On Knives and Tables
Jan. 23rd, 2007 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantryslut1.
Despite my accident several weeks ago, where I opened up my finger on the blade of a ceramic slicer, I haven't seriously cut myself in the kitchen with a knife in many, many years.
Knock on wood.
What I have been doing lately is poking myself. See, for about ten years, my favorite knife lacked a tip. A careless roommate snapped it off in the sink soon after I moved to California. But as this was my very, very favorite knife, I didn't replace it, I just endured.
So I'd gotten used to cooking with a knife sans point. Then, I found a well-respected knife sharpening place that offered to put a point back on my knife for a very reasonable fee.
I hemmed. I hawed. I dithered. I fretted that it wouldn't be the same once the point was restored.
But, it would be better than replacing my knife, my hand-friend, even with the same model. I don't usually believe objects have souls, but I have an attachment to this knife, this particular knife, this singular knife.
I am happy to report that my knife is still my very favorite knife, only know restored to its former glory. With a very sharp point.
That I keep poking myself in the hand with.
Because my hands haven't re-learned yet how to move around a knife that actually has a usable point. There's metal there now instead of air. Sharp metal. Ouch.
I smile, though, every time I do it.
2.
G. was right. I concede. In public.
When we were touring the flat that we now lived in, the landlord pointed out a room that was being used as a bedroom, but was designed to be a dining room. Pretty built-ins along the wall and everything.
I immediately suggested it should become a library, and it has, in fact, become my office (plus G.'s weight bench).
G. looked at me at the time and said, "are you sure you don't want a dining room?"
I then launched into a long-standing rant about dining rooms and wasted space. Considering my lifestyle and my concerns and so forth, an office/library would be a better use of any dining-room-like space, by far. And in this, I am still right.
He said in reply, "But what about all the cooking you do?"
"I don't do enough cooking for other people to justify more than a four-person table," I said. "If we have more guests than that, we'll eat in the living room. I'm too casual for a dining room."
And then I probably launched into another long-standing rant about dinner parties and how I hate them. People over for dinner? Sure! Dinner parties? No!
However.
I have come to wish for a big table to put a lot of food on. And a room to hold it in. Not in our current space -- I love our current space as it is. But when and if we ever move, I think it might be time to consider a dining room, and a dining room table to go in it.
I think what would help would be a more open floor plan, so that it didn't feel so much like a separate, little-used room, but just an area where the table is. Ideal: like my parents' place now, where the living room flows into the dining room, which is next to the kitchen, and the traffic flows naturally through the whole area. Not ideal: like Steven's house, where the dining room is off to the side, and is hardly touched when a fancy sit-down dinner isn't happening.
Still, this means dining room, and dining room table, and this means G. was right. I do want a space like that to entertain guests in. So be it.
Despite my accident several weeks ago, where I opened up my finger on the blade of a ceramic slicer, I haven't seriously cut myself in the kitchen with a knife in many, many years.
Knock on wood.
What I have been doing lately is poking myself. See, for about ten years, my favorite knife lacked a tip. A careless roommate snapped it off in the sink soon after I moved to California. But as this was my very, very favorite knife, I didn't replace it, I just endured.
So I'd gotten used to cooking with a knife sans point. Then, I found a well-respected knife sharpening place that offered to put a point back on my knife for a very reasonable fee.
I hemmed. I hawed. I dithered. I fretted that it wouldn't be the same once the point was restored.
But, it would be better than replacing my knife, my hand-friend, even with the same model. I don't usually believe objects have souls, but I have an attachment to this knife, this particular knife, this singular knife.
I am happy to report that my knife is still my very favorite knife, only know restored to its former glory. With a very sharp point.
That I keep poking myself in the hand with.
Because my hands haven't re-learned yet how to move around a knife that actually has a usable point. There's metal there now instead of air. Sharp metal. Ouch.
I smile, though, every time I do it.
2.
G. was right. I concede. In public.
When we were touring the flat that we now lived in, the landlord pointed out a room that was being used as a bedroom, but was designed to be a dining room. Pretty built-ins along the wall and everything.
I immediately suggested it should become a library, and it has, in fact, become my office (plus G.'s weight bench).
G. looked at me at the time and said, "are you sure you don't want a dining room?"
I then launched into a long-standing rant about dining rooms and wasted space. Considering my lifestyle and my concerns and so forth, an office/library would be a better use of any dining-room-like space, by far. And in this, I am still right.
He said in reply, "But what about all the cooking you do?"
"I don't do enough cooking for other people to justify more than a four-person table," I said. "If we have more guests than that, we'll eat in the living room. I'm too casual for a dining room."
And then I probably launched into another long-standing rant about dinner parties and how I hate them. People over for dinner? Sure! Dinner parties? No!
However.
I have come to wish for a big table to put a lot of food on. And a room to hold it in. Not in our current space -- I love our current space as it is. But when and if we ever move, I think it might be time to consider a dining room, and a dining room table to go in it.
I think what would help would be a more open floor plan, so that it didn't feel so much like a separate, little-used room, but just an area where the table is. Ideal: like my parents' place now, where the living room flows into the dining room, which is next to the kitchen, and the traffic flows naturally through the whole area. Not ideal: like Steven's house, where the dining room is off to the side, and is hardly touched when a fancy sit-down dinner isn't happening.
Still, this means dining room, and dining room table, and this means G. was right. I do want a space like that to entertain guests in. So be it.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 09:13 pm (UTC)What about a moderately-sized table and a large sideboard/cabinet space, on which food could rest, rather than in the middle of the table? I'm thinking of something akin (though not identical, clearly) to the Wall Of Short Bookcases in your office. ;) If it had a level top, rather than one with ridges every few feet, you could rest food atop it that people could serve themselves from.
Just a thought...
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-24 02:02 am (UTC)youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh_qn62zny0
mfr site: http://www.dbfletcher.com/capstan/
this may be like the original design (and ain't it purty?): http://www.apter-fredericks.com/memorable-pieces/372.htm
(No, I'm not suggesting it. Way too expensive. I just love that video.)
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 09:52 pm (UTC)Sunporch
living room
bedroom 1 (the master bedroom that we're using for the guest/server/music/tv/exercise bike room)
bathroom 1
bedroom 2 (the bedroom)
dining room (with a computer, speakers, and bookcases.)
kitchen
bedroom 3 to the side of the kitchen (not sure what we're doing with it.)
bathroom 2 (also to the side of kitchen and past bedroom 3)
I like having a dining room -- this is where we mostly hang out. Our dinner parties aren't very formal, but it's nice to have a table. I also like the open kitchen-dining spaces in more modern architecture, but our place is from the days when cooks threw everybody out of the kitchen, and people didn't hang out there.
It's the living room I worry about not using enough, but it's a dandy place to have bookcases and couches.
Come visit, and you can stay in the guest/server/tv/music/exercise bike room! (It also has bookcases, in case you wondered.)
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 10:53 pm (UTC)**G**
I've got one of those. It's my library/spare room/home office. We need taller bookshelves, though.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 10:56 pm (UTC)I liked your dining room space in your old place, too. It was very cozy to hang out around. A dining room table semi-permanently covered in books and lap tops doesn't count :) But I think that would really bother G.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 10:11 pm (UTC)