Historical December 1988 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
The workmen arrive tomorrow. They’re scheduled to come around 8:00 a.m., so we’ve spent the day putting our pots and pans and other cooking gear into boxes. You see, we’re renovating our kitchen and removing our stove. Taking out the kitchen stove isn’t something that’s done very frequently, taking it out and not replacing it, that is. Just because it’s not done often doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea though.
For us it makes all kinds of sense.
We decided to renovate the kitchen a few months ago. Like many other families, I think, my first wife and I spend a remarkable amount of our at-home-waking-hours in the kitchen.
We like to enjoy a quiet dinner and discuss the events of the day. There’s nothing like a Domino’s or Pantera’s Pizza, a club sandwich from Redel’s (with fries), a seafood sandwich from the local Subway Shop. or some of Straub’s chicken salad on a bagel to make the day complete. Add a Carta Blanca beer and KWMU and you’ve got a perfect evening.
As in any renovation, we started with what we wanted and left the budget until later.
When later came we agreed that the eight-jet hot tub in the kitchen was just a bit too much.
We began by agreeing that the old wood floors needed changing.
They show simply too many years of footwear and paw-wear.
We talked about covering our floors with tile or linoleum, but ultimately decided that new wood flooring would be best.
Once we knew that we were adding fresh flooring, we also knew that we could begin anew with our floor plan.
We could decide what stayed and where it went.
No longer were we bound by the infamous trapping-island design, the legacy left us by our “mom cooks and everybody elselooks” predecessors.
At first it was said as a joke. “We ought to get rid of the stove,” I stated, “it’s used as often as our old coal furnace in the basement or the manual typewriter in your study.” Karleen laughed and responded, “How – would that look?
Besides, the cat likes to lay on the stove’s covered grill in the winter.” The more we talked, however, the more we decided that it made all kinds of sense to take out the stove.
With our multi-talented friend. the microwave, and the broiler in the oven for toasting bagels. along with the telephone for pizza deliveries. we really don’t need a stove. Other than last Thanksgiving, neither of us can remember using the stove during the past year.
Oh, there has probably been a time ‘or two, but we sat for an hour trying to think of when the stove was last used and couldn’t come up with an occasion. Except for the cat’s resting place. that is, and he’s just out of luck. We’ve already called the Miriam Shop on Skinker, and they’re expecting all of our pots. pans, and other cooking utensils.
They should fetch a good price for these items, as most of them are still fairly unused. There’s one pan that shows lots of wear, but it was already showing wear when my mom gave it to us when we got married. We’ve primarily used it as a container for storing small Milky Way and Snickers bars in our freezer. Believe me. there’s nothing like a frozen Milky Way! Freeing up the area that our stove used to occupy will make our kitchen much roomier.
We now have the juke box in one corner. and we’re considering moving it more towards the center now that we have the space.
We are also talking about having the dishwasher removed, and simply eating off of paper plates and with plastic utensils.
After all, the pizzas, club sandwiches, and the like come in boxes or heavy paper containers, so there’s really no need to put the food on dishes which must be washed.
We have a trash compactor, so we can accumulate paper products for quite some time before the trash must be carried out.
We haven’t made a decision about the dishwasher yet, though. Karleen is undecided, but I’m lobbying for removing it because then we’d have room for a pool table.
We should be done in a few months.
This will mean that we can be on the neighborhood’s House Tour and Christmas Walk in 1989.
When we are. I hope you’ll all come visit and see our Kitchen of the Future,” a microwave and a telephone!
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, December 1988.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1988_12.pdf, printed page(s) 8; PDF page(s) 8.
