Creating a Kitchen for the Modern-Day Homesteader

For many renovators, a gleaming pro-grade kitchen is the Holy Grail of home improvement, even if all the action it gets is reheating last night's takeout. But for Joe and Becky 
Titlow, the owners of the current This Old House TV project house, in Bedford, Massachusetts, such a showpiece would be a waste of time and money. "We grow vegetables and herbs, we cook most of our meals at home, we freeze foods in bulk, and we compost food waste," explains Becky. "The last thing we need is a kitchen that looks good but doesn't function well."

In short, when it comes to cooking, the Titlows are following in the footsteps of their grandparents' generation. So it's not surprising that their planned kitchen has features, such as a separate pantry, that were common in houses of yesteryear. With help from kitchen designer Kathy Marshall, this energetic young family is developing a space that works just as hard as they do, one that combines old-fashioned storage and prep areas with modern amenities for cooking from scratch. Keep reading for more on the space's noteworthy features.