I can’t believe July is almost over! How can that be? I leave for Hartford two weeks from today, which, though I am always grateful for the work, is more than a bit disheartening given the fact that Don has just returned home after 4 months in California.
At least I won’t be dealing with snow and winter in Hartford this time around. Instead, I will be able to walk in the park and see the flowers in bloom.
Don mowed yesterday, I mowed yesterday, I had the passenger-side airbag replaced in the car, I pulled lots of weeds. I have more to do today and I’ll try to get that done before storms arrive in the afternoon.
We’re still dreaming about our vintage stove. We spoke to Marco at Antique Stove Heaven yesterday. It’s an expensive prospect: the stove, converting it to propane, crating, and shipping across the country. We waver. We go back and forth. But we love it so much and it’s still cheaper than the modern Vikings, etc. And more reliable because the design is basic and built to last. They knew what they were doing in those days.
I think one or both of us looks at this photo several times a day.
I can’t even…I love it so much. Do we bite the bullet and get it? I grilled dear reader Shanna (who painted the wonderful portraits of our dogs) about her vintage stove and converting to propane and more. Marco has it on ‘hold’ for us.
I feel like it’s meant to be here at the cottage. And an added bonus would be having a gas stove when the power goes out, which it does, as you know. We’ve had more than a few incidents in the past couple of years. We could still cook. With bottled water (which we always have on hand) we’d be okay. Most importantly, we could make coffee, since we use the pour-over method!
We don’t have a lot of money and we’re pretty frugal. The road trip was a wild expense for us but worth every penny. But we hadn’t been on that sort of vacation ever. Ever! It was a trip we will remember always, and it brought us even closer together. We’re still living with the sofa we bought 22 years ago and the loveseat I bought when I was living in Boston, which means it’s over 25 years old. Our chairs are gently used – in fact, everything is vintage except for our bed and the new ‘blogging chair’ I purchased this year – and my desk and chair in my office. All that is to say that we’re not used to spending a whole heck of a lot of money on anything. The things I collect are small potatoes, price-wise. Even all of the new cushions for the porch and the two adirondack chairs and small table and wire shelf totaled less than $200!
I just scrolled up and looked at the photo again. I am officially obsessed.
I could take this to a ‘fated to have this stove’ level when I remember that, as we were driving, I had my head buried as I scrolled through something or other on my phone and lifted it just in time to see the sign for Antique Stove Heaven. I mean, just in time. If I hadn’t done that, I would have never known it was there, on that street, and Don would have never seen these stoves in person and fallen in love with them.
Sigh.
And how am I going to leave my flowers, my gardens?
Sigh again.
The winner of a copy of Another Man’s Ground is Kim in Maryland. Congratulations, Kim! Send me your mailing address and I’ll pass it on to TLC Book Tours.
Happy Thursday.
Oh that stove. I can’t even. I’m like you. Everything has to be well thought out. It makes it hard, but oh that stove. xo Laura
I know! Oh, that stove!
Life is short. Enjoy cooking on the stove of your dreams. Think how wonderful your food will taste!
It will taste pretty darn good, that’s for sure!
I would go for it or go nuts thinking about it. I’m sure it’s a splurge but it is something you will use.
Think about it.
Your garden is full of beautiful surprises.
You’re right. We’ll use it every day – it isn’t frivolous then, right?
My mom taught me at an early age that if something is meant to be, all the pieces to make it happen will fall in to place. You looked up and saw the sign and suddenly you were in front of a vintage stove that is clearly meant to be for your cottage. I’m like you and live very frugally so a big purchase is painful. But when you consider all the ways you have not spent precious money, investing in a vintage piece does make sense.
We ordered our AGA from across the sea, a very hefty purchase. But we knew the moment we saw it in the showroom that it was the one splurge we were going to make for cottage in the woods. I agonized over it for weeks. But in the end, when it was set in to place and we were handed the certificate that showed the two craftsmen’s names with their signatures on it from bonny old England, we knew we had made the best choice. I love my stove that is new but vintage styled and can’t imagine anything else in my kitchen.
I hope to hear that you have placed your order and will soon be enjoying your new, old acquisition!
