1970's Vintage Avocado Appliances (Noblesville)

[ovrphil]

Just posted about 4 hours ago, for all l you avocado fans( there's two of you, right?...Sandy, don't look! )

Ad:

"ll of these appliances are in good working order. In fact, the kitchen is the only part of the place that passed inspection with flying colors... Ha

They are being removed for a remodel. Everything except for the dishwasher is original to the house, which I believe was built in 1973. You will need to pick up and haul.

If you're in the market for vintage light fixtures, fountains, two matching giant red soaking tubs, or vintage cabinetry, countertops, and/or a fabulous matching avocado green porcelain sink, please see our other listings for "Vintage Light Fixtures," "Matching Vintage Red Soaking Tubs," "Your choice of large or small very nice concrete fountains," and "Vintage cabinets & avocado green sink and countertops." Thanks for looking!

We have for sale:

General Electric Avocado green side-by-side refrigerator with ice and water in the door - $150 obo

General Electric Avocado green electric double oven (stacked kind of like a stackable washer/dryer) with a full electric range top - $200 obo

Jenn-air counter top gas range/grill - $100 obo

General Electric avocado green trash compactor - $100 obo

General Electric black dishwasher of unknown age. Appears to be 80s or very early 90s. - $75 obo

NuTone built in electric knife sharpener - $15 obo

OR

Our super awesome Please-Just-Take-It-All Special! For just $500 ALL of this can be yours! ALL at once, of course
"

http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/app/4393420429.html

 

[danemodsandy]

Not Too Shabby, Actually....

Phil, I hope you're sitting down, because I kind of like seeing all this at once like this. It's all dated, but BOY, do I remember the date!

Those cabinets are kind of cool, in a Mediterranean Madness sort of way. Somebody spent a freaking fortune on them, I can tell you that.

The fridge is an Americana, from back when ice and water in the door was mind-blowing. This one looks like the Big Kahuna, the 24-cu.-ft. TTF 24-RN. There was also a smaller version, the 22-cu.-ft. TTF 22-RN.

The range looks like it could be the Versatronic J 896, with a P*7/microwave lower oven and a conventional upper oven. There was also an Americana version, the J 797, with a P*7-only lower oven. On both versions, the upper oven's removable wall panels popped into the lower oven for self-cleaning. This and the fridge both appear in the '72 GE catalog.

Jenn-Airs are, of course, always a welcome sight. I have no love of GE dishwashers - of any vintage - and no love of trash compactors, but the other appliances are all interesting, even if they're not my favorite color. And seen in a '60s or '70s context, Avocado can be weirdly fun, though I'm not sure I'd ever want to live with it.

Get your jaw up off the floor, Phil! ;-)

 

[ovrphil]

Avocado?

Ok, Sandy...you took me by surprise - I thought they spent a fortune on this kitchen, as well.

I am wondering - this doesn't look so dark green Avocado. While it's true, digital photos have so many Kelvin variables, but were there variants of Avocado, where some manufacturers did their Avocado lighter or darker? This one looks less like Avocado, but it wouldn't look like this, probably, if there to view it.

 

[danemodsandy]

Phil:

I think the color is just an artifact of the camera and lighting - I see shading at the edges of the Avocado stuff, so this is not the later, unshaded version.

One of the problems with Avocado, I think, is that it somehow - at least to my eye - looks shabbier than most other colors when the appliance has been neglected. Harvest shares this characteristic, though not to as great an extent. If you'll recall, there's a Turquoise 1957 Stratoliner on another thread that has been outdoors for some time, and it's not in very good shape right now. But somehow, you can see that it was gorgeous in its time. Shabby Avocado just looks shabby to me.

It helps that most everything here is matching, except the dishwasher, which unsurprisingly had to be replaced. Most every era's colors and styling looked good - or good enough - in context. It's when someone has a beat-up Avocado range, an Almond fridge and a BOL white Kenmore dishwasher that things get pretty unappealing. And all these items have been cared for - clean never hurts.

 

[danemodsandy]

One More Observation:

I think part of my problem with the three "earth tone" appliance colors - Coppertone, Avocado and Harvest - is that they have to be blindingly clean to look clean. All of them are very unforgiving of fingerprints and kitchen schmutz. The least little thing and they look dirty. Coppertone is the worst of the three - I had it briefly and could not rid myself of it fast enough.

 

[philr]

I really like that kitchen! If I had one like that, I would keep it as it is!

 

[wiskybill]

I'm with Phil

I like that kitchen too.

Although I may update the back splash tile
with glass mosaic.

 

[appnut]

The dishwasher is not the original, is the replacement for the original dishwasher. Looks like a GSD2400 or GSD2600 with that big display. I too like the kitchen. Very "in" for the day. The lighting, the beautiful dark wood. All intense and masculine. I'd say one of the last of the NuTone Kitchen Centers. that's the knife sharpener that's on the "machine" in the picture. Wonder if any of the other "attachments" for it are about.

 

[rickr]

avocado appliances

Well, they look as if they have been well taken care of. The earth tones are not my style, but of all three colours, I like the green the best. The cabinet fronts look like "dust catchers" but again, they look in nice condition. I think these items would make someone a very nice vintage kitchen for very little money. Hope someone saves this stuff. I just hate to see something that has been cared for, for decades go to the scrapper.

I restored an avocado 806 Maytag set for my aunt a few years ago, and was pleased on how nice they looked all shined up. Original paint too! Maytag used very good paint back then. I could live with this set. My aunt and uncle just LOVE it, btw.

The Maytag set I restored this Spring

Like we have never seen any of these before....

