Top THESE Kitchens!

[jeffg]

> Pic in 395941...

> Frigidaire range not withstanding, you'd never catch me in there... <

Too funny. Replacing the electric stove with gas is about the only thing I'd do in that kitchen (other than install a real range hood).

Gorgeous!

 

[appliguy]

the kitchen 395941......

Belongs to Pam Kueber of Retrorenovation.com. Check out the site it is a really cool blog spot and on it you can see more shots of her kitchen. Why would you change the exhaust fan Jeff...it is from the period and those type of fans can work really well. I personally would get rid of the awful Sub Zero Fridge she has and that hideous foreign dishwasher before I would get rid of the fan.....oh well to each his own....PAT COFFEY

 

[appliguy]

Circle W.........

The range in the pic 395941 IS a Frigidaire NOT a GE if you go to the blogspot above and look for Pam's post about doing her kitchen she says its a Frigidaire.

 

[circlew]

Hey Pat,

I enjoy looking at Retrorenovation.com from time to time, and remember seeing this kitchen before. I think I found the source of this confusion. In the section entitled "The Kitchen Comes Together - 2" under the heading "Features we love" she mentions the 1959 GE pushbutton range, among other things. There is a very nice 1954 Frigidaire range pictured, in the section where she talks about selling the cabinets she didn't need. Who it belongs to, I have no idea - maybe the person who bought the cabinets from her. Two things clued me in to saying the range pictured is a General Electric, that being the large oven door on the right, with smaller oven or storage door on left; and that it has the pushbutton controls. If Frigidaire ever produced a range with pushbuttons to control the surface units, I've never seen one. One of my friends family had a very similar GE range, they got it in about '61 or so.

The kitchen comes together #2! - Retro Renovation

Here are some first shots of the kitchen coming together. Features we love: Pantry cabinets look great. 1959 GE Pushbutton Range. Original sink (one of 4 salvaged from nuns’ kitchen). Azrock cortina floor. eBay coppertone spaceship light (with glass on bottom that mimics glass on stove.) Can...

retrorenovation.com

 

[qsd-dan]

"I personally would get rid of the awful Sub Zero Fridge she has and that hideous foreign dishwasher before I would get rid of the fan"

I definitely agree there!

I wouldn't get rid of the fan though. It's a nostalgic piece that was rarely kept intact over years of multiple renovations that usually occur.

I would change out the stove to something both earlier and TOL that's loaded with lots of light, like a late 50's/early 60's Frigidaire Imperial.

 

[appliguy]

CircleW.......

It looks like I am the one who got my info mixed up....I apologize if I seemed arrogant. I thought for sure that she said it was a mid 60's Frigidaire....sorry about that...PAT COFFEY

 

[appliguy]

Dan....I agree with you about the stove....

something a little more flashy in turqouise would fill the bill for me, but over all I still give Pam's kitchen 8 stars out of a possible 10........PAT COFFEY

 

[peterh770]

"Why would you change the exhaust fan Jeff...it is from the period and those type of fans can work really well."

They are from hell.

 

[jeffg]

What Peter said.

My mom's parents had one in their kitchen in Pittsburgh. It was unbelievably loud and virtually useless -- they'd have to run it for hours to clear the kitchen of smoke, when an actual range hood would have prevented the room from getting smoky in the first place. My poor grandmother was forever wiping down the kitchen walls and ceiling.

 

[qsd-dan]

They are from hell.

Please explain to us who are in the dark. This youngin is VERY curious!!

 

[danemodsandy]

Wall Fans:

In the Atlanta house I grew up in, we had a wall-mount Nutone exhaust fan located just above the backguard of our 1949 Loewy Frigidaire 40-inch range. While an exhaust fan's installation location (distance from range, etc.) has a lot to do with how efficient it is, I would give most anything to have such an arrangement today - grease, smoke, fumes and steam were whisked through the wall and out. The fan's grille had to be cleaned fairly frequently, because it would get greasy from anything being sauteed or fried. And the fan itself had to have a cleaning about four times a year, although the procedure was far easier than cleaning the underside of most range hoods.

All I can say is that ours worked well, and that I'd be very happy to have one again.

 

[toggleswitch2]

A telephone? In the kitchen? We're living like Rockefell

Whooowie, look at those kitchens.

Sandy: my mom's 1955 house still has one that she absolutely adores!