X Chy
ditto! hope you and don order that stove-of-your-dreams and soon enough you post a pretty photo of it looking perfect in your cottage. :)
kathy in iowa
Can you imagine how many pictures of that stove I would be taking? Constantly? Thank you, Kathy.
that’s alright by me … your photos are beautiful and inspiring, enjoyed and appreciated all the time (and needed now as i just moved into a much smaller place and there are many unpacked boxes still crowding the living room)!
i say “go for it!” that stove in california is saying the same thing. can you hear it?!? i think you do! :)
I think I do!
I love this story about your AGA (another favorite of mine). Good for you, Chy, and I bet there’s never a day you regret that purchase. I do think this was meant to be. And that Don was with me, so it wasn’t just me drooling over a stove. Thank you. I have a feeling we will be ordering it soon. Fingers crossed!
Can’t wait to see it in place! X Chy
xoxo
Claudia, will you be able to pay Marco in monthly installments? Afterall, you have a large readership and you’ve already mentioned him at least twice. Barter with a review on your very popular blog. You know you have to buy that stove.
I do have to buy it. That’s a good idea, Wendy.
I haven’t commented yet on the stove although I’ve read all your blog posts about it.
Claudia, if there’s anyone who should have that stove, it’s you.
It goes perfectly in your cottage; it will make it complete. It will make you happy every day.
I grew up with an old O’Keefe and Merritt, so when I see your photos, I think of my mother. I think of all the good meals she cooked on it, our big white stove!
Look, you’re not going anywhere anytime soon. You and Don will be living in the cottage for awhile yet if not forever. Life is to be lived and enjoyed; I say get the stove. You are people who get SO much enjoyment from your home, go ahead and enhance it even more with everything you love. When something’s speaking to you this hard, you need to listen. I think they have, from what I understand, amazing resale value; these stoves are clearly coveted. (But, of course, it’s not ‘attached’; it’s portable; you can take it with you!)
My neighbor tells me that after we sold our cottage, the people who bought our house ‘re-did’ the kitchen and while part of me was devastated, because I thought it was perfect and we’d left it largely original (don’t mess with my house, please; hear me cry!), I’m told they renovated thoughtfully, building on what my husband and I had already started. Anyway, the first thing she did (the new owner) was bring in an expensive, totally-refurbished antique stove with a double oven and my neighbor says it’s almost identical to what my great-aunt had in the house for nearly 60 years. Good karma. These are LOVED stoves. So, I think you and Don should get yourself some love!
PS: I agree with Wendy T. Great advertisement for the seller. Ever since you first mentioned the stove and Marco’s business, I’ve said to my husband (we are already here in SoCalif of course), “We are GOING there!” And also remember, a stove isn’t frivolous; it’s functional (yours will be functional AND beautiful; win-win). It’s not like you’re spending t he money on frou-frou…
The guy at Antique Stove Heaven told me that the O’Keefe and Merritt company was based in California which is why there are so many of them in California. I like the Wedgwood stoves, as well, but something about O & M has always drawn me. I think it was made for our kitchen and as Don says, it would be the star of the show! I do know that they appreciate in value, so it would be a good investment. Don said, “But what if we move?” My immediate response – “We’ll take it with us!”
I just learned there are two Antique Stove Heavens – one in Los Angeles on Western Blvd. and one in the South Bay on the Pacific Coast Highway – which is the one we visited.
We’ve already committed to taking our AGA with us if we ever leave this house. We do dream of building a tiny cottage overlooking the ocean on the West Coast where we’ve lived before and it would definitely be in our cottage there! Just another reason for you to say yes Claudia. An investment you can take where ever you land.
Thank you, Chy! I don’t think I could ever leave it if I moved!
OMG, my folks lived off Western in the 40s; I’m needing to get back to certain parts of L.A. anyway (that area) to see a couple of people and also get to a cemetery in the locale where I have a lot of relatives in their final resting places (great-great grandmother; great-grandmother; three of my grandparents; uncles, aunts, friends; it takes all day to find the graves [too many!] and I haven’t done it in years; my family’s been in L.A. since the turn of the last century, like 1903).
