GOT PIX!!!

[deathefrog]

I finally got a picture of the fabulous stove...and a link to where you can view our virtually untouched 50's house before we moved in (i.e. CLEAN!). Like I said, I love the kitchen, and the hardwood floors are to die for!

Sometimes I can't believe this is my house now! wooo!!

-ck

http://www.hottub.org/~kamps/house/

 

[pdub]

You have a beautiful home. Those hardwood floors are in incredible shape. Love the rec-room tile floor, too.

That looks like the original stove and it wouldn't be hard to make that whole kitchen look "period" again. You just need to find a big rounded corner 50's refrigerator and your set.

AND I'm sure someone on the East Coast can find you a harvest gold Frigidaire 1-18 washer to match the dryer in the photo.

Thanks for sharing your photo's.

Patrick

 

[polkanut]

I was viewing the 1st video of the interior of your home and noticed what looks like a built-in ironing board in your kitchen, is it? My parents, younger sister, and I all have homes with that kind of ironing board set-up, you'll love it. I also love the telephone nook in the hallway, definitely a sign of a by-gone era.

 

[58limited]

If the ironing board is missing, that built-in makes a wonderful spice rack: Just add shelves. I did this in my 1940 house and I love it - I cook a lot, but don't iron. So, instead of replacing the ironing board I added the shelves.

 

[63getelevision]

What a wonderful looking home you have! And that neat kitchen! I hope you're enjoying it as much as you can. I love two story houses.

 

[58limited]

Just watched the video - really neat! I see now that the ironing board is still present in the built-in. Lucky you. In my house the board was missing. Most things removed from the house were in the attic, but I never found the board. As I said before, converting it to a spice cabinet met my needs, but it would be nice to have the original set up to show off.

I think you will come to love the stove - new stoves just aren't as good unless you buy the $5000 Viking. I prefer gas, but those old electric GE's are great too. I would definitely find a 50s fridge - yes they need to be defrosted, but they made an electric tool for that - it really makes the job easy. You can find them on ebay for around $5 to $10.

I wouldn't change too much about the house as far as fixtures and hardware, but you might not want a completely "old timey" look. I have modern rooms in my house - I repainted, left the nice brass door hinges and knobs along with most light fixtures. I upgraded the plug and switch plates to match the style of the room, and upgraded to three prong outlets. Below is a link to my place - I had to undo a lot of redecorating done by previous owners, unfortunately much of it was cheap poor quality.

http://home.gt.rr.com/limited58/house.htm

 

[andrewinorlando]

Now that is one beautiful home....lots of good luck with it.

 

[deathefrog]

Yep that is a built in ironing board

with the board AND original iron in place beneath it. The telephone nook is adorable I have to agree with you. I quilt, but my craft room is upstairs, so we just put a china cabinet over that wall because I did not want to do anything drastic. We love the house, and I am glad you all liked the house, I figured my house would be perfect on this website since the whole thing is pretty much untouched 1950 charm.
The basement is fabu pink, which unfortunately is gonna go...
The pink paint in the bedrooms went too...our bedroom is now deep lagoon blue and the nursery is fern green. easier to live with colors

I love the spice rack idea, by the way...have to mention that to the hubby!

-ck

 

[rp2813]

Stove

Christian, do you have any friends who admire your stove and would like something similar? This '49 Westinghouse is up for grabs although it's located in California:

 

[deathefrog]

I do have friends in Cali that like the stove

However they have more modernistic Vikings in their kitchens. I am actually going to be selling the stove probably within the next year myself. We are going with stainless steel appliances.

But I'll pass the info along! Tis a nice looking stove.

-ck

 

[maggie~hamilton]

Well, THAT announcement brought the party to a grinding halt!

.
.
.

No offense meant -- it IS after all your house. You just have to understand, you have alighted in a realm where any of us would give our left, er, eye-tooth for a period house with period appliances and fixtures.

I'd like to hear more about your grandmother's Electrolux.

http://www.137.com/lux

 

[maggie~hamilton]

FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABULOUS basement!! This room just screams for a Tiki bar and theme!!!

http://www.hottub.org/~kamps/house/12-29-06_1221.jpg

 

[rp2813]

Thanks CK, I'm willing to let this stove go for little or nothing as long as I'm sure it won't end up at the crusher. Nobody else who is involved with the upcoming liquidation of my mom's household gives a rat's ass about this stove and it's up to me to find a new owner for it, or who knows what its fate will be. It's just so unfair to an appliance that has been so faithful for nearly 60 years to have it go from being a completely viable instrument one day to a hunk of junk the next.

Ralph

 

[danemodsandy]

It's Your House, And Your Life, But...

...Unless you go with a Wolf or a Garland commercial range, you will never again have the rock-solid feel of the range you currently own. Not even a Viking has that bulletproof feel; Viking is pseudo-commercial equipment that is actually pitched to the homeowner market (check this week's TIME Magazine for more info; they have an article about the company). Nothing intended for residential use will be as solid as what you already own, and it will depreciate, not appreciate, in value. You also might like to know that gas consumption is very much higher on commercial and pseudo-commercial ranges than it is on regular home units. The greater heat output comes at the expense of greater gas usage, pure and simple. And you may (or may not) have to beef up the subfloor under the range, to take the additional weight of a new commercial range. It will depend on the weight of the unit you select, the construction of your house, and local codes. Your current gas piping will almost certainly have to be changed, as well. Not cheap.

