[Noisebridge-discuss] space status

[Meredith L. Patterson]

Andy Isaacson wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 04, 2008 at 09:51:34AM -0700, Shannon Lee wrote:
>> I had a thought yesterday while I was hanging around the site, and it was
>> this:  that kitchen is a major investment of space for us.  If our group is
>> primarily about doing projects, then that kitchen is very much overkill.
>> What we really need is a microwave and a beer fridge, and maybe a carboy,
>> upstairs in the chill space.
>>
>> Given that that's so... why don't we just declare the "kitchen" to be "the
>> chem lab" and be done?  It seems like we have more use for a chem lab than a
>> full kitchen anyhow.
> 
> That's an interesting idea.  I kinda like having a full kitchen, but
> you're right, it is an investment that won't always pay out as much as
> we'd like given our space limit.
> 
> Also, some have talked about food hacking (Marc iirc?).  And having a
> real sink and dishwasher is pretty important to me.
> 
> I think we should try to reclaim as much space from the kitchen as
> possible by rearranging things and see where we can get from there.  In
> any case, a significant proposal like this should go on the agenda for
> next week's Tuesday meeting.

I'm glad we have the dishwasher too, as it will be a lot easier to keep 
the space tidy if dirty dishes aren't stacking up. All the glassware 
I've brought in so far is machine-washable as well, including the vacuum 
filtration manifold that Matthew found (it says so in the instruction 
manual). And we should definitely keep the dishwasher on the ground 
floor; if a hose breaks and we have a minor flood, it'll be confined to 
an area that's tiled.

Another sink in general certainly wouldn't hurt. I'd like to put a small 
one in the hood but I'm not sure how feasible that actually is.

BTW, are we planning on keeping the shower head that's in the bathroom? 
I hope so, as it will be very helpful if someone gets splashed with 
something corrosive and needs to be hosed down. I was originally 
thinking we might put an emergency shower in the alley, but the bathroom 
is much closer and the drain in the floor makes it just about perfect. 
(It'd be good to put in a pull-down handle to turn the shower on -- 
fumbling with a tap costs precious seconds in an emergency.)

The concerns I've seen about having food near the chem area are totally 
reasonable. The fume hood will direct most gases into the exhaust vent, 
there will be a sliding door on the front to provide further containment 
if a reaction starts evolving gas faster than the vent can suck it out, 
and we'll caulk the seams to control liquid spills, but we must plan 
around the eventuality of a gas leak contaminating things in the 
surrounding area. (Even with professional-grade equipment, I've taken a 
lungful of sulfur dioxide from a reaction that went exothermic much 
faster than I was expecting.)

Perhaps we should put a cabinet upstairs for a pantry, well away from 
the fume hood, and not store anything edible near the chem area?

--mlp