I wish I could remember this story better, but my mom was secretary to a school district superintendent in the 1940s (in L.A. county) and they had these home economics rooms/classes (major subjects for high school in those days…cooking, sewing; of high import as much as math and English and history, of course). So I don’t know if an order went awry or if they had surplus but Mom, as a newlywed, somehow got access to an unwanted but brand-new stove, and that’s I believe how she got her big, white O’K & M. She didn’t get it free but it was at some fantastic reduced price…and for my dad just getting home from the war and then searching desperately for a place to live as “Just Married(s)” (with a flood of servicemen descended on the city), being able to set up a home and start out with a new big appliance was a real boon for my young parents.
I didn’t realize the O’K & Ms were a California thing. I learn more interesting tidbits here on your blog, Claudia!!
I didn’t know either until Marco told me that’s why I see so many of them in California homes.
We went through a similar obsession/longing for a vintage stove after we moved into our 1940 house a few years ago. The kitchen had a slight refresh over the years but the cabinets were original and I just knew a vintage Wedgewood or O’Keefe and Merritt would be perfect in it. Not to mention the stove that came with the house was some low-end, hulking thing meant to look “professional” (it wasn’t).
We researched, we traveled several hours each direction, looking for the perfect stove. All were in the high $5K-$7 range. We found that the people that restore these stoves are passionate about it and know what they are doing. They are restored inside and out. We just couldn’t quite swallow that price tag though.
Our persistence (and patience) paid off and we finally found one that was the exact configuration we wanted for the bargain price of $2500. Only the inside was restored. The outside was in near perfect condition with only a chip or two in the enamel. Nothing a little touch up paint wouldn’t hide. We’ve had it over a year now and it gives me joy every time I walk into the kitchen.
Pic if you are interested: https://www.instagram.com/p/BHF6ZoXjISu/?taken-by=_andrea_jane_
Ours isn’t as high as the price range you mentions, but it’s a bit more than your bargain price. But it’s been restored inside and outside and they will convert it to propane as we have no natural gas around here. I so appreciate your take on it Andrea Jane, because the more vintage stove owners I hear from, the better! I have never liked the black stove that came with this house. I’ve wanted it gone for the past almost-12 years!
Just went to visit your IG – love your stove! I have a fondness for Wedgewoods, as well. Do you have two ovens or one?
Just realized who you are! I used to read your blog all the time. So nice to see you again. I’ve followed you on IG.
We have two ovens with a broiler under each. One thing about having the pilot lights lit all the time is the oven is always slightly warm. Great in the winter, because it warms up the kitchen. Not so great in the Summer when it is a 100 degrees! But still wouldn’t trade it for the world!
Thanks for the IG follow. Ah – my blog – I keep thinking I’ll resurrect it one of these days. It was a casualty of life getting hectic over the past few years.
I loved your blog, but I totally understand. It’s hard to keep it going and you were blogging for many years.
We’re trying to decide whether we should get two ovens or one. We don’t have conflicting things in the oven very often but I’m wondering if we’ll regret it if we only get one.
Well, I’m chiming in again. I’m not even much of a cook, but I owned a condo as a single person that had double ovens (modern built-ins of the time) and I absolutely loved having them. Sometimes you’ve got competing temperatures in oven meals and this just made it so easy to be cooking simultaneously rather than trying to figure out the juggle and have everything time out right when you’re ready to sit down and eat. My mother would lament the loss of her double ovens once my folks upgraded to a more ‘modern’ stove after I left home. I wish she’d never gotten rid of the O’Keefe!
Mother totally loved the pilot light on her old stove. She’d put day-old bread slices in it when the oven wasn’t in use and the bread would naturally dry. I loved dry bread (toast) with peanut butter smeared on it! Or avocado! I’ll buy a sack of what they call ‘crostini’ (sliced, dry French or sourdough bread rounds) at the grocery store deli because it’s the closest thing I’ve ever found, except maybe store-bought melba toast, to the dry toast of my youth. I can remember rainy days where Mom would even let our canvas tennis shoes finish drying out in the oven after we washed them; again, it was just the pilot (the stove/oven wasn’t turned on) but, yes, always a little warm.
