I'm disgusted

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Microwave Oven Door

Not gonna open that microwave oven door much further than 90 degrees, if at that.
But what are your options.

Malcolm
 
>Dave, I'd find it VERY hard to work in that kitchen. That " pantry" would be gone as fast as I could grab my saws all. I need room around the stove to work.

I've actually had worse to work with. The house I grew up in had almost zero space around the cooktop. The cooktop was near the corner. There was something like 1/4 of a cupboard worth of counter space. Then it was the corner area, and then on the next wall the sink. The corner area was mostly killed off by a dish rack. So there was a very small prep space near the stove.

The other counter space was limited, too. The additional real counter space when we moved in was limited to about 1 cupboard's worth of space. The kitchen probably had more, once, but a wall got taken out at some point. Someone thought that having an "open" design was more important than having adequate counter space. My parents added that wall and counter back, although the new counter never did get used as a prep space. (One issue: it wasn't topped with a formal counter topping.) Still, the extra space was useful for various things.

What made that kitchen especially "fun" was that it was the kitchen I had to use during one of more ambitious cooking periods--an era when everything was cooked from scratch, and I did a lot of baking.
 
Stan, I like your kitchen! I couldn't really go back to a small kitchen, we had one in a 450 ft2 apartment for 10 years and my parents kitchen was about the same size.

Dave - are you about to remodel? Besides planning to open it up, are you planning to add more counter space and some kind of pantry( a standalone, if you have room, works). What are you thinking of doing and when?
 
That small kitchen shown above is very close to what we have. In ours we don't have that cubby the vac is sitting in and we have a 12 inch counter immediately to the left of the stove but before the refrigerator. For us, it's barely workable.
In our last house the kitchen was 29ft x 15ft lined with full sized upper and lower cabinets the entire way. And we had every last cupboard filled with cooking equipment. So how do you think the downsizing went? Horribly, we just don't entertain like we used to. But for that matter I don't think anyone we knew does anymore.

What we plan on doing is in the section in the foreground,(not seen) we plan on building a high island and use bar stools as chairs around the counter top of the island. The entire lower section will be storage. Still not enough, but it may make a dent in the 30 something boxes of cooking equipment we have in the attic.

We wanted to downsize to a smaller house, we did and now we are paying for it. But the bills ARE cheaper every month.
 
Re Stans Kitchen

I could cook in that kitchen very well I think, I would have a vintage Kitchen Aid dishwasher, but I love the old Monitor Top and the match lite range, Those don't scare me at all, and the ovens hold a perfect temperature.
 
Phil. Mines not small.

LOL
Here's a couple more pics.
Hans, the oven dose hold its heat, but there's no thermostat. I use a oven thermometer, however Im so use to it, that I know what height flame is required to get to and hold at 35O degrees. It also broils very well.
I've never missed a dishwasher, but then again I've never had one!
There is limited counter space by today's standards, and most would be annoyed by the lack of electric outlets.
There's nothing like taking a bottle (glass) of Coke or a Beer out of the Monitor Top. (Frosty)

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Beautiful kitchen

I see you have the oven venting off somewhere, and what looks like a chimney next to it. Does the chimney still work?
 
It WOULD

Take getting used to no thermostat, but I knew a lady in my hometown that used a kerosene stove and could bake as good as anyone, and of course many of our grandmothers used wood ranges and could regulate the oven perfectly, I remember well one of my Grandads cousins baked all her cakes in a big old Home Comfort wood stove and never had a failure.
 
LOOOOOOOVE

your kitchen, Stan! Let me count the ways: beautiful range and monitor top fridge, lots of chromey coffee pot (and breadbox) goodness peeking out, classic early Sunbeam or Hamilton Beach mixer, red knobs make the whole kitchen, checkered floor....be still my heart. My kitchen is more late 40s/early 50s but if my family were smaller I'd love the earlier appliances. '

Bravo! Well done
 
I

Can't take much credit.
It won't make House a Beautiful, or Traditional Home magazine...
All these years I've been here.. I've just repaired and maintained.
(Instead of tarring it out and making a open kitchen, insisting on stainless steel and granite ect Like most would do)
 
Very nice

with a lot of charm!  I have that same table in my kitchen.  When I bought my house in '98, the kitchen was hideous!  See the before and after pics below.  The furniture and junk belonged to the previous owner who was still living here when I came to view the house. 

 

In 1999, I removed the peninsula (which I miss) but added two 18x84 pantries on either side of the SxS fridge but you can't see them in the pics.  The wagon wheel light was the very first thing I removed!! The washing machine was beside the BOL Caloric pilot gas stove (and the gas dryer connection was in the shed out back).  Notice the horrendous Zbrick?  I couldn't even pry it off...had to pull the drywall out to remove it.  The cabinet on the right side of the range was just dead space...a square water heater was originally installed there but was already gone when I moved in.  There was an 8" fan installed in the ceiling that vented up into the attic!  My hood is vented outside.  The original hardwood floors were beyond restoration so they were covered with the vinyl tiles.  Since the remodel I have switched the micro, fridge, and compactor out for black ones, the Maytag DW was replaced with my new '94 KA23, and I have a new black Frigidaire 5 burner range.  I'm thinking about building a movable kitchen island on wheels and changing the Maytag back to portable & sticking it in the island.  It would be nice to have a spare for holiday dinners.

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Greg

That was quite a undertaking, I'd have run from that kitchen. You sure made it look better.
Chris, I think your right about the mixmaster, it says model -1
Don't know a lot about Mixmasters, this is the only one I've ever had, and I rarely use it. I'm better at fixing things than fixing supper!
Lisa, you really like the red knobs? I was going to change them to something less noticeable?
You know when you live in a old house, and you've lived in it as long as I have, you kind of loose objectivity.
 
My place was built in 96 and is a manufactured home on its own lot. So of course the living room and kitchen are fairly open but it has a lot of nicer recently added birch cabinets and the layout as far as working with things and being able to open more then one thing at once is great.
Has a master suite at one end with a master bathroom, the living room halfway between the kitchen on one half of the house, dining room on the other side, then 3 bedrooms that are smaller and a smallish full bathroom. Layout works fine for us and I use the 3 smaller rooms as my sister lives here and helped buy the house.
The old rental the kitchen was tiny, open on one end with a tiny dining room beside it. Every time you open one drawer or cabinet it blocked something else, just a horrible layout with no thought of proper use of space or storage.
Was only two small bedrooms and a bathroom too. Was a crap house with everything poorly made but rent was dirt cheap and it had a small garage and lots of parking and a big yard.
I hate the tiny rooms many older houses have, bigger is nicer but some old houses really are designed well and everything works and they used all the nooks and crannies for extra storage or spaces that were useful and the trim work is such high quality.
I like those shows, it's entertaining to me and sometimes I see a good idea and sometimes I yell at the screen.
As much as anything they are done to get viewers and they don't always complete everything like they say or even pick the house out of three like it shows. Most times whoever it is has already picked a house and they do all the others just to make more drama and interest.
As far as Mike Holmes he's the real deal and had a show this year called Home Free on Fox that had couples helping rehab homes hoping to beat out the others and win the last home built after everyone else was eliminated.
What they didn't tell any of them is every couple was getting a home.
He has shows still on DIY network and HGTV replays them from time to time in HD. I have my DVR set to capture anything he's doing.
He has a web site too that should be easy to find that lists what new things he's doing.
Wish more contractors were like him and pretty sure he'll keep doing them till he's tired then his son and favorite contractors will take over.
 

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