The latest kitchen design

I think we finally have a kitchen design that both Horace and I are comfortable with. Suzi has been great about updating the drawings. the new design has only two upper cabinets on the back wall flanking he Aga cooker. The current drawing has the 63 inch 4 oven Aga cooker, however, we are still debating over the adding the companion oven that will take the Aga to 80 inches. The expanded Aga will most likely result in the upper cabinets being eliminated altogether. But the front side of the bar and one of the side sections of the bar is all hidden storage. According to the cabinet maker it should give me about the same amount of storage as 17 running feet of upper cabinets.

The kitchen features a built in steamer that can be used to steam vegetables, melt chocolate for a fun dessert or keep cider ready on the cabinet for serving. The steamer will be a great party addition. There is also a built-in wine captain, a two drawer refrigerator and freezer unit and a two drawer dishwasher. The refrigerator and freezer in this design are two separate 30 inch units located on each side of the Aga cooker.

The Aga Cooker - Simply the Best

This is the stove that we plan on putting in the new kitchen. It is simply amazing. After doing a considerable amount of research this may be the most amazing stove in the world. It is basically a cast iron skillet with its own furnace. Once its heated to the right temperatures the furnace keeps the cast iron hot. It cooks with radiant heat, but also has two electric convection ovens and four gas burners. There are four ovens that stay at constant temperatures, 150 degrees, 250 degrees, 350 degrees, and 450 degrees. 


According to the Aga website. 
It's a way of life. That is what you will hear from any of over 750,000 AGA owners worldwide. Go into any AGA owner’s home and you will find them in the kitchen. Probably comfortably leaning against their cooker with a glass of wine in hand. Why? Because for over eighty years, the AGA has been considered a member of the family. It has heated kettles and warmed hearts. It has gathered family and friends. It has become the heart of the home. This is why AGA owners all over the world say they couldn't imagine life without one.


http://www.aga-ranges.com/_store/scripts/catlist.asp?idcat=39


The AGA History
In 1709, the original Coalbrookdale Company was formed by the great iron master, Abraham Darby. Early products included items such as cooking pots and the foundry produced and laid cast iron rails in 1767 becoming the first company to make iron wheels and rails for the railroad industry. However, it is the casting and building of the iron bridge over the River Severn in 1779 which is recognized as the most prominent achievement of the Coalbrookdale Company. 

By the mid 1930s another dimension to iron casting was introduced by Francis Darby. Francis had a great love of art and under his guidance, the foundry started to produce ornamental castings including tables and garden furniture as well as larger projects such as the "Hyde Park" gates and railings.

In 1929, the Coalbrookdale Company became a subsidiary of Allied Ironfounders Limited and continued to produce the castings for a wide variety of products including domestic heating and cooking appliances such as the Aga. Today, the foundry continues to manufacture these quality, cast iron cooking instruments.

The Process

The foundry in Coalbrookdale is responsible for producing all the castings for Aga and every product reflects the heritage and traditional craftsmanship that sets Aga apart. The complete process of casting and enameling takes place at two sites - the Coalbrookdale foundry and the Aga factory in Ketley, six miles away.

Casting

The raw materials used at Coalbrookdale are scrap iron and pig iron which are melted down at temperatures of 3,272 DEG F. Before it has a chance to cool down, the molten metal is poured into moulds. The castings are then removed from the molds and left to cool. The castings are then shot blasted and moved to the dressing department where rough edges are removed. The castings are then transported to
the Aga-Rayburn site at Ketley where they are then annealed and blasted with iron shot at 72lb a square inch before being filed by hand. This prepares the castings for the enameling process.

Enameling

Aga cookers have a vitreous enamel surface because it is long-lasting, scratch resistant and the color doesn`t fade. Vitreous enamel is a mixture of molten glass, clay and pigment that is permanently bonded onto cast iron at very high temperatures to form a tough, gloss finish. All the colors are produced from metal oxides and the entire enameling process is done by hand. The whole procedure takes three days. At the start of the enameling process, an undercoat is sprayed onto the castings and the castings are then put into a large oven at 1,445 DEG F for 40 minutes. A further two layers of enamel are then sprayed onto the castings and then fired at 1,427 DEG F. The color is then analyzed by computer and the proportion of pigment for that batch is recorded as part of the serial number. The doors and front panels are then carefully color matched into perfectly matching sets.

The Appraisal

Mitch Hazelwood from Hazelwood's Appraisal Company came by to look at the house and the plans. He was extremely nice and very interested in the project.

This is the next step in the process. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Hiring an Architect

Horace and I had spent enough time dreaming about a new kitchen that we felt like we could do it ourselves. But we had never done a project like this  so we decided we needed an architect. I had never thought about hiring an architect before so I wasn't sure who to talk to.    And then one day I was telling my brother about our idea and he reminded me that a friend of his from high school was now an architect in Henderson, but more importantly, he had done an old house project right after school and currently lived in an old house. So I gave Tim Townsend a call. I knew immediately he was going to be a good fit. We spent an hour talking about how important maintaining the original design integrity of the house was. Basically, we wanted an addition that would look like it had always been there.

