Outdoor kitchen design?


 
Scott Smith said:
Thanks for providing the pictures. The house looks nice, and by that I mean that I wouldn't build on to it willy-nilly. I would spend a bunch of time planning. I see what I'll call the sun room appears to be added to the existing house, and the existing deck appears to be added on to that. Some thoughts now are the sun exposure and also what rooms your proposed deck extension would adjoin. Another possibility would be wrapping around the sun room. You could do one level or more.
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Thank you, that means a lot! I'm quite proud of what I have, and we tend to have a high attention to detail. We've been the ones to do everything, from clearing the lot on up. I even milled the lumber and planed the boards for the porch, I'll attach a picture. I'm thinking the lower deck would simply be a step down and continue along the house, to about where I have the grade stake. That would be 12x14. Looking at the plan I originally attached, that should be enough to, I think, comfortable fit everything and have room to breathe
 

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Eric-NH said:
Thank you, that means a lot! I'm quite proud of what I have, and we tend to have a high attention to detail. We've been the ones to do everything, from clearing the lot on up. I even milled the lumber and planed the boards for the porch, I'll attach a picture. I'm thinking the lower deck would simply be a step down and continue along the house, to about where I have the grade stake. That would be 12x14. Looking at the plan I originally attached, that should be enough to, I think, comfortable fit everything and have room to breathe
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That AC unit in the window looks like it will eat into your deck space. It will also likely be running at the same times that you are using the deck.
 
The stairs are also a little jenky because the railing doesn't go all the way down and would likely trigger a code violation where I live.
 
M
Scott Smith said:
The stairs are also a little jenky because the railing doesn't go all the way down and would likely trigger a code violation where I live.
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Scott Smith said:
The stairs are also a little jenky because the railing doesn't go all the way down and would likely trigger a code violation where I live.
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Not an issue here, and allows a little easier egress if you are heading towards the left at the bottom of the stairs
 
Eric-NH said:
I always pull them away from the house or deck railings when in use, a family members house once burned to the ground (not grill related) and we've been extra careful/paranoid since!
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a healthy dose of paranoia and a commercial fire extinguisher or 4 would be advisable to have on hand (in any home).

i write this as I am shopping for a fire hose for a new house. why wait for the FD to arrive when I can start attacking a fire myself/or my neighbors?

the same way i am not waiting for the 5.0 to arrive either.

i am not trying to be alarmist, but a realist. you have a lot of fuel there and if you're using more than one grill at a time, I'd be super vigilant and prepared.
 
I think I'm starting to understand what you have in mind. However, I am not sold on the idea of two levels. To my eye, keeping the same width and simply extending the existing deck further along the back of the house would look more polished. It would also facilitate rolling whatever you needed to roll around on the deck. I don't know your traffic patterns, but would it make sense to locate the stairs so they are facing toward the fire pit?

The way I am understanding your plan, every time you wanted to grab pepper, you would have to go across a deck (potentially with an AC in the way), across a narrow stair landing, up a step, across another deck full of furniture, and through a door, reversing all these steps on the way back. I would try to open that up.
 
For what its worth, my house faces west, so the deck is shady in the evenings, which I prefer. The deck is 12x12' and sticks out off the sliding doors to the kitchen. The stairs off the deck hug the house, so that the traffic pattern across the deck is minimized. Having the stairs and traffic flow tight against the house also allows me to keep all my grilling stuff away from the side of the house. Of course, all of this is now a giant rabbit habitat that I grill in.
 
Week of July 4th, I led members of our church youth group building a handicap access ramp off a deck for an elderly couple. When we got there, it was at least an hour before we even picked up a tool. They had requested a ramp off the front deck,but after I studied the situation, I ended up convincing them that a ramp off of their back deck would be more functional as well as better looking. After that, I proposed a 45 degree bend in their ramp so that it would come around the back of the house and right to their car door with good access at the top and bottom.

Moral of the story is that sometimes having other people take a look is key because what you think you want isn't what you really want. Also, time spent in the planning stages is key because the best workmanship in the world can never overcome a poor design. Also, details matter. By shifting the bottom of the ramp around, I was able to minimize the vertical distance and thus the slope of the ramp. I did have to remove their existing stairs, but we did that as one piece and they were able to reuse the stairs as a way off the back porch in the opposite direction.
 
Scott Smith said:
Week of July 4th, I led members of our church youth group building a handicap access ramp off a deck for an elderly couple. When we got there, it was at least an hour before we even picked up a tool. They had requested a ramp off the front deck,but after I studied the situation, I ended up convincing them that a ramp off of their back deck would be more functional as well as better looking. After that, I proposed a 45 degree bend in their ramp so that it would come around the back of the house and right to their car door with good access at the top and bottom.

Moral of the story is that sometimes having other people take a look is key because what you think you want isn't what you really want. Also, time spent in the planning stages is key because the best workmanship in the world can never overcome a poor design. Also, details matter. By shifting the bottom of the ramp around, I was able to minimize the vertical distance and thus the slope of the ramp. I did have to remove their existing stairs, but we did that as one piece and they were able to reuse the stairs as a way off the back porch in the opposite direction.
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Exactly my thoughts, I don't plan to build until spring at the earliest. Starting now will give plenty of time to plan, prep, and revise. Details matter 💯
 
Another thought I'd contemplated would be do make the lower area into a patio and use a retaining wall to hold it back and raise it up. There would be more complexity there though, and the biggest issue is that even our smallest excavator won't get behind the house now that we built the attached garage. I do have s friend with s smaller one that would though. I love the idea of the potato as got coals or grease would have no real effect on it
 
Brett-EDH said:
i'd move all those grills away from the home. but that's just me.

i'm not a fan of any grill on a combustible surface or near the home (within 5 feet). your home is beautiful. keep it that way.

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Probably should keep them away from your fence too. Why do I say that? Because I burned down my neighbors fence, and I had to replace it on one of the longest hot streaks (nearly 3 weeks at 110+) ever. That learned me good
 
I think some of this also comes down to how you cook. Almost all of my cooking is done in an hour - a couple of hours at most for some ribs or a pork shoulder or a turkey. If I was cooking all night like some in the forum, I would be more comfortable with getting the fire further away from the kitchen door.
 
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