Grandma’s Larder

VfM4meplse

kittie wrote: »

I am wondering if I could have a pantry built onto the house I am buying. It is pre 1930 and has faces on NSEW. I just might just look into it, they are marvellous places for food storage and a modern pantry could be built to be vermin proof. Looking at the floor plan and I think I could and these days, it would add value

I have an older home (no cavity to insulate!) and the north side of the home - ie kitchen - is bitterly cold in the winter. Its lovely and cool in the summer though, and the previous owners turned an out-building into a downstairs cloakroom that is used for guests only.

However I was a little surprised when I ate some nutty muesli the other day, the nuts were bitter. It was well in date but has been stored on a high shelf in my "pantry" cupboard, and I guess this warm spell has accelarated the degradation process.

PasturesNew

My granny didn't have a larder. She had a council house that was newly built about the time she got married. Later on the kitchen was extended out by a couple of feet - I think they upgraded the council houses by adding a bathroom and making the kitchen bigger. By the mid 60s the kitchen was 8'x9' (checked identical ones on RM).

There was no larder. There was a sink, stand alone cooker and some base units. She did have one of those free standing units that held everything and had a drop down front.

Outside there was an open porchway, with a place to store coal/wood and an outside loo on the other side.

If I were to design a kitchen it'd have a "pantry", being just a "cupboard that contained everything". I hate not knowing what I've got - and having to split similar items up across cupboards as modern single cupboards aren't big enough to fit things together as you'd like.

It needn't really be "that big" ... but just have the space for everything.... open one door and you can see and organise all the food and utensils you have.

DigForVictory

There is a room on the ground floor in our house that is on the NE corner, solid stone with a square flagged through the wall vent, and I think it was originally a pantry.
Just progress got at it, and now it has a staircase shrinking it & a loo.
Dash.
Still, the parquet in the front room & hall is glorious, and that's what convinced the lads. They bowled their baby brother along the floor...

Silvertabby

!!!8220; When they eventually had to accept an indoor bathroom, no one was allowed to use the toilet because it was for !!!8216;show!!!8217;!
Originally posted by Thorhalla

VfM4meplse wrote: »

OMG!!! :eek:

There's OS and then there's OS :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

We had an indoor bathroom (although the bath had to be filled by a procession of pans and kettles carried upstairs - H&S eat your heart out!) but an outside loo. Sometime in the 1970s the local council offered grants to private homeowners to fit indoor toilets - but my mum initially refused on the grounds that 'indoor toilets are unhygienic'. However, the offer of 'free' money was too much for my dad to refuse - and the loo was duly fitted.

Mum initially taped down the lid and told us that we weren't to use it - but she gradually relented and let us use it at night.

When they came to sell that house, she was most put out that the estate agent wanted to gloss over the fact that there was an outside loo, as she thought it would be a great selling point.

lessonlearned

I love this......

The first house I bought had a large pantry off the kitchen, complete with stone thrall. Fabulous.

I am about to move soon and reading this is giving me lots of ideas. There is a large cupboard under the stairs and an attached coal shed......

Maybe the cupboard under the stairs as a pantry for small appliances, dry goods etc. Not sure about the coal shed but I'm sure I could do something useful with it. It's next to the kitchen but doesn't have direct access. Not that that really matters. It does contain the meters but again no problem. I'll have to think about it, see how dry it is or whether it might be a bit damp.

Thorhalla

The ‘show toilet’ was a great source of amusement for the family. The outside loo was for everyday use; there was a chamber pot for night time unless it was deemed ‘urgent’ in which case grandad had to get a torch and wait around while you used the outside loo. The indoor toilet was for dire emergencies or Royalty! I swear she used to polish it with pledge.

VfM4meplse

Silvertabby wrote: »

Sometime in the 1970s the local council offered grants to private homeowners to fit indoor toilets - but my mum initially refused on the grounds that 'indoor toilets are unhygienic'.

I can agree with that to a degree - I'd never want a tiny en-suite, for example, the idea of "going" so close to a bed...ugh _pale_ . I can just about cope with a shower and sink, although I hardly use these in favour of the main bathroom.

If I designed a home, all the toilet and washing facilities would be at one end of the house, top and bottom - and well away from living areas. I can appreciate that I would be in a minority though!

Prinzessilein

My Omi (granny) had a walk in pantry in the kitchen...and she also had her cellar. That cellar looked like an Aladdin's Cave to me! It was where she stored all her jars...jam and jelly...and preserved fruit and veg....pickles....preserved eggs....So many pretty colours!...My Opa had a small allotment/large garden and grew a fair amount of fruit and veg - and they would trade some at the local shop too.

I remember that we used to have a walk in pantry in some of our older houses (Forces family, we moved every year to eighteen months) but in some of those houses we had no fridge (and certainly no freezer).

Now, I live in sheltered accommodation...I have a fridge AND a freezer ...and a few cupboards (nowhere near enough cupboards!!!)...and although I DO have a walk in cupboard in the kitchen it is not a pantry - it houses the fuse box...and is home to my vacuum cleaner and assorted boxes....I would LOVE a 'proper' pantry!

Primrose

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

I've remembered something from my childhood - we had a fridge (1960s) but my parents still had, and used for storage, something called a 'meat safe'. It was a small square cupboard, I think it hung on the wall, and it had zinc mesh sides and front - presumably so you could keep meat in it without any flies getting to it.

My mother made her own meatsafe - a large stitched bag of muslin which hung from a shady apple tree which worked well until one winter day a cat or a fox climbed the tree in the middle of the night and ran off with the meat which was deaignated as our Boxing Day Lunch. My dad somehow found the money to buy one of the very early fridges after that Incident ! :rotfl:

Silvertabby

!!!8220; Sometime in the 1970s the local council offered grants to private homeowners to fit indoor toilets - but my mum initially refused on the grounds that 'indoor toilets are unhygienic'.
Originally posted by Silvertabby

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I can agree with that to a degree - I'd never want a tiny en-suite, for example, the idea of "going" so close to a bed...ugh _pale_ . I can just about cope with a shower and sink, although I hardly use these in favour of the main bathroom.

If I designed a home, all the toilet and washing facilities would be at one end of the house, top and bottom - and well away from living areas. I can appreciate that I would be in a minority though!

We have an en-suite - but the toilet is only for wees. When we bought our house, my mum refused to believe that we had 3 toilets, as we only had 2 bums between us !