Day 957: The Pain of Low Countertops

I’ve never really thought of myself as a tall man.  In a lot of way, I still see myself as the late bloomer who started High School at 5’3”… but now, fully bloomed, I am much taller in comparison; however I would consider myself of average height by American standards.

Now, I’ve been overseas for quite a while now, so correct me if I’m wrong… but I seem to remember American counter tops being about waist high.  And by waist I mean my true waist, around where my bellybutton is located, not where my pants are buckled.

Anyway, in Belgrade I felt like a shrimp.  Serbian’s are pretty tall and their countertops are pretty tall as well.  I’m pretty sure that our kitchen counters in Belgrade come up well past my waist… just below my ribcage.  I could be exaggerating, but I know their taller than my American countertops.

However, in Pakistan I feel like a giant in comparison to the locals… and this feeling is reflected in the height of my countertops… they are low… absurdly low.  They only come up to my upper thigh.  Seriously, I measured yesterday.  If a tailor was making me a pair of Pakistani Countertop Pants… he wouldn’t need to take a full inseam measurement… if you know what I mean.  (If you don’t know what I mean… well… that’s a creatively nice way of saying the countertops don’t even come up to my crotch).

As a result… over the last six months, I’ve been suffering from a decent amount of lower back pain.   For being a dude, I’m pretty domesticated and I cook most of my own food and I find washing dishes oddly enjoyable, in a ‘quite time’ sort of way… so I spend a fair amount of time hunched over those incredibly short counter tops chopping, washing, and prepping. 

Take this past weekend for example.  Since Sunday is my only day off, I’ll normally spend a good portion of my day in the kitchen making my meals for the week (since I don’t have the time or energy on days that I work).  For example, this past Sunday I made enough Cheese Grits, Eggs with Scallions, Roasted Carrots, Stuffed Squash, Karahi Beef, Herb Rice, and Spiced Chickpeas to get me through the week.  I know that sounds like a lot… but I like to mix and match my meals to keep things fresh, I hate eating the same thing for Lunch and Dinner… and nothing goes to waste.

Anyway… a marathon cooking session like the one described above (complete with clean-up) could easily keep me in the kitchen for four or five hours.  And by the time I’m finished… I am usually in a great deal of pain.  I’m usually out of commission for the rest of the day… and it’s all due to the height of the kitchen counters.

Now… to add insult to injury… I actually have a normal sized American stove in my kitchen… and for some reason; my stove is mounted on a platform about four inches off the ground… so the height difference between my counter tops and my stove top is absurd. 

I’ve included some pictures to give you a better idea:

I used cans because my tape measure was too hard to read in the pictures.  The large cans are pretty much 4.5 inches and the small cans are 4 inches... so, this picture has 3 large cans and 4 small cans for a total of 29.5 inches... so, let's say the countertops are 31 inches tall.  The American standard is 36 - 42 inches... so we're talking about a 5 to 11 inch difference.


Now for the stove:

See what I mean about the stove being raised off the ground and coming up far beyond the countertops?

The stove is raised 4.5 inches off the ground.

And just under 9 inches from the countertop.


Mmmm... pinto beans.