I’m not any kind of expert on the old stoves, but I’ve always heard of them going for about $5,000 once refurbished.
The stove we’re looking at is quite a bit less than that amount.
The double oven thing is tempting, but the one I saw at Antique Stove Heaven had six burners and we definitely don’t need that. I think we could get by with one oven. I’ve never had a double oven and I’m almost 65 so I suppose I would be fine. I have a feeling it would be more expensive as well.
I grew up cooking with gas – that’s the only thing I knew for years. I’ve always missed it. I think you have more control over the cooking process with gas.
And chime in as much as you would like!
Yes, my husband is very accustomed to gas-everything; he grew up in the Midwest with coal/gas. Me, in SoCalif? There was a big wave toward an all-electric home in I guess the 60s here. One of my fave things EVER at Disneyland-Anaheim (Calif) when I was a kid was the joint Disney/General Electric “Carousel of Progress” in Tomorrowland. It’s hard for me to remember exactly, but the ‘ride’ took you thru domestic life in modern-family kitchens with all the latest electrical kitchen advances (the ‘all-electric’ and must-have kitchen of the future sort of thing). This was like mid-60s to late-60s in my mind. VERY popular Disneyland thing back then!
So I can recall, too, when my own folks went all-electric and, to this writing, since I’m in their house now after having bought it just four years ago when Mom passed, I have her electric GE stove/range and her electric GE frig AND her GE dishwasher. These are ancient appliances we need to upgrade soonest. Sometimes I get my timeline mixed up, since I’m ‘really old’ now (teehee) but somewhere in my later teens, they started going ‘electric’. On trend! Washing machine, of course…and they even had, til Mom died in 2013, an electric clothes dryer. The gas furnace is electric ignition. When the power goes out, we get in a world of hurt. In these days, summer, it means we also lose the A/C and that just makes me nuts. I have a good friend here who’s been in her house since the early 70s and when she finally remodeled in the 90s and changed out her electric clothes dryer to Calif natural gas, she couldn’t believe the savings on her electric bill every month. My husband, the cook of the family, despises…I use the word strongly, DESPISES…cooking on our electric stove; again, he was raised on gas in America’s middle states. (But, get this, he’s currently using an electric lawn mower!!!)
I’m always a bit wary around a gas cooktop. When I was a tot, the kid across the street had reached up as she grew in height and burned her hand rather severely when the burner was lit. Then, Mom had a friend whose bathrobe sleeve caught fire when she was cooking breakfast and this brought back awful memories of Mom’s grandmother fainting over a wood stove while cooking dinner in 1913, saved only by her young daughter (my grammy) throwing a pan of dishwater over her although my great-grandma was severely burned in the chest/torso (not to be too graphic, sorry; really, she lived a good long life and survived her considerable injuries; these accidents happened in the ‘old days’; my great-great grandfather died in a horse & wagon accident [late 1800s]when one of the horses reared [spooked by a panther/mountain cougar who brazenly tried to attack the team] and the wagon fell on GGgrandpa as they all tumbled down a hill; life was risky for our ancestors!).
Anyway, I just remember from my earliest memories of Mom constantly cautioning me around the kitchen range/stove because these things (other people’s calamities) would freak her out and stay with her; she was fearful of me ever getting hurt around the stove. Then, I had a work friend who told me that when he was about age 11 and his parents moved to a new house, he thought he was helping by carrying boxes in on moving day, so set a big packing box of kitchen items down on the stovetop and for some reason the burner was on low-low and not noticeable…next thing they knew, the kitchen was on fire and they just about lost their new house, so that poor guy carried that guilt around his whole life; very traumatic for a child to have innocently caused such a massive disaster! But ever since he told me that, I find I’m very careful about using the stovetop as a countertop, or I’ll look first and test with my hand.
I’m not particularly afraid of gas stoves. I grew up with them.
I like having double ovens but to be perfectly honest I’ve used both at the same time maybe three times.
The person we bought it from gave us an extra griddle. One for pretty and the other to use.
