Building the Kitchen 1.0

The Kitchen 1.0 was built in early 1986. I wasn’t born yet. My Mom still had two short curly pony tails.

Obviously the Kitchen 1.0 wasn’t a good enough construction: the door couldn’t close up. The roof didn’t cover every corner. Sink was still outdoor. There was only two holes on the wall as the window so the exhaust couldn’t get out efficiently.

Why was it so bad?

Because it was built by my Mom’s colleagues who were not professional builders at all, with very limited materials which were collected from here and there.

My Mom worked at a government-owned factory. It was more like a huge community, very different from the modern company ideas. My Mom’s manager sent a few guys to help build the kitchen. They brought cement, bricks and tools from the factory construction site. Those were only enough for half kitchen, so they built half.

They were not paid to work. My Mom cooked dinners for them and my Dad handed them cigarettes from time to time.

Like all other things, the whole construction happened on the public lane. Neighbors needed to walk carefully around the cement pile.