Eating From the Ground Up

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kitchen

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 by alana

I’d like to introduce you to the new kitchen.
Everything is still shifting around.  The drying rack isn’t mounted to the wall over the sink yet, the counters are temporarily (yeah right!) made of plywood, and there are no pulls on the drawers. 
I have far more spices than anyone should ever have, and I can’t quite figure out where to put them.

 But I am really really happy in this kitchen.

It occurred to me that I’ve never quite gone into the general state of things in our house– why we keep moving from room to room, and why this is the second “check out my new kitchen” post in a year.

This is the story of our house.

Over six years ago, we bought this little house with my parents.  It was a ranch house up on a hill, with fields and forest behind it.  I was pregnant with Rosie and Sadie was 18 months old.  We all came to the decision that we wanted to find away to make a house together.  My sister was six then, and in the end we knew we would be 4 parents and 3 kids, and that if we combined our space and our resources, we would be able to support each other, and Joey and I would be able to stick around in this town that normally we would never be able to live in due to high house prices and property taxes.
So we bought the house, and Joey, Sadie and I moved in.  We knew that we would be renovating soon, so we didn’t really change anything about the house.  We didn’t paint any walls, and we didn’t take out the kitchen sink that was so small you couldn’t even fit a pot into it to fill it with water. 

My stepfather is an architect, and we started all working together on the design for the new house.  A few years later, we invited a few friends over and demolished the garage.  Then, we started to build the new side of the house. It was on pretty much the same footprint as the garage, but it was two stories high.

Chris did a lot of the work himself, and so many people came in to help.  Two years later, the new side was done.  It would eventually be the side where my mom and Chris and Maia would live, but Joey and the girls and I moved in so that we could renovate the old side.  That was last year. 

In the last few months, the work has been more constant.  There’s usually at least one cussing contractor around, and the hum of the saw has become as comfortable as summer cricket chirping.  It’s all been good, because the end has been in sight. 

The end is still in sight, although I’m sure this one will never be quite finished.  We moved into the kitchen this weekend, and in the next week or two, we’ll move into our new bedrooms which are right where the old bedrooms used to be.  Then my parents and Maia will move in, and then we’ll get this party started.

Oh who am I kidding?  This party’s been going on for a while already.

 There are so many questions that come when people hear the story and the future of this house. I’m sure that this will all continue to be quite an adventure, and I’ll share it with you along the way.  How could I possible choose to live with my parents?  Well, the short story is that I like them quite a bit.  And my sister just happens to be the best big sister to my girls that I could ask for.  She’s 12 now, so that means we have a prolonged future of teenage girls in the house.  All fun–all the time.

But after so much transition and so much telling myself that this room will change and this wall will come down, it’s fantastic to actually create what we want and what we need.  It makes me feel grownup and settled, but more than that, it just makes me feel like I’m really home.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: The Kitchen

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Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 9:12 pm

    Wow- it looks just beautiful- can't wait to see how the experiment unfolds…

  2. Marisa says

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 9:33 pm

    Your kitchen is glorious! Congratulations on having such a personality-filled space in which to work.

    And honestly, it sounds like you guys and your parents made an incredibly smart choice. My husband and I have talked about doing something similar with my parents someday. Though truly, I can't tell you what's going to happen six months from now, so who knows.

  3. Anne Zimmerman says

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 10:01 pm

    Cool set up! Can't wait to learn more.

  4. alanachernila says

    Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 12:17 am

    Aw, thanks guys.
    Marisa, I'm there with you on the six month mystery- we just had to jump in this one. But it is scary to say that we're here and settled and sticking around- scary but good for us, I think.

  5. brandee says

    Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 12:46 am

    Your kitchen is beautiful — may you make many wonderful recipes there! Congratulations to your whole family.

  6. Anonymous says

    Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 1:58 am

    it's beautiful!!!!!! so long in the making, but so worth it!
    (dono)

  7. Rebecca says

    Friday, February 4, 2011 at 11:57 am

    Beautiful wall color and the floors are gorgeous! We have cabinets in our kitchen now, but I dream of a day with open shelves. Looks great!

  8. MH says

    Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 11:08 am

    Alana, your kitchen is gorgeous!!! I adore that orange paint job…would you be so kind as to tell me the brand and shade of paint? I have had a few disastrously tacky orange walls over the past few years and would love to finally get it right. 🙂

  9. alanachernila says

    Monday, February 7, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    Totally… it's Benjamin Moore Orange Nectar. It's pretty true to the photos here- a bright orange with a fair amount of red in it.


