A Custom Cabinet

10:58 PM

One of the things that drew me to my house when I first looked at it was the kitchen.  And not because it was modern with stainless appliances and granite countertops but because it was vintage!  It is a very small  orange kitchen with 1950's era cabinets.  The appliances were all from the 1960's!  I loved it.

The refrigerator was made in 1967 and was probably state of the art when it was new.  I thought it was pretty state of the art in 2004 when I bought the house.  It was a coppery brown color with a freezer on the bottom and the fridge itself had a pole in the front left side with swing out shelves!  I cried when the repair man said he couldn't (and wouldn't) fix it.  Luckily it still partially worked so we had a small amount of time to find a new fridge.  Meaning I was 7 month pregnant and I had Mercedes dreams on a VW budget.

The stove was also of a mid 60's era.  It was a pull out stove with the oven on top (like over the range microwaves) and sat on top of a cabinet.  One burner only worked on high so it was the tea kettle burner.  The oven temperatures were not consistent so I had to put a thermometer so I could maintain an semi-even baking temperature.  If I wanted to bake at 375 I had to set the oven dial to 325.  Towards the end of the oven life it would shoot up to 500.  My clue the oven was on its last legs was when it took three hours to warm up to baking temperature.  The repair man said it wasn't worth it to fix.

The problem though was it was not a standard stove/oven.  It sat on the cabinet under it.  I lost a whole cabinet!  Bryan had to remove a whole cabinet in order to put the new oven in.   He took it apart very carefully thinking we would flip it around to the other side of the kitchen and install it there.  All of my pots and pans were put in a cupboard in the basement for the time being.   They remained in the basement  (except for the three that I use most often) for six years!

Too make a long story even longer, I just got a new cabinet!  A friend of my dads just started his own cabinet making/woodworking business.  He took the pieces from what we took apart and was able to use the cabinet doors and he made me a brand new cabinet!  Plus it has a butcher block counter top.  Oh.  My.  My pots and pans are in their new home.  No more going up and down the stairs in order to cook dinner!  You know you're getting older when you get excited about what basically amounts to wood!


Isn't it gorgeous?

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4 comments

  1. That cabinet is great. It is always nice to have your pots and pans within reach when cooking.

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  2. I love it Jennifer!! I love wood cabinets and wood counter-tops. I wish I had a wood counter-top!

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  3. It is so wonderful of you to support that woodworker. My brother is about to finish his training and start his own business as well and it is difficult to get started! Your dad's friend does beautiful work, nothing is better than that kind of surface too!

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  4. I LOVE IT!!! (I get sort of weird over vintage/antique stuff, too......my kitchen still has its cupboards and shelving from the 50s and I wouldn't THINK of changing them out!!! character. lots of character!)

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I love your comments. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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