Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet
14 November 2008
“Maintaining Summer”
Well, it’s that time of the year again. The World Series has come and gone. Yay, Phillies. A lukewarm yay. It should have been the San Diego Padres—although how that collection of humpty dumpties was ever going to win the pennant, I don’t know. But, still. Election has come and g
one. Yay, the winners. Which ones, you ask. Nope, not gonna touch that one. Wouldn’t be prudent. I’m just here to write blogs on cabinetry and furniture; nothing controversial’s coming out of THIS corner! And by the time this blog is posted, I will have taken down the awnings in our yard (I put them away in the winter months—saves wear and tear on them). No more summer. Watching the World Series and some of the late-breaking campaign speeches—some of those people in the audiences were COLD; you could see their breath!—it’s clear that Autumn is quickly becoming Winter.
But I thought that before all of the summer stuff makes its way to the storage shed for the long winter (we have it in San Diego too, you know—just without the snow) that it might be fun to have one last fond goodbye for the summer that was. And the summer that will be next year and every year, I hope. And, really, that’s the kind of feelings you get to have when you have a backyard paradise. Actually, the only problem I have with mine is that I put it together before I began writing these blogs, so I missed a real education on what a paradise a backyard can really be. At least in the maintenance department. Speaking of which, if anyone tells you that termites will not attack redwood, please slap him for me! The truth is that termites will pretty much attack any kind of wood. They’re like that old country western song. If they can’t be with the one they love, they love the one they’re with—munch on the one they’re with, really. But I digress.
Before the rains come here and the snow flies wherever you happen to be it might be fun to look once more at a summer retreat. Actually, a summer retreat that will hold up to the winter tyranny would be kind of slick too, right? Both of which are items I can accomplish by talking about the subject of today’s blog. Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet is one of the premiere makers of outdoor kitchens, and when you see the kind of work they do, it’s not hard to figure out how they got to that lofty position.
If you’re wondering about their name, they’re a manufacturing company in Kalamazoo, Michigan that started as a sheet metal company and made their first grill in 1906. One thing led to another, as it often does, and they now have an entire line of outdoor cooking and entertaining equipment that ranges from the ultimate grill to a cus
tom outdoor kitchen. As I’ve said many times in these blogs, outdoor kitchens can be as simple or as elaborate as you care to make them, but there are two things that I would consider essential.
The first is that what you come up with for your final design has whatever ambience of an actual outdoor room that you are able to provide. Some of the outdoor rooms I’ve featured in these blogs just take your breath away, but a simple wooden picnic table, if you plan it correctly, can make your guests feel like they’re family.
The second item is the durability of whatever you put in your backyard paradise. Every Spring I grab some brushes and tarps and say goodbye to my life for a few weeks, which explains the drool that has several times shorted out my keyboard when I look at Kalamazoo’s line of outdoor cabinetry. They use stainless steel! Say, how much maintenance do you suppose THAT needs?
Joseph
One Response to “Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet”
December 30th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
The common materials used for backyard improvement are stainless steel, wood and stone. All these materials are non-rusting and are not affected by water or moist air. The common colors may be brown, gray, green, beige and black.