 

[panthera]

I had one of those fans right over my gas stove top

in a very nice trailer I lived in way back when.

After carefully disassembling and cleaning the entire mechanism, including the louvres which had stuck half-open through years of greasy ick, it worked great.

Best exhaust fan I ever used, period.

But - how many people have the time and resources to clean the entire mechanism every few weeks? That is what it took to keep it going tip-top.

Without fat filters to grab and hold the worst of the ick, there is just no way for these things to stay at peak efficiency for very long without serious cleaning.

Much quieter than a loud vent-hood and much more effective, all in all. Yes, placement is everything - whoever designed that kitchen really paid attention to detail. Little things like putting that exhaust fan exactly where it was needed.

Today, I'd try building some sort of frame with one of those large grease catchers you find in even cheaper range hoods - the kind you pull out and run through the dishwasher every evening. That would probably grant a sufficient solution while maintaining the advantages.

 

[westingman123]

The house my parents built had that exactly set-up, fan in the ceiling (with a pull chain, though). It was efficient, I must say. My Mama, being Mrs. Clean, took it apart regularly. I can still remember her muttering as she went up the ladder. Our next door neighbors had the same fan, wall mounted over the range. Much easier access.

 

[norgeway]

Only thing better!!!!

Would be if it was pink or at least had pink appliances,get rid of that vulgar dishwasher and fridge,that stove is a good one, but Id rather have a Norge Westinghouse or Frigidaire, the fan is great though,I have a new one in the box I found at the goodwill for 10 dollars,I am going to install it I just haven't done it yet, metal cabinets are SO MUCH BETTER than wood,they have tons of room in them and are much easier to clean than old wood ones,I have Lyon cabinets in my laundry,and if I find a set, ill have Youngstown in the kitchen.

 

[panthera]

I have the impression,

she built the kitchen more to satisfy her personal needs than our aesthetics. It just so happens that many elements of it are pleasing to us.

I certainly would be happy to go completely retro in my kitchen, back to 1953 but there is no way I'd eliminate the microwave. Some things require a sense of balance.

 

[danemodsandy]

Here Is...

...A Nutone fan like the one we had, except that ours was yellow and chrome, not all-chrome; the surround was yellow and the centre grille (which removed for cleaning) was chrome. It operated with a pull chain; if you tugged on the chain, it opened the outside shutter for the fan and turned it on. If you tugged it again, it closed the shutter and turned the fan off. There was a little slot the chain (a ball-type chain) fit into; that locked it into the closed position.

The installation was in the wall, about six inches above the backguard of our range. That put it at exactly the level of rising steam or floating oil spatters. It was a very powerful fan, so anything near it was sucked towards the unit and out. I've seen installations where wall fans were mounted very high in the wall, and I've seen ceiling units, and I can see where those would be way less efficient than what we had. I have missed that Nutone fan ever since we moved out of that house - it was the best kitchen ventilation setup I've ever used.

 

[danemodsandy]

P.S.:

This is close to the range we had. The one in the pic is one model below ours; it's the single-oven model (note the single round oven vent cover on the backguard). Ours was the double-oven model, with two vent covers on the backguard, and three knobs below the clock/timer. At least 300 pounds of solid steel and porcelain.

Sigh.

 

[westingman123]

Okay Sandy,

that's almost to die for. The deep well looks oh-so-much like my Westy Commander range. I swear, I'm gonna take a class to figure out how to post some pictures. This
Thanksgiving seems to have been hard on vintage clocks; the clock in my Westy finally quit completely. Matt's Frigidaire clock conked out, too. By the way, LOVE the sink with drainboards, I've been watching for one of those for years.

 

[danemodsandy]

William:

It was almost to die for, though my mother's take on it was that she wanted to die of embarrassment. She considered it a dated, obsolete blight on that kitchen, which she had designed herself in 1959 to replace the former kitchen which had been heavily damaged in a fire caused by the furnace's vent piping. Everything about the new kitchen (including a 1959 GE Combination bottom-freezer fridge) was new except the range; the insurance company would not pop for a new one, because the old one was still just fine after cleaning. Over the years, knobs snapped and burners conked out; Mom would not put one thin dime into repairs, because she was bound and determined to get That Thing out of there. It took her until 1973 or so, when she finally got a new Sears LK smooth-top. And then they moved out of that house the next year...

Go figya.