KitchenAid Trash Masher -- How Old?

[rp2813]

I saw this in a 1958 custom home I toured this afternoon.  It's clear that the kitchen and other parts of the house got a makeover in the early '70s, but this trash masher is the only surviving appliance.  The panel reminds me of a series 18-20 dishwasher.  My realtor pushed a button on it and it started operating.  We were both wondering what the top section is for.  Could it be a garbage chute?   We found no obvious way to get it open.  And what is the purpose of the key?  Did I just answer my own two questions?

 

The house is in a nice area and it's spacious, but at 2,140 sf it's way more house than I care to maintain (I have no use for a butler's pantry at this point), plus it needs cosmetic work inside and out, and we'd have to go in at the top of our budget to even have a chance on it.   The dining room chandelier is very tempting, as is the flush-mount Thermador can opener in the kitchen.  I forgot to get a shot of those, but they appear in the linked site.

 

The search continues.  Before clicking the link, you might want to dig out that old pair of bell bottoms if you can still fit into them. 

http://https//www.zillow.com/homedetails/2646-Gerald-Way-San-Jose-CA-95125/19688093_zpid/

 

[DADoES]

 
IIRC, the upper panel opens as a chute for small items so the full drawer doesn't need to be opened.

The keylock is for safety.  The unit won't operate with the key removed.

 

[estesguy]

Amazing prices

I'm always blown away by the home price disparity between the Midwest and the coastal cities. Yes we have 1.3 million dollar homes here, but they don't look like that. A home like that in this area wouldn't bring more than $275,000 tops

http://https//www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Wichita-KS/2101156326_zpid/7929_rid/priced_sort/37.966395,-96.974259,37.361971,-97.910843_rect/9_zm/0_mmm/?

 

[norgeway]

Thats about

Right for NC too,less if in certain neighborhoods.

 

[rp2813]

Thanks for the info.  I would use this machine if we ended up buying the house (unlikely).  I like the idea of a chute instead of pulling out the whole drawer.   That was a clunky operation when I used a late '70s Whirlpool TM. 

 

We did have fun tossing in the big globe shaped Almaden wine bottles with long necks into that Whirlpool.  This was before recycling became a thing with municipal trash collection.

 

[funktionalart]

Circa 1982-3 ish

Ralph,
I have the same compactor. Mine's 1983....I think the model appeared circa '79 or so and ran til about '83. I will take mine to whichever home I move to next. It's a GREAT unit. Can't replace it with anything better, really!

 

[funktionalart]

BTW$$$$

I haven't worked in San Jose in nearly 30 years...but my last time there, this place would've capped out at around $185k. What the HELL happened up there?!?!? A MILLION THREE?!?!?

 

[rp2813]

What the HELL happened up there?

LOL -- everybody's asking that, jaws are dropping and heads are shaking.   Actually, it's not funny at all.  We're having a hell of a time finding something decent and ADA-friendly for Dave that's in our price range.   The ups and downs in this house limit Dave's territory.  We have our social/support group of friends as well as Dave's daughter, SIL and two grandkids in this area, so we don't want to move out of town.

 

Tech workers who cash in stock options for instant money is part of what happened and is still happening.  It's no sweat for them to outbid their competition for the sparse inventory of homes for sale.  Then there are the Asian investors buying sight unseen, all cash.  In addition, Google is snapping up property downtown to build a giant "transit village" by the train station (a hub for CalTrain, ACE Train, Amtrak, Light Rail, BART [several years off] and HSR [which may not ever happen]) that will bring in 20,000 of its workers.  Everything has spiked as a result, even though Google won't have a shovel in the ground for a few years at least.

 

We just received a flyer on our door today regarding the lightning fast sale of a scrape job across the street.  $1.8M -- $100K over asking -- while the sign out front still displayed "Coming Soon."  Next thing I knew, "Coming Soon" was replaced with "Sale Pending."  For a 10K sf plot of land.

 

I'm sort of hoping for a glut caused by everybody trying to cash in on their homes, which will bring prices down.  Not down to normal, though.  That will never be the case here again -- ever.

 

Oh yeah -- that pink place?  It'll go for $1.5M or more.  Mark my words.

 

 

 

[jamiel]

We've friends who just cashed in their house in San Jose and decamped to Palm Springs. They were able to buy a really nice house in Cathedral City behind from the car dealers (across street is Rancho Mirage) and fund retirement at 56 after a health scare last yr.

 

[rp2813]

Jamie --

If we were younger, we'd give serious consideration to Palm Springs or Santa Barabara/Ventura.  Locally, even Santa Cruz is almost out of reach.   It's kind of OK, though, as I think Dave would just be more depressed because he can't walk on the beach anymore, so we'll stick to this side of the hill.  The kids are a lot more handy here, and we'll need more of their help as time goes on.

 

Rancho Mirage-adjacent is a pretty nice area.  Your friends made a smart move.