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[philr]

About the dishwasher, a friend of mine used to have one like this. I think his house was built in 1985 and he had a GE Talisman Royale, dishwasher with the vacuum fluorescent display, with the matching wall oven and SxS fridge in black. The dishwasher made a funny noise! 

 

[danemodsandy]

Aha!

Going to the original CL ad and looking at all the pics, it's apparent that the range is indeed the J 896 Versatronic version - there's a shot with the oven open that shows the "flying saucer" cover for the microwave works. Somebody spent a ton of money on all this - this was a top-of-the-line, ultra-fashionable installation. I'd bet good money that there was a Lincoln Continental Mark IV in the driveway when all this was new.

Those cabinets were probably a bit easier to dust than they would be for most people today. People used to have some damn sense and had a canister vacuum around, which would take care of those fronts nicely, with occasional wiping-down needed. Nowadays, everyone seems to think that a $79.95 hunk of Chinese upright plastic crappola from Walmart is all the vacuum anyone needs, which it isn't. Anyone who spent the money for such a kitchen would have been a perfect customer for an Electrolux 1205, offered that last year of production (1973) with the all-new PN2 power nozzle.

 

[combo52]

TOL 1973 Kitchen Appliances

Yes this was a TOL kitchen in 1973 and I like the avocado [ sure is better looking that Harvest Gold ].

I would go after that Veratronic range if I hadn't just had one delivered last week by MoparVrigina and Ted who brought it all the way from Dayton Ohio [ Thank You again ]. My other favorites are the dual Jenn-Air Grill and the trash compactor. I know why fell out of favor [ people are too stupid to know how to use them to best advantage ] but having lived with one for the last almost forty years I would never be without one, I immediately installed two at my partners home.

It looks like the orignal GE plastsol DW only lasted about ten years, and this was good for a GE DW of this time period, but it probably lasted this long because of low use like the rest of the kitchen.

The car in the garage would have been most likely an IMPERIAL with the first in the world Sure-Break four wheel anti-lock braking system, anyone that would buy a range as advanced as the GE versatronic would likely have bought an Imperial in 1973.

Hopefully someone will get that range, and the JA grill is a great item to install in an outdoor kitchen as long as is is protected from rain.

John L.

 

[gansky1]

You're right about those cabinets, Rick.  I was thinking a power-washer would be a good way to get those clean again.  Ugh - yuck.

 

What a pretty range that is, I wonder how much they utilized the micro-thermal oven?  It takes some time to learn the timing, but it's pretty great when you get the hang of it.

 

[atomict]

Love it.

Cabinets, tile, green - would leave it alone and bask in it's awesomeness.  Now where did I put my orange pants?

 

[hooverwheelaway]

Not my style (dark, sculpted cabinet fronts), but I am a sucker for anything high-end and well-done, which that kitchen seems to be.  It certainly has a certain je ne sais quois!  Orange countertops would make that look very Brady Bunch!

 

[firedome]

early '70s personified...

check out the wall paper! The Mediterranian cabinets are the icing on the cake, really too bad it won't be left intact, it's a time warp! At the time we had Burnt Orange shag carpet in the LR and white Lexan Parson's tables... all gone now :-(

 

[ovrphil]

last comment on all this

I would leave the kitchen as is, and do something else, as wiskybill suggested, with the back splash.

Maybe the color would grow on me (sounds too earthy, I know, like that turquoise stove sitting in the junkyard, weed-gathering). But I love the appliances and would only be concerned about the dishwasher. We only use the dishwasher once a week, since there's only two of us.

I'm with John L. on the compactor. One day, I'll have one of these and I like the looks of that one. I've been looking at some compactors and the bulk of what was made later on, are spartan or ugly or spartan-yoogly.

I like contemporary kitchens but of late, my head is turning back to the vintage look. My mom would have loved this kitchen, even though it would have been economically and spatially impossible to fit into our house.
She loved green - "any green" was her motto.

Enjoyed reading your comments on this kitchen. It always surprises me, and don't laugh, that you all have so much to say...sometimes blows my mind. LOL!

Phil

 

[danemodsandy]

Ya Had Tuh Go There....

"Orange countertops would make that look very Brady Bunch!"

You say that like it's a good thing, Fred! ;-)

Of all the famous sitcom sets and houses, the Brady Bunch manse is the one I have the hardest time with.

First of all, Mike Brady is supposed to be an architect. What the Hell does he design - franchise burger joints? That house is a freaking chain-store nightmare, straight out of Woman's Day, with all kinds of cutesy-poo chatchkes. There is nothing of any value - monetary or design - evident anywhere.

And what, pray tell, is Mr. Architect earning, given that his poor kids are three to a room at such varying ages? At a certain age, a boy needs a few minutes of privacy once in a while, if you know what I mean. And what's up with that expensive floating staircase and the double front door in the living room if there aren't enough bedrooms anyway? Someone's priorities are a wee bit off!

There is simply no relation between the actual needs of the family and what you see. There's no relation between what Mike does and the house he lives in. And there's no relation to reality.

If it wasn't for Robert Reed being such a major hunk, I don't think I'd have ever watched The Brady Bunch a second time.

 

[ovrphil]

Side note to my own posting -

Okay, Sandy - I'll add to the drift... Did the kids eat alot and have their friends over to help drain the cupboards/refrigerator? Clothes and food - $$$. Or, maybe the previous wife took it all. But then, Florence 's x-husband should have left her something($$). Anyways, the house wasn't exactly commensurate with a successful architect and she didn't work..back to the regularly scheduled posting.