When you’re eager to be somewhere, time passes slowly. This is a picture of the rocky shore down from the Church on the Sleat Peninsula, close to where the croft is. This image helps me with the passage of time.
Every now and then when we’re knee-deep in roof light specifications, or looking for the fiftieth time at how best to configure the bathroom, I pull up all the photos that I can find of the township, the croft or its views, and remind myself why we’re doing this. And I breathe more slowly…
It’s difficult to describe what we want so that architects and kitchen or bathroom planners understand clearly. We are realising that anything that deviates from the perception of the norm causes problems. Because we are clearly not normal.
For example, it appears to be inconceivable to certain kitchen designers, who have a preconceived idea of what needs to go into our space, that I do not want a steam oven. Or why a single small kitchen sink with no draining board area would not be perfectly adequate. Or why I could not live without individually programmable humidity-controlled salad drawers in the fridge….
Trying to keep things simple these days is clearly out of fashion.
Believe me, I know that this sounds strange coming from the lips of someone who has spent a lifetime working with technology, but I don’t want to have to programme my appliances. Even the induction hob that we were shown had reconfigurable cooking zones….
I’m feeling a bit like a frustrated Luddite.
I’m happy to listen to experts and take on what works for our lifestyle, but over-engineered appliances just seem to me an exercise in unnecessary expense.
I am looking at my calming picture of the shore. I am breathing.
We are making progress…
Ravencroft Skye 
With that seashore a fire pit is all that is needed, beautiful!
Keep breathing and all will be well x
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Thanks Jo! I feel the same! Let’s keep it simple. I’m investigating local artisans to build us a kitchen with the (simple) appliances that we choose now. We will find ten right way for us ☺️
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J & D > Oh, don’t we just know what you mean!! One thing to be aware of, though, is that the biggest power demand in your kitchen will be an electric hob (unless you have gas), and it’s important to decide whether you want a big wide hob or a standard one. The key thing to remember is that once the cables are in and the hole is cut, it’s not practical to change things later. My advice would be to have the cabling for a more powerful hob, but confine yourself to a standard hob width which has a lower maximum power demand. The other chief decision is whether you have built-in appliances or under-counter (the latter attract difficult-to-get-to crumbs, dust and fluff!) And these days, the decision on how you’ll deal triage your kitchen waste : avoid built in highly organised systems, just go for simple free-standing bins which are easy to reconfigure, replace etc.
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Thanks for the good advice! It all helps 👍
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Ooh, so I exciting! I can totally sympathise – we’re hoping to have our kitchen fitted in the next fortnight. 3 months with a toddler and no downstairs running water is more than enough now! And you really do get decision fatigue, don’t you? Just keep focusing on the end goal and hang on in there! X
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I think with a toddler and no running water you definitely trump me in the difficulty stakes! Well done you for keeping going. Two weeks is no time. It will be worth it 👍
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Thanks! I’m sure it will for both of us! 😀
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I recognise this feeling well; when we were looking for someone to design our house we found that most designers had a square box with lots of fancy appliances in mind, when all we wanted was a mud hut with a wood stove and a tin roof to collect rain water from.
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I’m afraid that I’m of the opinion that the more complex your living arrangenents are, the more there is to go wrong. I accept that to keep energy consumption low that new technologies such as ASHP are a good thing. But I don’t want a “smart house” with everything programmable. As soon as the power goes out (and we have frequent power cuts on the island) you’re stuffed! * excuse the phrase.
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So true. Simple with multiple redundancies is best.
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