 

[vacerator]

It's tough for seniors,

and getting tougher. Even in our moderately priced area, should eminent domain force us to move, we'd have a very difficult time affording as nice a property, with like upgrades we've done. I don't want to have another mortgage.
Many will die with a reverse mortgage, or an unpaid first mortgage.
Who wins? The lenders, the govt.
If one spouse must enter a nursing facility, pay an elder law attorney $300 to do a Lady Bird deed. Then the state can not force the sale of the home to recoup any medicaid benefits. The home can't then be sold until the other spouse dies.
Long term care insurance is out of reach for most.
Also have a living trust to keep assets out of the probate courts.

 

[stricklybojack]

.
I grew up with that trash compactor. It was installed circa 1974 when we moved into the new house.

 

[superocd]

As fist time home buyers, my wife and I feel lucky to have bought right before real estate prices shot through the roof and interest rates went up a bit. We bought the house we are in as a "house", not so much as in investment to sell in a few years to "flip". While a few people have done very well, many others have been burned by that, taking a huge loss due to market volatility, and even still, I don't think I'd like bouncing from house to house to make a quick buck. We have an investment portfolio for investments, we use our home to live in and enjoy.

It is something we will live in indefinitely, unless we decide to move out of state or something. However, I'm sure the $165k we paid is now worth something like $200k. Even still, a bargain compared to what it would have cost in Seattle, 30-40 miles north of where we live. Homes fit for the wrecking ball are in the forefront of a bidding war.

A plain Jane, nothing to write home about home in need of some level of work is fetching mansion money. For a dated 1970s rambler in King County, you're going to pay what you would for a brand new, 4000+ sq. ft. McMansion located somewhere in the Midwest in a suburban/semi-rural area.

Crazy. I don't see the appeal of living in a place like that.

 

[sudsmaster]

I'm about 25 miles north of San Jose on the east side of the bay. I believe our local trash company has said it will not accept refuse that has been compacted - too heavy for their equipment or something like that. But that doesn't stop them from raising their rates about 5% every year.

I bought this 1650 sq ft house on 1/3 acre in '97 for $225k. Yup, down payment from stock options. A house two doors down, about the same size and era, just went up for sale, listed at $699k. My neighbor on the other side is a realtor, and she says she expects it will sell for $750k. Yikes. This is not Silicon Valley, but when BART makes it down to San Jose (someday) that will shorten the effective distance to commute to work. The main problem is the highways can't handle the load that full employment brings, so public transit like BART becomes very important.

Although not so important to me any more. I'll be retiring next year and my current job is about a mile away from home. I'm planning on retiring here in place; we'll see what happens.

 

[rp2813]

Rich, you are so right.  I'm making an exception to the search boundaries we've provided our agent so a "close to BART" address could also be considered.

 

Everything was ahead of schedule (because our county transit agency was building the extension instead of BART) but now the service date has been pushed back due to BART's sloth-like approach to programming and testing (I read somewhere that BART's computer system has never had a software update since it launched in 1972). 

 

Start date was pushed out IIRC from November 2017 to March 2018 to June to August and now maybe not until the end of the year.

 

[fan-of-fans]

My aunt had a similar if not same trash compactor in her kitchen. There was a white KA dishwasher on one side of the sink, and the trash compactor on the other. I recall the top door was a chute. I don't think my aunt ever used the compactor, but they did keep the trash can in it.

I believe, but am not certain that they were replaced when the kitchen was remodeled several years ago. The house was built in the mid 1970s.

 

[sudsmaster]

Ralph,

The house two doors down went for $775k, or $75k above asking. Amazing.

I am disappointed by the slow pace of the BART extension to SJ. Even more disappointed in the slow pace of the high speed rail system. I had this idea that when I retire I'd be able to hop on BART, transfer to HSR in San Jose, and make a quick getaway to LA or SD in the winter. Well, maybe by 2030, at this rate. Still, if the HSR system is half as good as those in Japan, it will be a hoot just to ride it.

I worked in Silly Valley for about 10 years. The worst part was the commute, once things started taking off in the late 90's. Initially I had a 50 mile commute down the east shore, with three major bridge exchanges along the way. I moved 25 miles closer in '97, but within a year or two it took me as long to get home as it did a few years earlier with the 50 mile commute. At one point I started riding my bicycle to Hayward and took the Capital Corridor to Santa Clara, and then the bicycle to work on N1st st. Then the 9/11-Bush recession hit and traffic got OK again. Then the layoff. Whoopee. But if BART had gone to SJ during those years, my life would have been a lot more pleasant.

 

[beekeyknee]

A bit late to the table....

But I was told the bin and ram on these machines get dirty and stink to high Heaven. I’ve never owned one so I can’t speak from experience. I know these things have automatic deodorant dispensers, so maybe this was a case of poor maintenance? Any comments from others with direct experience?

 

[askolover]

My newer KA (WP) compactor doesn't get nasty and smelly...because we don't put that kind of stuff in it.  The old one had the deodorant can in it, this one has a fan with charcoal filter.  Anything that could potentially stink gets taken straight out to the can at the street.