In person, however, i liked the look of pewter much better. It's warmer and softer. Pewter is about 15% more than zinc.

But I still wish it were called zinc!

So here they are, my faux zinc ... pewter ... counters.

and a long view

They do a ''Kitchen Revival Tour'' every year, focusing on 1900-1950 era kitchens.

The page below has links to photos from prior years' tours, as well as a link to an article written by one of my friends.

PDX Kitchen Revival Tour

''Sensitive To History: Remodeling A Period Kitchen''

Anyway, the next tour is April 16, 2011. I think I'm going on it, and wanted to highlight this event for anyone interested in PDX, and to make the pictures available for others.

Oh, here's a black-edged tile counter detail for the 1920s/30s fans out there.

Like, um, this?

Works for me!

The brilliant thing about actual vintage appliances is that anything that can break can also be mended or replaced, unlike modern ones.

Some older GW threads discussing vintage ranges:

Vintage stove: practical or not?

O'Keefe and Merritt oven

Any thoughts on reconditioned OKM ranges?

O'Keefe & Merritt 1951

Should I get a second oven if I own a Chambers range?

olesya, sorry..yes. Counter is laminate! We didn't have the money to do granite, and honestly wouldn't have in this house anyways.

And yea, my painter was cheap! At first he quoted me $320. At the time we were going with a different look. Going to do some distressing. And I believe a lacquer finish or something. When we changed to the white, no distressing..the job was fairly quick. Oh, and I supplied the paint which I believe originally he was going to.
I love the sprayed finish. It's nice and smooth, no brush strokes. The grain is still there, but I don't mind it at all. I didn't ask him to fill it or anything. There are some areas the grain is pretty heavy, and it seeped in pretty deep. Leaving little grooves. But, I hardly notice any more. I just see the over all result. NO MORE OAK! :)

kitchen monster, here are some pics of during.

all dh did was pop off old molding. glued, then nailed 6 inch MDF back where the old crown was. And use a little trim piece where the cabinet and MDF met. And added the crown back on.

Here are some pics and a few details:
Island:

Overview:

Refrigerator and pantry:

Message center:

Breakfast nook:

Our KD wanted an extremely large window area to bring in light, but made it fit into the old house by breaking it up and using leaded glass:

Sink w/glass filler, runnels, & built-in compost bin:

Built-in compost bin close-up:

Mug shelf:

Charging drawer. This entire cabinet is deeper than it appears because it is built into the interior wall behind it, gaining an extra 4" or so of storage space without creeping into the walkway in front of it:

Island cabinets:

Miele ovens installed as flush inset (I searched and never did find pictures of this, so hopefully these will help somebody else):

Cleaning closet in "invented space" from interior wall:

Extra depth for the vacuum was made by reducing the depth of the drawers under the pantry:

The placement of the outlet underneath the music player shelf allows the nasty cordness to be hidden from eye-level:

Toe-kick heater vent. The toe-kick face under the message center & island is covered with stained oak flooring. From eye-level, the toe-kick absorbs the correct amount of light and gives the appearance of freestanding cabinets.

The freestanding appearance is clearer here:

Drawers under nook seating area:

There is a powder room off the kitchen. This wasn't our first choice, but ended up being our only choice in this old house, and has been okay, especially considering its placement is directly next to the hallway and away from the primary cooking area:

Adjacent mudroom, which became part of the kitchen remodel. The door is to a laundry chute which we use mostly for kitchen towels & napkins.

Here is a link that might be useful: More pictures

**One detail I like: Old kitchens of the '20s through '40s with an undermount sink, rather than a farm or freestanding sink, typically have tiled-in sinks with a band of black or colored tile along the front edge of the counter surface.**
Marcolo, do you have a link or photo of that? It sounds gorgeous, but I can't quite picture it. Waah!

Found it!

Reading all the recent posts about quartz counter edges chipping, I'm wondering if it's possible to do the main countertop surface in Caesarstone with only the edges in tile??

