Outdoor Kitchen

I mentioned having to take down my greenhouse this past spring, well I also had to take down the cover over my outdoor kitchen space too.

Outdoor kitchen frame

It was the whole permit thing. I miss the cover over the kitchen area since it meant I could do canning and juicing even in the rain or without a big hat since it provided enough shade to avoid sunburn. It was also a great rain water collection set up.

At least we got to have a party.

Party in the outdoor kitchen Catfish fry

As I found out after that episode, apparently posts are fine, trellises are fine but as soon as you attach plastic or shade cloth to anything, it causes it to become a structure that needs a permit and engineering drawings. Outdoor furniture is fine as long as it isn’t attached to a post. Since pergolas are overhead and generally attached to posts, they require permits. Permits require stamped engineering drawings. While shade cloth and plastic or tarps are apparently not allowed attached to anything, frost blanket is legal, lets face it everyone puts frost protection over their landscaping during freeze warnings. So I guess I I ever decide I need shade in summer, I’ll just have to use some thin frost blanket suspended above them seeing as shade cloth requires permits in order to build a shade house.

Again, I so want to get out onto some agricultural land where people don’t care as much about every little thing you do. Oh well, time to move on. Where the dining area had been is now my 300 gallon system. We still have the kitchen space for cooking and preserving food, just no shade over it. We can put up a little shade temporarily but have to make is as inconspicuous as we can to keep from getting code enforcement on our case again.