My Stove

Susan, this post is for you.  You were wondering about my stove.  Well, like everything else in our house, it has a story.  

I knew I wanted an old style stove for my new, old house when we built eighteen years ago.  I thought about a wood burning type stove, but the reproductions were so expensive.

I found a new stove that cost $1500 just like the old one I eventually bought, and it was a piece of junk.  The bottom drawer wouldn't even pull out right.  It was very light weight too.

I found this one in a used appliance store for $150.  It was owned by a little old lady who only cooked oatmeal on Sundays.  Not really. I love it and have had to have very little work done on it.  The door on the left is a deep drawer.  I had wanted two ovens but figured I'd better go ahead and snatch it up.  Who knows when I'd find another one at that or any price.

See the towel handing on the door handle?  That and another one was sent to me by my good friend Katy.  She hand-embroidered both of them.  I love them, Katy!  Thanks so much.

See the tiny checkerboard area next to the floor where your foot hits?  That area is called something.  I just can't remember what it is.  Anyway, I stenciled that checkerboard around the base of my cabinets.  I could only do about three feet at a time before all the blood rushed to my head!  The only way I could paint it was upside down.

The little copper teapot on the stovetop was bought for me by my husband for our third wedding anniversary in San Francisco.  It has a blue delft handle and lid knob.  The grease container was one my Mama had when she first started keeping house in the fifties.  It didn't have a knob on top, so she cut off a small section of corncob, stuck a screw through it, and bolted it to the top of the thing.  It's now been on there for several years and is holding up fine.

So there you have it; the story of my second hand stove.  Someday I hope to write a book about building this house.  There are so many stories to tell. 

 One of my favorites is when the children used my clawfoot tub for a pirate ship.  It, along with many other bathroom fixtures, was sitting in the backyard at our other house waiting to be put into the new one.  They filled it up with water, climbed into large plastic buckets, and sailed away for parts unknown.