[MadMan]

Back in our old house, I had set up a 1950's kitchen in the basement, because my mom expressed a desire for a retro kitchen. Appliances were an Admiral fridge and a Roper gas stove. Both of which needed some work, but nothing major. We generally plugged in the fridge a little before thanksgiving and used it for holiday food storage until after xmas. When the whole family came over for a holiday, a second stove was almost impossible to do without. Especially with a thanksgiving turkey in the main kitchen's oven all day long, we would bake pies and casseroles in the basement. We moved about 5 years ago, but I kept the appliances. Sadly, they need much more attention now than before.

The fridge I got by putting a want ad up on craigslist, the reply was from the daughter of an old lady. The fridge was in the basement of their house, and it looked like it was probably used sometimes. I think I paid $40 for it, and the lady tried to sell me a Sunbeam mixer for $70, I was like lolno. The fridge always cooled very well (good old R12 system), but now it needs a door gasket ($200 from the antiqueappliances.com - the only people who still manufacture it) and as long as I've had it, it was missing a little electric heater that sat in the condensate pan and evaporated it, so if I run the fridge it just constantly drips water. Ideally I'd like to dismantle it entirely, sand blast, and repaint, because the paint looks terrible up close. Oh yeah, interestingly, it has two unique features, 1. it has a 'Magic Ray Lamp' inside (a little UV light bulb) apparently to kill bacteria and make ozone to stop flavors of uncovered foods from mixing, and 2. it has a glow-in-the-dark radium door handle INSIDE so little Timmy doesn't get trapped inside while playing hide and seek.

The stove I got from a for sale ad on craigslist. The poster was in charge of demolishing a ~1950s ranch house - no idea why, it looked fine. The stove was still hooked up in the kitchen of the house, which looked entirely original. Yellow countertops, floral pattern wallpaper, crappy linoleum, the works. I wound up taking a section of base cabinet and a bunch of chrome handles from that kitchen as well. I can still use the stove, in fact, it's one hell of a performer. Not like these modern stoves, where each burner is a little smaller than the next. All 4 burners are approx. 4 inch diameter, and each one is a double burner. One outer ring, and another inner ring, that's a lot of fire! Has great control over it too, turning the knob from 0-50% only operates the little inner ring, 50-100% turns the inner ring down a lot and lights the outer ring, as you turn it up, it turns up both. I swear it could boil a pot of water in half the time as our modern stove.

Sadly, the top deck or panel or whatever you call it, has two rust holes on either side. A common problem with Ropers apparently, it's because the pilot light heat is directed straight to the either edge of the deck. As it's porcelain enamel, I'd have to repair the rust holes entirely in steel (no bondo or brazing [not that I like brazing]) and send it out to be re-enameled, about $500. And I'd like to delete the problem-causing pilot lights, and replace with electric ignition. For the purists out there, not only do the pilot lights cause rust holes, they always took too long to light the burners as well. I stripped a junk stove of it's electrics not long ago, so I have the stuff for retrofit, just not the time.

And then there's that Kenmore wringer washer. I was maybe 14 or so, walking to school, which I went out the back of the house, through the alley, and a couple houses down there was this washing machine next to the garbage cans. I looked at it, there was nothing crucially wrong with it, so I wheeled it to my back yard, and it's been in my care ever since. It's been ages since I plugged it in, but I recall that it did run. Still, it's going to need the whole restoration. On the bright side, the porcelain is perfect, and the rest of it is just paint, so it just needs a couple dents banged out and a respray. Now if only I can cajole this one guy I know to part with his washer's timer cover and knob...