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dalangdon

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I'm in Iowa for a few days to help my mom with some stuff, and stopped by the thrift store downtown. There is a cool old Speed Queen set in Avacado, and an AMAZING GE turquoise double wall oven, cooktop, and range hood with built-in pushbutton controls. Absolutely dreamy!!! There's also a turquoise double sink, but it was looking a bit ratty.

So if anyone is jonesing for some Avacado Speed Queens, or wants an all-electric turquoise dream kitchen, head over to Mahm's thrift warehouse on Broadway, just off of park avenue, in beautiful downtown Council Bluffs.

I'd buy the cooktop/oven combo myself, but my mom would slap me upside the head so hard I'd see stars ;-)
 
I'm very interested in this because that is EXACTLY the GE cooktop and hood (with the controls for the Sensi-temp in the hood) I grew up with. Ours wasn't turquoise, alas, but it was the stove I learned how to cook on. We talked about the Sensi-temp burners in another thread; my parents never understood what it was for or how to work it properly. In retrospect, those burners should have been placed at the backs of the cooktop as the big conventional 8" burner was the most used. Our downstairs neighbors had the same ones, too, but theirs were woodtone brown. Love to see some pictures of the oven if you can.
 
The SQ set was sold before I arrived - the tag on the washer said it was sold 3/26?? Anyway, I didn't have my camera in the store so didn't get pics, but it was just like an early 70's model that Eddy has in his collection.

The cooktop and oven were still there - I thought it was strange that the hood/control unit had been painted (?) coppertone at some point in it's life. The oven was a couple of steps down from the pic you posted, controls more like those on the slide-in range in the ad.
 
Mom's done with her chemo, so I have some time to putz. I'll try to get down there with the camera and take some pics.

I didn't notice that the set had sold, Greg. I guess my mind was more on the oven/stove contraption. Sorry about that.

I love this thrift store (along with the Community of Christ store around the corner) they always have some great stuff.
 
I wonder who thought up that arrangement of spoons, fork and ladle over the oven. It is a bit too precious. John has the cooktop and hood in the kitchen of his mountain appliance repository. Unfortunately, where the lady in the ad has her finger makes no sense with the Sensi-Temp already glowing red in the 8 inch coil size selection, but I guess her finger was the only place it could be without blocking the view of the controls.
 
Oh no - that is a great thrift store!!

Dan, I saw the tag and thought it was strange, but who knows if they had the dates right and it was still fun seeing the set. My aunt used to have that dryer in white and I've always thought it would be fun to have the set. I'm surprised it sold actually - the color and the small tub would have turned off most prospective buyers. I need to have a camera attached to my elbow, everytime I need it most...

If you have some time, bring some wash over one evening - it would be great to finally meet you!
 
I went back through there today (sans camera again - sorry) and the guy offered to sell me the cooktop, ovens and sink for $125. I was tempted (maybe I could sneak the stuff in Mom's basement while she was napping?) and I still may go back there and get them. They supposedly came out of his house, and work fine. His wife wanted new.

While down there I stopped into the appliance store that is located next door. It's a good, old-fashioned small business kind of appliance store. I don't know how it stays in business, particularly with the Nebraska Furniture Mart lurking across the river, but they've been there for quite some time - ever since the Chevrolet dealership that was there moved out. I'm working on getting mom's laundry moved upstairs, and when I do, I'm buying from them.

Pete, if I were to move here, I already have the real estate. Mom's house. It's a nice big house up in the hills on a big wooded lot, by a nice big park with a great viewe to the west - and I could rip out her ugly 80's floral pastel kitchen and put in some turquoise wall ovens, and a cooktop with eye-level control !!! ;-)
 
O'Malleys is a great appliance store - the people are very nice that own it. They took me upstairs in the warehouse a few years ago - chock full of washers, dryers, etc. Most of them were from the 70's & 80's at the time. I would love to go back in there again.
 
Well, I don't know what Darrin Stevens was smoking that

If you look closely at the ad, as I can with the scanner set at max, you'll notice that the floor of this "dream kitchen" is unfinished particle board. I did a double-take when I first got the ad because that rectangle in the background that is supposed to be a fireplace really looks like a big LCD TV, installed about 40 years too early. Love the colors though, my Mother would have had a heart attack if she had seen these.
 
Cool ad!

Although the style was different, the layout of my grandmother's kitchen is very similiar...hers was more of a modern style.

Now, thinking like an engineer, I am trying to figure out how the wiring from the control panel to the cooktop was run. The upper cabinet in that picture has a couple of tiny, perhaps 1/2 inch square rails between it and the lower cabinet. With the controls are in the upper cabinet, it was obviously not a straight shot from the upper cabinet down the back to the lower cabinet where the cooktop was installed. If I am not mistaken, isn't there a HUGE bundle of wire between the control panel and the cooktop to the likes of 1 12ga wire for each pushbutton, and each burner? If that's the case, all those wires are not going to fit down those little box-rails between the cabinets, so the power had to be run up top, over to a wall, down the wall, underneath, and then up the section of wall where the ovens are installed. I bet that was quite a pull!
 
Yay Greg, that is going to be a fun machine to play with. Your free day is ending up a bit more filled than you thought.
 
Steven, the control cable (or whatever you would call it) is quite modestly sized, with a big old-fashioned connector to the cooktop that sort of reminds one of an early printer cable. Pretty nifty. I'm not sure if the actual electical power cable comes off the cooktop or the hood.

I was able to be there when Greg picked up the machine, and then he charmed the old man at the appliance store next door into letting us look in the back, where we saw some more goodies, also in Avacado.
 

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