It is the one purchase for our house that I love the most. Not a single regret.
Oh what a great idea! I might ask the shop if they have an extra griddle or can order us one. Because the thought of trying to keep it pretty is daunting! My thought is that we’ll check into two ovens, but we would be just fine without that. Thanks so much for all your helpful advice.
Okay, my turn to chime in. I’m a baker and an avid cook, but there are only two of us now, and one oven is just fine for me. Mine is electric, while the stovetop is propane.
Right. We’ve never had a double oven and the O’Keefe and Merritt with the double oven is considerably more expensive. So single it is. As I said, I’ve never had access to a double oven my entire life. I think we’ll be okay! Thanks, Shanna!
Hate to only think of monetary worth but it is an item you will very likely be able to re-sell if need be and the thrill of seeing it every day in your cottage is worth the price! I vote “buy.”
Thank you! And they appreciate in value, so that’s a win-win.
Hi Claudia. I have a new but vintage styled Esse stove in my little farmhouse here in Western Australia. Huge purchase $$$ wise but never ever regretted. The kitchen is the heart of the home and the stove is the pulse. Go for it!!! You deserve it. Xxx julie
Ah, thank you, Julie! I’m happy to know there are other vintage stove lovers out there.
Get the stove. I believe more in falling in love with your home more than anything. Life is short and this stove will bring you joy every single time you look at it living in your kitchen. And being able to cook during a power outage will be worth anything you spend. The meals you both will cook and share. And two ovens! You don’t need two very often, but when you do, you really do. And the stove will fit into your home perfectly. Every picture, every book, every vase is screaming “Bring our stove home!!”
This one only has one oven, a broiler, a griddle and a storage shelf. We’re still wondering if we should get two ovens!
Thanks so much for the support, Tana. I think we’re going to do it!
The griddle was my great-aunt’s fave part of her stove!!
Yes and the 6 burner stove doesn’t have a griddle! I love that griddle. We sat here last night and made a list of everything we could cook on that griddle.
Can I chime in on the two ovens? I’m an avid cook and baker and have never had two ovens. Why two? What would you be cooking where one isn’t enough – unless you were having a lot of company? Just curious…
They are smaller ovens than today’s ovens – maybe that had something to do with it. We never have a lot of company and I told Don that whenever we’ve been making two things that need different temps, we’ve managed to coordinate it rather nicely.
Frankly, unless your a food blogger or a caterer, probably not necessary.
Well, I’m an inept cook (I don’t know why I even try my hand at it to this day and, now, I’m as old as you are, Claudia {not that you’re old; you’re the youngest-looking and one of the most-active women my age I ‘know’!!}; so, for me, it’s a lot of years of many cooking nightmares/disasters). My two-oven kitchen when I was in my 20s helped me figure things out for myself when I entertained. Somehow, it helped me coordinate! I really tried but I have zero talent when it comes to cooking (although I used to, miraculously, make a mean veggie/spinach [meatless], make-ahead [ricotta and small-curd cottage cheese] lasagna back then [would serve a dozen or more people at one sitting; just add in garlic bread and a big, green salad; and I’d pick up a gallon of ice cream at the store on the way home from work] ).
You see, if you are an experienced cook…key word, experienced; knowing what you’re doing… you’d know how to time out various dishes to all finish roasting or baking at the same time! I just didn’t get the right gene. (My ‘built-in’ double ovens, too, were small, scaled-down to a galley kitchen in a 900 sqft condo.) I will say, my beloved great-aunt (who almost lived to see age 100…she of the big antique stove with double ovens and a griddle plus six burners…am I right on that, six burners; yeah, it was six; how could I be forgetting this?!) was an exceptional cook; a gourmet cook (I loved her chicken cordon bleu back in the day, and her Eggs Benedict were masterpieces as was her beef bourguignon and also Beef Wellington; I could go on & on about her numerous and splendid culinary specialties but I’m going on & on enough on this post with my too-many comments!!!).
