I'll start with the easy. The Sink.
Strictly speaking, this one has nothing to do with the kitchen demo per se, but at least there has been new information added about it in the last week.
Or we might get a laminate sink, which would come as part of the countertop (not an Ikea product, but arranged by Ikea-recommended contractors). Well, the new information, as of last week, is that the city has announced that they are going to adopt city-wide weekly pickup of food waste for composting -- so much of our otherwise disposal-able food waste could be not wasted, but rather become nice, rich soil to deposit back on the parks and city gardens of Portland. So perhaps we don't have to have a garbage disposal at all.
Then again, a garbage disposal would be nice for scraps of food -- the things you can't compost (meat) or are too small (individually) to go to the bother of getting into the compost bin, but which add up over time to clog the drain (i.e., the scrapings of dried cat food from the bowls, which, as it happens, is also meat).
Having opened up this decision door again, now we are re-considering the farmhouse sink. Perhaps, it occurs to us, we could get one that does accept a garbage disposal, from a non-Ikea source? These sinks are more expensive (the ones available on a first online pass are on clearance sale for about $250 more for off-colors, and about $500 more for the kind of sink we'd prefer).
Hmmm.
4 comments:
A couple things: we lived without a garbage disposer in France, and I found that I didn't miss it; that new city of Portland service is very appealing. And here, where we have not one, but two, garbage disposers, we don't use them all that often. A lot of the stuff that one might put down the disposer--potato and carrot peels, grapefruit--we don't put down because it clogs the disposer. So, we didn't miss it when we did have it, and we don't use it much when we do.
We have lived without a garbage disposer for 15 years, only because we have a septic system and they are not recommended for septic systems.
We find there are two problems, neither insurmountable. The first is that you have to figure out how/where to put the compostable scraps. My current method is to use biodegradable bags in a plastic container in the freezer (to prevent flies in the summer)
The second is the little bits of food clinging to dishes and in the bottoms of pans sometimes clog the drains. We have even thought of having a disposal installed just for those little scraps. But, since we haven't done that, they must not cause any real problems.
How about one of the old porcelain sinks from the 20s and 30s. The one in this link is pretty big, and you'd need some kind of custom cabinet under it, but it is very cool. I'll bet there are some options in the reuse center.
http://arketypeinc.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/sink.jpg
Yes, that kind of sink is available pretty standardly in the yards at Rejuvenation House and Rebuilding Supply.
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