Our previous kitchen was not old, but painfully small. As a two cook family, it just didn't work. We didn't have much room to work with to expand and, because of a window in the bedroom below, we angled the space to minimize the overhang. We started construction in August on the small addition and finished (almost) in January. Final trim, accessories, and window treatments still to come.

Our kitchen before:

And now...

Adding seating at the island was a last minute change and it has made such a difference for us.

Products used:

Custom cherry cabinets by Mills Brothers Fine Woodworking
Luce de Luna quartzite counters
Viking Range - reused from previous kitchen
Viking Hood - reused, but added chimney
F&P dish drawers - reused
KitchenAid counter depth refrigerator
Marvel Wine Cooler
GE Advantium
Terra Verre tiles for backsplash
Artemide pendants
Knobs and pulls - Restoration Hardware
Grohe faucet main sink
Hansgrohe faucet prep sink
Fanke Orca main sink
Ticor prep sink
Eye-Vac under sink - one of my favorite things. Just sweep up to the toe kick and the mini vac automatically sucks up what is in front of it. A must with wood floors and 2 dogs and 2 cats!

Here is a link that might be useful: My Photobucket

Bumblebee...hmmm...Could I use these as accent tiles?

The green tiles are Pratt and Larson R-gloss tiles. The tile is PF-28XX (2x8 field tile). The field tiles come in a ton of sizes as well as diamonds, hexagons, etc. The sample board is from Architerra in Austin, TX. My husband took a photo of the board a year ago when we didn't even own our current house. The darkest green shows a little light in this photo. It's darker in real life.

I also love P&L's Victorian glaze tiles. So pretty! Reminds me of Monet's Water Lilies for some reason. (Just sharing some tile love.)

You (or electrician) can put a GFI switch on plugmold, but if you're using it for all of your outlets, you can also put it on its own circuit and make the whole circuit GFI. Otherwise, there's a whole thing about the order of the plugs and switches where you have to know what you're doing to wire the GFI correctly.

The shelves never got wet because they were too far from the water source. It was a perfect setup.

I'm still trying to find the decorative tile -- I'd kill (well, almost) to use it again, but it seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. The pic below shows the decorative inset that was in the floor, just inside the curb that shows in the initial picture. It was set on the diagonal to echo the wall insets and the window. It was called Interamerica Indian Slate 13 x 13 Mosaic . . . I so wanted to use it again but have struck out finding it anywhere.

Here is a pic of my new pullouts. I especially love my trash pullout, it is high enough I just stand beside it and peel potatoes, the peels just drop into garbage.

My cookiesheet pullout

I ordered the transition and roof cap from AirShack.com. The 3 1/4 X 14 inch, 90 deg elbow was really hard to find. I ended up ordering 2 of them and a 3 foot stretch of 3 1/4 x 14 inch duct from a different online location (that I won't name because they charged $41 for shipping for those three items)

In the end I only needed one of the two 3 1/4 x 14 inch, 90 deg elbows, so if you need one, I have one that is unused, and we could probably work out a deal.

netbat: do not use thin steel pans on induction unless they are going to be used to heat sauces only.

Do you think this was due to induction technology or the burner was just up too high?

I was going to buy some cheaper Ikea pans that are induction capable because I'll be broke after buying the stove -- I hope they will work ok.

Here is a link that might be useful: blog

http://retrorenovation.com/retro-kitchens/

Here is a link that might be useful: Reto Kitchens

These kitchens were not very functional or attractive IMHO but I grew up in one.

Here is a link that might be useful: 1940 kitchens

Here is a link that might be useful: jotul in living room

If scratching is a concern, and I'm sure it can happen, many use a Silpat or other material between cooktop and pot. Me, I'd rather use that if and when it gets too scratched to be presentable. :)

But I thought I should mention that there were some people on this board who imported induction units from England and New Zealand before they were readily available in North America, who did need some service, and least one person pretty much junked two units because he couldn't get service back then. Inductors have failed. It is possible to have problems with induction, just like anything else. But induction has been around for a couple of decades and has been very popular in Europe and Asia. It's a mature technology, and works at least as well as any other.