Her portions would be small but exquisitely presented on her fine china; meals were an event. But, yes, she entertained constantly; always a lot of guests, a revolving door of guests. They didn’t have kids, my dear-darling great-aunt and great-uncle…but they had a TON of friends and because they owned a good-size grocery store (for two decades), she had access to any kind of ingredients she needed…and because they owned a business in town (small town), that meant they also knew everybody in town so, yes, I sometimes wonder if the two of them ever ate a meal alone in their house!!
I wish I could ask my auntie WHY she favored her double ovens but she’s been gone 13 years now. I would have asked for her recipes when I was younger but they were so complicated, I don’t know how I could have ever followed them. She didn’t like to write things down, so all this stuff was in her head as a primarily from-scratch cook. She didn’t boast about cooking; she never talked about it; she just liked to do it! She wasn’t really an extravagant cook; she didn’t waste ingredients (Auntie knew the value of a dollar and she was very practical…100% Scottish [her parents eloped to America from Scotland in the late 1800s]; she was very efficient in the kitchen; very no-nonsense; I think cooking was her challenge and creativity, though).
Her formal dining room was my most favorite room of the little English-in-California cottage from the 1920s (two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows to gaze out of while eating and chatting; and French doors onto a covered porch (more like a balcony, since this was on the side of a hill) with a view of the river and mountains to the south, where guests could drift outside and see the stars with a fluted glass of after-dinner/dessert wine). Her dining room table could seat 14 and she was never happier than when all 14 chairs were filled by friends and family. I guess you can sense how much I miss this wonderful woman.
Her signature Christmas gift was a fair-sized tin of Scotch/Scottish shortbread which you broke off into pieces from the big pie-sized round although you were supposed to cut it into segments (my fave cookie; she’d make them so yum-buttery). She’d wrap the the large tin (usually a gold tin) with a colorful, wide, green/red tartan ribbon. It was such a holiday treat which we’d try to stretch to New Year’s Eve!
Sounds like the one oven will suit you just fine, Claudia. I’m so happy for you and Don! Can’t wait to see your new stove in your house; you’re going to enjoy it so much this coming Fall/Winter. Sheet pan suppers! Cloud biscuits! What a fun thing to look forward to! (Lots of exclamation points but, hey, your readers are as excited as you are!!! Sorry I got so carried away on this post…your posts are just so dang interesting and I love reading all your reader comments; it’s such a nice community you have here, Claudia. Nice reflection on you!)
Cloud biscuits in the new oven! Don’s creations on the stove. Heaven!
Yes, I love my readers. Such a stellar group of people!
I think the stove is a must have and meant to be at your cottage. We all have to splurge sometimes and this is a useful item at that! Beauty and function in one! It must be hard to just be back home together and now have to go away again to Hartford. Your gardens are looking so pretty! Enjoy the time home and order that stove! Hugs!
I can’t imagine it NOT being here now. Looking at that black stove and then imagining a vintage white stove? Oh heavens!
Just had a chance to read your trip posts and what a trip it was! Those are the best kind of memories to make together. About the vintage stove: The last few years, at my advanced age as a late-sixty-something, I’ve sort of enthusiastically embraced the “life is short” attitude. If you can at all swing it financially, I think you should get the stove of your (both of your) dreams. That’s my unsolicited advice :-)
I know that you’re right. Life is short and we want to enjoy our time here. Lots of time is spent in the kitchen, which morphs into the living room. It would look awfully cute in that kitchen!
Well, if you wanted to be convinced to get that stove, you came to the right place. It seems unanimous! I can’t imagine that you would ever be sorry to have it. As I catch a glance of mine out of the corner of my eye, a wave of happiness always comes over me. Mine’s far from perfect, condition-wise, and it was a lot of renovation work for Mr. Wizard. And I just love it!
I really, really want it, Shanna – and Don does, too (that helps!)
Claudia, oh my that stove..buy it . Think of the fun stuff you could put on the shelf. Life is too short , so you buy nothing new for years …
I know. I wonder if Don will get annoyed if I play around with that shelf? He’s the main cook, but he’s urging me to start baking again.
Well, you know how much Susan Branch loves her shelf; a changing vignette. And she cooks a lot; so does her partner, Joe Hall. He was at one time in charge of the kitchen at The Black Dog Tavern on Martha’s Vineyard. I knew about him before I ever knew about her!
