Our Hidden Kitchen.

When I retired from an executive career (senior VP in the food industry after more than 20 years in telecommunications) and married a soon-to-retire top telecom executive from Atlanta, I never expected to become known as “Charles-Sidney’s Yankee wife. The woman who covered a perfectly good brick house with rock.”

Now, when neighbors in our rural Mississippi community greet me that way — I just smile and invite them in to see our unusual stone-covered farm home. One of the oddest and most attractive features of the home is what folks call my “hidden kitchen”.

Following an almost total renovation of my husband’s farm home, I called the YesterTec company in Pennsylvania (I spotted it in an ad) and ordered a complete kitchen by phone. It arrived by truck and was popped into place just two days before we moved in — complete with cabinets, sink and all appliances. Not only did this stir up great curiosity, but most people didn’t even “see” the kitchen when they were standing in it: It’s all tucked into homey honey-colored cabinets that almost pose as antique furniture.

As an avocation and partly due to a geographically challenging career, I’ve designed, built and rebuilt a total of 30 homes, including the farm house and our waterfront home at Sailfish Point in Stuart, Florida. Both our homes are very much out of the mainstream in terms of design.

Home design and interior decorating on a small and grand scale have allowed me opportunities to test and try many new products and materials over the past several decades. My favorite “ready-made” is my YesterTec hidden kitchen.

YT Pieces #21, 22 & 23