This is not a terribly interesting or entertaining blog post... mostly just pretty photos of my beautiful "new" vintage stove & double oven!:)
We have a Habitat for Humanity "ReStore" in Tulsa. We have found some GREAT deals there, including this 1950's Roper double oven for $75.00!
We also bought a single oven that was cuter, but less useful for a family of 6-8. Besides which, when Matt and Kainan were trying to get it into the house, it fell and all of the front knobs and handles bent or broke off completely. I will say there was one very unhappy little girl in this house. Our vintage loving 14 year old daughter was planning on that being her stove some day:(
Patrick helped with this stove and they got it inside with no big drama.
We had to move some cabinets because this thing is HUGE!
Thank goodness my husband is a genius, because this was in pieces when we brought it in.
We're planning on removing those cabinets above the stove and getting a different hood vent that will be a better "fit" at some point. I'm not sure when we'll be able to afford that one (unless we find a perfect hood vent at the ReStore!)
This chrome piece was a mess of rust and crud.
The oven was remarkably clean for being nearly 60 years old... but it still took some elbow grease and creativity.
I used a knife with a washcloth with "It Works" cleaner on it to get down into the creases. This little line of silver trim? I thought it had some black trim on the top half... until I started cleaning and it was just black crud build up.
I don't know if you've seen all of the "Clean ALL THE THINGS WITH AMMONIA" thing on Pinterest... but listen to me. Do NOT do this INSIDE. Ammonia is the most vile smelling stuff I can imagine. I don't understand how there isn't a warning on the blogs. I poured that stuff in our last house and we pretty much had to leave for a few hours until the smell dissipated AFTER I'd removed all of it that I could.
I just put the parts of the oven that came off in ziplock or trash bags and set them outside with Ammonia in the sealed bags for a few hours. Then they just wipe clean!
I sat the bags with ammonia on the back deck and moved on to the inside.
Easy Off Oven cleaner got my stove to shiny and clean.
The Ammonia stinks to high heaven, but it works!
I cheated on the rusty chrome. I can't afford to have it re-chromed, so I just used metallic spray paint for now. It looks a little tacky, but it still looks better than the rusty thing that it was before.