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Instagram post 2337331591407595410_13442450 Sending off my taxes today with intention and prayer that they will be used to support programs for the most vulnerable, and that my little contribution will join with others to help move us towards the country I know we can be. #taxmagic ✨
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Instagram post 2332756427273440195_13442450 So technically you’re not supposed to send food when trying to find an agent, but I did it it. 10 years ago, my granola helped seal that deal, and he insisted I send it to publishers when we were selling The Homemade Pantry (another general publishing no no) That Landed-a woman-with-no-platform-a-book deal Granola is up for grabs in this amazing bake sale, as well as goodies by some of my very favorite bakers (@madeinghent , @raisinporpoise , and @thedooryard to name a few). Oh and maybe my favorite item in there are the magical @susanspungen ginger chocolate cookies I mentioned a few weeks back, made by Sadie herself. All of this is to support the work of @multiculturalbridge , and the order form is up in my bio. Get to it! #bakersagainstracism
Instagram post 2330317921708403058_13442450 My friend @afgoldfarb has been part of a team of people working on this vital project. The link to learn more and help out is in my profile.
Instagram post 2330131706816229761_13442450 I’ll be baking up a storm for this! Local bakers- there’s still room for more! Let @north_plain_farm know that you want IN.
Instagram post 2324845496300301430_13442450 To those who ask here? In Great Barrington? YES. In Great Barrington.
Instagram post 2324091364266290851_13442450 I know there are so many resources out there right now, but I want to share one that’s been really helpful for me in the last several months. There are many seasons of this podcast, but I recommend Season 2 on Whiteness as well is Season 4 on Democracy. #sceneonradio
Instagram post 2322615811734696638_13442450 Black lives matter.
Instagram post 2319329508599466327_13442450 I did not bake these cookies, as I am no longer the cookie baker in this house. But this is the second time that  Sadie has made @susanspungen ‘s Triple-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookies (and also the second time I’ve talked about a recipe Sadie has made from the #openkitchencookbook), and I think these might actually be the best cookies I have ever had. I’m often looking for the perfect ginger cookie and this is it, and I’d also choose it over a chocolate chip cookie (or let’s be honest-any other kind of cookie) any day.
Instagram post 2316311882260313364_13442450 No matter how many rulers and pizza cutters and other magical tools I use, it seems that the straight line will always elude me.
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Instagram post 2312088043104000827_13442450 Every day my neighbor’s yard gets prettier.
Instagram post 2311325683330503572_13442450 @paulaperlis sent us @susanspungen ‘s new book and of course the first recipe Sadie picked is marked with the *project* heading. She’s been cooking all afternoon and the house smells like ✨✨✨ (With gorgeous images by @gentlandhyers ❤️)
Instagram post 2311141543964321092_13442450 When I took on a day job a few years ago, I found that the first thing to go was all the homemade stuff I’d been making and writing about over the years. I’m still going out to work most days, but I’m finding now with a full and captive house and more downtime in general that those things I love to make are back. For me, it’s granola, yogurt, bread. Hello, old friends!
Instagram post 2308503311808232748_13442450 All the things in the house pasta: roasted cauliflower, a few sad leaves of kale, one jar of fancy tuna saved for a special occasion (how about Wednesday?), Rosemary, homemade breadcrumbs from the freezer fried in butter, crispy sage leaves, pasta water, salt, so much pepper. Success!
Instagram post 2307412630968777107_13442450 @artbywoodgy made this beautiful thing for me for Mother’s Day. All the veggies are on Velcro so I can plan to my hearts delight.
Instagram post 2306345003953662730_13442450 Happy Mother’s Day to my brave and beautiful mom, who birthed two different humans in such different times in her life. With me she was so young, and she figured it all out just as she was learning how to be an adult. This picture was taken nineteen years later, when she was pregnant again and I was almost an adult myself. Thanks for keeping at it, Mom, and for always showing up with love. ❤️
Instagram post 2304888771283579843_13442450 What we do for cake.
Instagram post 2302665269449083186_13442450 It’s a magnolia year for sure.
Instagram post 2295808104927071821_13442450 A long time ago, Joey talked about his crush on this particular alien-like flower with a good friend of ours. Months later, little bulbs arrived in the mail. We put them in the ground last fall, and now they are everywhere. If that isn’t some kind of magic, I don’t know what is. ✨ (🙏🏻 to @wildflowers1 for the cool vase, too.)
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