There’s No Place Like Home
Cooking in our camp kitchen at Mezzacello
That old maxim, There’s no place like home is apparently true. This is a photo of the current state of the kitchen in our 1868 Victorian house in Columbus, OH. It looks like a war zone because it is a war zone!
Make It Work!
This renovation is part of a two-prong project:
Updates to the house proper
The addition of a two-storey porch structure with an attached classroom
The classroom will also open to the house and bathrooms via the new kitchen space. We have been running programs at Mezzacello Urban Farm in the gardens and the outdoor sheds. This new extension will allow us to work with larger populations and with more food and nutrition integration.
The house refit is part of a larger master plan to restore the original houses upstairs residence (bedrooms, bathroom, and main staircase). The foundations of the entire house needed addressing and shored up — from the middle of the main house to the brick walls of the 1880 and 1920 additions. Finally, the kitchen is being demoed, renovated, and drastically expanded to the full 18’x32’ space and an airlock/mudroom is being added to the back of the house.
The classroom space will be just outside the south-facing side door of the house. The deck of the porch addition will be 10’ x 32’ but the enclosed classroom space will be 9’9” x 20’ and will have clear glass french doors that open to the east, south, and west for full access to the gardens of Mezzacello. The classroom will also afford us a warm, or cool, lit classroom space any time of the year.
Power Through It
We have been eating take out food since late August, 2024. When they finished the major demo of the kitchen space and while we are waiting for the outside additions, we decided to try to fashion a kitchen. While the foundations and the decks and framing are under way and we are waiting for the new floor to get installed.
Also, we have no gas. So no furnace or hot water. The steam you see in that photo is because the temps are dropping to 9C. It’s cold, but my love is there and I am helping him make dinner.
We know it will be worth it. We believe Mezzacello will be far more effective with these updates. We also know the house will be in better shape for the rest of this Century! Home is where the heart is and our heart is here in the dusty, cold, steam.
Paying to use a shower at a Pilot Truck Stop
The full photo of the camp kitchen