So I invited Tim over to the house for a tour. He took a lot of measurements and we talked about everything we would want to include in the addition. We explained that we wanted to square up the house, have a kitchen and sitting/entertaining area. It seemed simple. But a few weeks later Tim sent back a drawing that had the basic idea with a couple of extras. Tim explained that to get everything we wanted in the addition we would need a little more room so he added a hearth room. Horace was certain that the additional section was not in keeping with the style of the house. But I knew Tim was right about one thing, we needed the extra space. So we let the plans lay for awhile. Three or four months later we started talking about the plans again, but this time we did a little more homework. Turns out Tim had added a standard feature (with a twist) of an Italianate home that we were missing. Our house didn't have the tower, cupola or bay window. Tim's addition, actually made the house more authentic rather than less. With that settled, Horace was ready to talk to Tim again.

We were still struggling with the way the bay area of the house was situated. We have a wonderful side garden and we didn't want to loose anymore of the garden than we absolutely had too. So we talked to Tim and he came up with a few more ideas.

Planning the Expansion

Owning an old home is great, that is if you like always having a project. And in a home that is over 160 years old there is usually more than one project going at a time. Over the past twelve years we've done several do it yourself projects, including refinishing floors, adding a bathroom, remodeling a bathroom, repairing leaky roofs and more. This old house has seen a lot of changes since we moved in. Some of the changes have happened simply because a house this old needs a lot of ongoing maintenance, but most of the changes happen because we were adapting the house to accommodate how we live.

To be honest, in a house with 13 inch solid brick walls from the cellar to the attic you aren't going to dramatically change the structure of the house. You won't be knocking down a wall to open up a space or add a closet. The layout of the house hasn't changed much at all in 160 years. Originally the house probably didn't have an indoor kitchen. Today the kitchen is tucked away in the back of the house, far away from the main entertaining area of the house. And while we have painted, wallpapered, repaired plaster, refinished the floors, etc., we have never been able to fix the fact that the house was laid out for a very different style of living. So about two or three years ago Horace and I started dreaming about an addition. Every now again, usually after a family gathering or a party we would casually discuss what we imagined an addition look like.

The living room and dining room are in the original double parlors off of a large main hall. With over a 1000 square feet of space there is certainly enough room for entertaining. Unfortunately, everyone wants to be in the kitchen that barely has 250 square feet. The house is build on an L design and an addition was put on probably sometime in the 1940's. That side addition was once a large open area with a side door that served as the main entrance to the house. Over the past twelve years we have divided the space to accommodate the laundry area, a pantry closet, junk room and a slightly upgraded entrance area. The only problem is the area has old windows, a roof that won't stop leaking and rotten siding. At some point it needs to be torn down and replaced. And that's where the vision for the addition started.

If we tore the already deteriorated area down and replaced it with an addition that squared up the house we could have a modern great room. A modern great room with modern (interpret that to mean new and working) features. Wow! This would change everything. Certainly the existing house at 4500 square feet has plenty of space, but a new kitchen with enough space to allow for modern entertaining would be my greatest dream for this house.

So now and again, Horace and I would start talking about how we would lay this new room out and what we would want if we could start from scratch. The best part about tearing the 1940's addition off and basically squaring up the L section of the house is that it would be a straight shot into the existing dining room and living room. All we would have to do is take out two windows and create double doors into the area. It was a simple idea. And sometimes those are the best.

The Governor's House - Lots of History

Our Italianate home was built during the civil war. It was a wedding present to John Y. Brown and his wife Rebecca from her father, the then Lt. Governor Archibald Dixon. Archibald Dixon was a grandson of one of the original Transylvania Land Company owners. The house was started at the end of 1860 or the beginning of 1861 and was completed around 1863.

John Y. Brown served as a Colonel in the Confederate Calvary and served in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected as Governor of Kentucky in 1891.

John Y. Brown and Rebecca married on September 3, 1860 and raised their family in this house. The Browns had 8 children, Elizabeth in 1861, Arch Dixon in 1863, John Y. Brown, Jr. in 1865, Virginia in 1867, Susan in 1869, twins Dudley and Vance in 1870 and their last child Evelyn in 1872. The Browns lost their first daughter Elizabeth at age 5 in 1866 and both the twins as infants. Susan would die at age 22 in the Governor's mansion in Frankfort. And Arch, who served as his fathers personal Secretary while he was Governor, was fatally shot toward the end of his term reportedly by a jealous husband, Fulton Gordon.

John Y. and Rebecca returned to Henderson after his service as Governor. He passed away on January 11(my birthday) in 1904 and Rebecca died in 1922.