    • fiberglass
    • tile
    • metal.
  • Siding comes in five basic materials as well:
    • wood (board & Batten)
    • sheet (T-111)
    • shingle (asphalt, Hardi-board type and tile)
    • aluminum,
    • SIP exterior (a new breed all its own).

The last component of the thermal envelop is insulation and air sealing. Insulation is usually fiberglass bats or a spayed foam of either hydrocarbon extraction of a soy-based material, or as part of an SIP (structural insulated panel). Well fitting doors and windows round out the thermal envelop.

As licensed contractors, we want you to be aware of your thermal envelop, but we also want you to have confidence that the decisions we make have your best interests in mind. We are always available to answer your questions so give us a call.

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High performance homes – Castle Rock certified by PGE

What is a high performance home and how does it differ from a “green” home? A high performance home is a conscious choice. The term high performance home is nothing if not green, but it is much more than that. It is also sustainable and embraces the philosophy, if not the fact, surrounding universal design (an idea, an environment, or a design is inherently accessible to everyone).

A high performance home is one that is constructed with materials using methods and techniques that produces a home which “performs” better in all aspects to render a home that is more comfortable, more energy efficient, safer, sustainable over time, less costly to operate and maintain while providing a living environment that is simply healthier than a conventional home. It’s so much more than shelter and fashion. It is a style and sense of being all its own.

High performance homes don’t just happen. A truly high performance home is the end result of a lot of careful thought, consideration, a real commitment, and planning that helps homeowners design their home to shape their future. The goal is to integrate and balance the elements that make a high performance home: Continue reading

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