Also, if you have kids, I have a word of advice on stainless: DON'T. DO. IT. Stainless is for neat freaks, the kind of very clean, very grown-up people who have themselves trained to touch only the handle of the refrigerator, not the door itself, to avoid leaving fingerprints. Stainless shows every last speck of everything, and it can't really be spot-cleaned; you have to clean at least the entire panel where the spill occurred to get an even-looking result. It also shows deferred cleaning very clearly; any hint of grease that has settled onto it stands out like a beacon. I'm just trying to save you countless hours of gritted teeth, with paper towels and Windex (or other cleaner) in hand. If you have kids, you will wish you had never heard the words "stainless steel" within a year, trust me.

That range is just itching to be your friend for life, to turn out years' worth of turkeys and pumpkin pies and fruitcakes and bread and meatloaves galore, to say nothing of soups in that deep-well cooker, and pancakes, bacon, garlic chicken, shrimp with feta, spaghetti sauce from scratch, seared tuna, you name it.

 

[rp2813]

Sandy, I can relate to how you'd like to see the kitchen stay as is and for Christian to keep the stove but the overwhelming reason why I'm not interested in hanging onto my mom's stove (pictured above) is because it's electric, and I have always hated using an electric stove. My suggestion would be for Christian to spend the money that would buy a new commercial grade stove on a more appropriate vintage gas stove, something deluxe and/or heavy duty like Chambers or other serious brand. Just yesterday at Salvation Army I saw a loaded O'Keefe & Merrit from the early 60's in coppertone, it had a rotisserie and a special burner with heat sensor on it. I've already forgotten what they called it. I must have been checking the stove out around 4:20 or something because I know that special burner's knob had "pot" in its name.

There are ways to maintain the flavor of that 50's kitchen without sacrificing much if any modern conveniences. It would be worth considering, Christian, as I agree with Sandy that stainless appliances and kids don't mix well, but at the same time, stainless is probably the best finish to go with if you're trying to blend an old kitchen with new appliances. Maybe you can find stainless "look" or go with the newer improved finishes that resist fingerprints and smears better than true stainless, but hopefully you feel an obligation to find that beautiful stove a good home and save it from the crusher. There are people out there who actually prefer electric, and I'm thinking replacement burner elements, should they be needed, are easier to find for a GE. Tracking down replacement burner elements for my mom's Westinghouse has been one long exercize in futility.

I also think your kids would get a kick out of older appliances and would possibly gain an appreciation for things that were built to last. A refreshing change from the throw-away world we live in now.

Ralph

 

[danemodsandy]

Ralph:

There is one great consolation in electric ranges.

When you're comparing electric residential models to gas residential models, electric burners are capable of greater heat output. There are a few gas models with high-output burners, but for the most part, electric will heat a pot of water for pasta faster, sear beef browner, and stir-fry quicker.

The vaunted flexibility of gas burners is not nearly as important to me as it seems to be for many people. A very little planning helps overcome the slow cool-down of electric burners; you just heat an adjacent burner to the desired lower temp and switch the pot or pan to that one.

And electric ovens beat most gas ones all hollow, although gas ovens have been tremendously improved lately. Gas ovens still depend on airflow through the oven to support combustion; airflow and even temps are mutually exclusive.

I personally detest the smell of a gas oven being preheated; I'm currently stuck with a gas built-in for the duration, and my baking and roasting efforts are now held to an irreducible minimum, to avoid the stench.

Did I mention I prefer electric? ;-)

 

[rp2813]

Electric

Sandy, as a kid when I'd ask my parents why they went with electric they'd advise that it was much cleaner than gas. I tend to agree with that, and I also agree that electric ovens are far superior to gas. That's why my current stove is a dual fuel model with gas cooktop and electric convection oven. It's the perfect combo for me. I spent many years using the '49 Westinghouse growing up and totally had it down regarding the need to anticipate heating requirements due to the slow response time of the coils. I prefer the immediate results that a gas burner affords.

I am so tempted to snag that deluxe O'Keefe and Merrit I saw this week and install it at my mom's. My partner's daughter and son-in-law might end up renting the place and the '49 Westy will have to go. I'd love to see the gas rotisserie in the O&M spinning a turkey or something. It's huge enough to hold a small one!

 

[maytagbear]

I used

to be a not-bad Chinese style cook. That is, when I had a gas cooktop. I just get too frustrated trying to stirfry on the electric in this apartment.

Yes, there are other methods in the traditonal Chinese kitchen that lend themselves better to an electric cooktop, like steaming or red cooking, but......

I like a gas oven for roasting meats, and an electric for flour baking.

As for gas and cleanliness....I have always lived with gas forced air heat, a gas water heater, and a gas dryer, and for the first 34 years of my life, a mother who smoked a pack and a half a day..., so what's a little more schmutz on the walls

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[sudsmaster]

I don't think it's so much that a typical gas cooktop doesn't have the heat output of a typical electric cooktop, but rather that the electric one delivers more of its heat to the pan. By nature of the combustion process, more heat from a gas burner escapes around the sides of the pan or pot into the kitchen than from an electric element.

However... in most cases cooking errors are the result of too-fast cooking from too much heat on the pan. This is far more common, in my experience, with electric cooktops, than with gas burners. Bringing a big pasta boiler to heat quicker is of course nice, but putting a lid on the pot will help it heat faster as well. And while traditional stir-fry dictates using a big wok and a high output gas burner (they look like little furnace burners), I have a number of Chinese friends who grew up cooking with flat frying pans on electric stoves and rice cookers and say it doesn't really matter unless you're cooking for a banquet. Me, I have a non-stick flat bottom work that works just fine for a couple-three servings. Still, one of these days I'll replace the Frigidaire 36" gas cooktop with a DCS or GE equivalent with a high output center burner. I have looked at real restaurant style wok burners at restaurant appliance shops, and have realized it would be tremendous overkill and a fire hazard as well.