Kitchen: Farewell Vintage Appliances
February 16, 2012 by Aimee • 19 Comments
DIY Kitchen Makeover: Selling Vintage Appliances
In order to design our kitchen, we needed to have a better idea on the size of appliances that would replace our vintage appliances.
In almost every avenue of life, the word ‘vintage’ makes me squeal in delight, but something about this kitchen, including the appliances totally put me in a bad mood! Dark, dreary and dysfunctional! When we started shopping for new appliances, I found a new pep in my step!
As you may recall, this oven range cooked at a constant 475 degrees for the first 8 months we lived here…and after a long day of house projects, when I finally got around to throwing dinner in the oven having to stand at the oven door and open it to peek in continuously to make sure it didn’t burn really bugged! In searching for a new oven, we didn’t want to have to replace the cabinet and 1950s ovens were considerably smaller than ovens made today. For me, as long as I could bake two sheets of cookies or cook a large turkey at Thanksgiving in the oven, I was fine with the size, searching for it was the biggest obstacle I could foresee.
And this stove top was absolutely perfect because when I gave up using the oven and resorted to using the stove top, I could just put my sweet B’s in charge of the cooking since it was totally at their reach! NOT! But let me tell you, when little kids came over to play, this stove top definitely bugged! I also knew that we were going to have to get creative when it came time to replace the stove top, because behind those buttons was an obvious big hole in the cabinetry. The size of stove top wasn’t as big of an issue though because I definitely wasn’t partial to the flesh colored tile! Plans for a new counter top…definitely in the works!
The flesh colors throughout this 56 year old house made me feel a little ill after a while, although I have to say, the previous {and only other owner} of this house must have been a meticulous housekeeper, I found very little grime anywhere!!! I should have asked her daughter when we bought the house if she had a copy of her cleaning routine…definitely wouldn’t be asking for the name of her designer!
Out of the entire kitchen, the automatic dishwasher upgrade was an absolute plus! Despite how painful it was to cook in this kitchen, the clean up was a definite breeze! If I hadn’t’ had a definite vision for this kitchen, I may have been tempted to just leave it…and truthfully I felt a bit guilty to let it go before I used it’s full life! Thankfully, we listed it on Craigslist for a good price…we were paid to have it towed away!
We brought our refrigerator over from our two story house, knowing it would be awhile before we could start working on the kitchen. Thankfully, it sold right away on Craigslist helping cushion our appliance fund just a bit! It was a good refrigerator, but after owning it for 8 years, I knew a few things that I wanted to be different in my next refrigerator. (1). I knew I wanted the fridge on top/freezer drawer on bottom style. I interviewed tons of friends and family, and heard two different schools of thought, but the majority really loved the new style! For myself, I’m not a huge freezer person, I like fresh ingredients for the most part and so the convenience of reach and the extra usable space, made tons of sense! (2). I love the look of a refrigerator that is streamline and without gadgets on the front. In this house, we added wood floors into the kitchen to match the wood floors that flowed throughout the rest of the house. With three sweet kids and their friends over LOTS, I knew that I did not want a water and ice dispenser in the door. I didn’t want to run the risk of having ice cubes dropping from the dispenser and being left to melt, or cups filling and overfilling onto the floor and not noticing until the next morning?!?! Probably wouldn’t have been a huge deal, but for me I knew I wanted to find a refrigerator that had an ice dispenser in the freezer drawer and opt out of a water dispenser. (3). I also knew that we needed to find a refrigerator that had great storage solutions because our current refrigerator hung over the dining room doorway by at least 8 inches…the only alternative to an expensive kitchen remodel, with new cabinets and such, was to find a smaller fridge! We wrote down our required measurements and knew that finding the right one was definitely going to take some work!
More Rancher Kitchen Updates.
Oh my goodness, Aimee! I can’t imagine trying to cook without an oven. I couldn’t do it. Sounds like you have been patient and I really admire you for that. I can’t wait to see your new kitchen. Yours reminds me a lot of my son and daughter-in law’s. They are making do while they save up for their new home. Great idea! Come on over and visit me!
ah i want to see! how exciting…a new kitchen!
I can’t wait to see!! Oh bless you for living with those museum-worthy appliances!
Please don’t keep me hanging too long, I can’t wait to see what you do with this kitchen. We recently replaced our frig with a counter dept model and I really had to work to get it organized to work for us. Keep up the good work.
Traci
Oh my goodness that oven and stove top look like nightmares!
Your new appliances will be a wonderful change!
cant wait to see the after pictures!
Can’t wait.. I know it will look amazing when you are done, it always is!! have a great weekend!
Oh I can’t wait to see what you are going to do!!!!
Oh you are just teasing us Aimee!
dee dee
Cant wait to see it all done! It must be a good feeling to get some new appliances.
Oooh I can’t wait to see! I’m sure you’ve got something amazing for us!
Allyson
http://cupcakescandycanes.blogspot.com
I agree with you about loving most vintage things…but not appliances! We recently replaced our 40 year old electric stove/oven with a new gas model. Even though it isn’t high end, and we had to plumb it for the gas, it is night and day different! Soooo much better. I’m happy for you to move into modern times!
Can’t wait to see the updates on the this! It’s always nice to get new appliances:)
How could you have possibly cooked with that oven? Wow….everything was burned to a crispy crunch! Appliances should not be vintage….they might even be dangerous…like your oven!
xo,
RJ
Oh, my goodness! I had the SAME problem with our oven when we moved in, lol!! We would turn it on and up and away it would go. Wow, that was frustrating. Ours went all the way past 500 and topped out I don’t know where-the oven thermometer we bought circled all the way around. My husband fixed the oven and now I love it–it was a stainless steal vintage. I also have the exact stove top you do except mine is white and the buttons are on top. I love mine except that the burner pans get really dirty and it’s not easy to find replacements. Anyhow, I love reading your blog. Just had to stop in and say hi when I saw that you had that soaring temp problem in your oven, too.
Aimee, I love kitchen makeover like yours the most because you really have to use creativity and imagination to make the best of what you have! Your kitchen turned out amazing! You should be so proud of all your hardwork! Wishing you a wonderful weekend! Angie xo
Can’t wait to see what you do to it …. My homes’s only previous owner was a tidy housekeeper also. Appliances were Old as dirt (as we say) but they were super clean. I will definitely check back.
Enjoy your new appliances and kitchen! Thanks for joining us on our “Strut Your Stuff Saturday.” We hope you come back next Saturday. We would love to have you share more wonderful ideas! -The Sisters
Oh man! That is a trial for sure! Can’t wait to see the new look!