In this respect, it's a lot like microwaves. There are all kinds of different controls and appearances, but most of the inductors are made by a couple of companies, who make them well. Other than the inductors there really aren't "moving parts".

I use a Waring Pro freestanding solid element burner for the pressure canner.

It may be several more months before I'm ready to deal with the range wall, so I'm hoping the new electrolux will be out by then. Would love a slide in but don't like the look of the Sears - but I sort of expect the electrolux to look about the same.

However now that I've gotten use to the idea of a cooktop and separate wall oven, I'm not sure I even want to consider a slide in again (I'm driving DH nuts too).

'Cooktops' would be the same in that if the current circuit is the same or higher rating, you should have no problem hooking it up, though cooktops are normally designed to be directly connected without a plug.

I saw the Samsung range at BB. Where the other induction ranges (Kenmore, GE) have individual controls for each hob, the Samsung has only one control for all hobs. You select which hob you want to set, then the setting. It apparently uses a 'slider' for the level setting. That is, you run your finger across a scale, left to right, to set the power level. This is different from those that have '+/-' buttons but is the same as the Cooktek Apogee that I have.

That's all I got. I would assume there would be both freestanding and slide-in models, since they already make them for Kenmore, but you never know.

Cons, for me:
It doesn't have the glide-out racks like the upcoming Electrolux probably will.
The burner sizes seem a little odd to me
Touch controls

Pros:
Although there is a backspash control, the temperature of the burners themselves is controlled on the surface near the front of the range, so you don't have to reach over any hot pots.

Here are the wattages for the hobs:

Left front 2400, boost to 3700
Left Rear 1400, boost to 2000
Right Front 1400 boost to 2000
right rear 1800 boost to 2600

The power boost function stops after 10 minutes and it then defaults to 'high'

Those power levels are consistent with other induction cooktops in this price range (and you have a oven, to boot!)

According to the owners' manual there are 9 power levels for each hob. However, there are about 30 LED's in a graphical power display, so I don't know if there are steps between the levels (which would make, in effect, more levels to choose from).

FWIW, Best Buy had it for $1700 and HHGregg had it for $1875. I didn't check what that included (delivery, installation, etc.) so by the time all those factors were included the prices may be closer to each other.

While I didn't use the stove, for as much as you can tell by just looking at it, it looks like a pretty good stove for the money. Would like to hear from someone who actually has used it.

I don't think my Circulon pans that I got last Christmas will work with it, though.

When they make it to my local Best Buy I'm gonna take a look at it. I wish Samsung would post a PDF of the user's manual. I'd like to know how many cooking levels the hobs have. My little induction hot plate only has 6 (that's too few), and Cooktek's induction units have 100 (that's probably overkill).

"The oven works very good, altough it is quite big for me since I don't bake a lot (I wish it were a double oven like the maytag). But i've used the steam clean feature and it's the greatest idea someone ever had to make cleaning an oven a little easier. Don't expect the grease to be collected at the bottom of the oven to wipe it down. You still have to wipe the whole oven to get rid of that, but at least is easier than trying to scrape it out. Love the hidden baking element though it makes cleaning a lot easier."

Does anyone know how well the steam clean oven works?

The PDF spec sheet lists the wattage of the burners.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spec sheet

When I bought the range, I was concerned about the enameled racks -- in my old KA range, they were SS. I'd take them out and scrub them with an SOS pad until they were shiny clean. I don't think I can do that with these ones. The directions say to leave them in the oven while self-cleaning -- did the racks get clean again?

The range is about 2.5 month old, light use, but just loving it! When the oven cooled down from the clean cycle, a swipe with a microfiber cloth showed that shards of enamel were loose. On the rack rails, shiny spots indicate that the racks themselves are removing enamel every time they are used.

I'll call Sears tomorrow and find out their reaction. Silly me, I just thought those lovely blue ovens had flaking problems. Now I find that this run-of-the-mill gray enamel oven is a flake, too!