I know! Don, however, might want to keep it clutter-free. We’ll see. I’ll sneak something in there!
Baking – yes! Think how extra beautiful your biscuits would be. ;-)
Yay!
I am 63… Life is short and we are only here once, so I say GET THE DAMN STOVE and enjoy it. We all deserve to spoil ourselves as much as we want. xo
Ha! I love it. We are just about to bite the bullet and get it, Diane. Thank you so much for the support!!
Claudia, shoot for the stars, buy the stove. You and Don are entitled to a
another spurge after your trip.
I am faced with a bathroom reno because of need rather than “time for a
change” or a trip to Charleston next Spring. I’m opting for Charleston while
my health is still good. A partial bathroom reno will be my solution.
We have to enjoy life without too many regrets.
Enjoyed all your comments and pictures from your road trip.
Good choice – a partial reno will get you through and the trip to Charleston will be unforgettable. Thanks so much, Lea.
That stove sounds like it is calling your name. You should go for it because you may regret not buying the stove later on.
Marilyn
I think we would, Marilyn. Thank you!
You love the stove: buyitbuyitbuyit!
Siobhan
Thank you, Siobhan! I think I’m putting a down payment on it tomorrow!
Oh, I think the stove is a done-deal. We only live once…. life is short…. having something to bring us such joy, and to be something you will use every single day, it is a simple decision!! Yes, I know it isn’t simple at all…… but after reading all of these replies, I think you have made up your mind!
Susan Branch surely loves her sweet stove. And I always love to see what she has on the little shelf. With the craziness and utter nonsense going on in our government, this seems like a gift for your soul. We need that now more than ever!!
It brings us enormous joy. We are so excited about it. We checked into the double oven, but it adds about $1600 onto the price, so we’ll use the one oven – which shouldn’t be a problem, since we’ve only had one oven the whole time we’ve lived here. In fact, I’ve never had a double oven in my life!
If you need more encouragement – when you loose power (and heat) in the winter, you can boil large pots of water on the stove – an effective way to heat a large area.
Exactly! And we’ve lost power before in the winter. It wasn’t fun! Thank you Anne.
I will chime in with the others here and say some things are meant to be – buy the stove! You will use it everyday and it will look perfect in your cottage! You and Don deserve it, and I look forward to seeing photos of it in the near future. :-)
And I wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed both your trip and garden pics the past few weeks. It is always such a joy to visit your blog!
Thank you, Lily! What a great group of readers I have! I think I’m going to put a deposit on it tomorrow.
Well…I think you two should go for it! The stove is all sorts of vintage gorgeousness. And…it’s useful! What more can I say? You just have to!! I don’t want you to regret not getting it! ;)
I don’t want to regret it, either. It seems as if we just might do it! It’s scary, but it’s also exciting. Thank you, Donnamae!
That’s a tough decision. I know what you mean about these big expenses, especially when you’re used to being frugal. We’re in the same boat. This is just my humble opinion, but I think if you two are obsessed with this stove, it will look gorgeous in your house, and you have the money to do it – go for it. I don’t think you two would ever regret it.
Thank you, Melanie. I think so, too. It involves a lot, hooking up propane (we have no gas lines around here), lots of little adjustments, but I think it will be wonderful.
OK Claudia and Don…this is the last time I am going to tell you..BUY THE STOVE!!!!!…lol
We are!
Oh, Claudia, I LOVE the stove! I think you will love cooking with gas! It will be beautiful in your kitchen and I cannot wait to see pictures of it sitting in its new home!
I grew up cooking with gas and I haven’t had it for years. I miss it!
Just wanted to comment on your cross-country trip. What fun it must have been! We have done that many times from Ohio to Colorado. We make a point to stop at the bakery in Walnut , Iowa and buy a pie and a loaf or two of bread to share with our family in Colorado or take back home to Ohio. There are lots of memories made on such trips. Aren’t you glad you did it?
That’s the second comment I’ve heard about the bakery, which wasn’t open when we visited Walnut. We’ll have to make sure we see it next time.