Defrosting the Norge

So, one of the trade offs to having a super cool vintage fridge is needing to defrost the freezer.  I've never done this before, so I put it off a little longer than I should have.  Now that I've done it, I won't be putting it off to this extent again.  It took MAYBE an hour and wasn't really messy or difficult.

This is what I started with.  We need new seals.

This is the bad corner, where the seal leaks the most:

I know, I know.  I promise it won't get this bad again!

First, I unplugged the fridge.

I started by filling my "custom ice maker" with hot tap water.  I really don't understand why it's called an "ice maker", but it came with it and it's pretty cool looking.  I put a few towels on the top of the fridge door to soak up any water that ran out.

I put it in the freezer to use to radiate heat into the freezer area.  I've heard people suggest boiling water but that seems a little extreme to me.

Next I used a wooden spoon to lightly scrape the loose ice into the "ice maker".  DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT use ANY sharp or metal objects for this.  DO NOT scrape hard.  You don't want to a damage the inside of your freezer.

I also used a sponge to wipe up water, and dipped it in the hot water to wipe off thin ice on the sides and bottom.

I gathered the loose ice and just dumped it into the sink.

After about 15 minutes, this is what was left

Next, I refilled the "ice maker" with more hot tap water and put it in the freezer.  This time I simply closed the door and waited.  About 10 minutes later, I opened the door and removed loose ice, then repeated.  After 10 more minutes, I did the same.  That took care of the ice.  I used a towel to "mop up" the remaining water, and I was done.

During this period of time, all our frozen food was chilling out in our equally vintage cooler.  It was still frozen solid when I was done.

Reloaded the freezer, plugged it back in, tossed the towels in the wash and cleaned the little bit of water out of the cooler.  Done.  Easy-Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

A new fridge

We just picked up a new old fridge tonight!  It's a later 1950's era Norge Customatic.  We do need to do a little repair work, which we discovered after hefting it into the Cottage.  The shelves are sliders, and both of the back pieces that the shelves attach to on the left side are broken :(

But it is very cool-check out the handles!

Living Room, Part III, The Rebuild

So now you've seen the ugly truth hiding below the tiles...it's time to see what all that demo led to!

Once we had all the joists out, we cleaned all the debris off the dirt and replaced the sills:

Then it was on to new joists with vapor barrier below on the dirt:

We insulated between the joists so the floor wouldn't be so cold:

And layed new subfloor on top:

Now we had to deal with the ceiling.  It was covered in popcorn, there were several light fixtures we were removing and replacing, and the biggest problems of all-the ceiling was different where the closets were and there was a hole down the center where a faux beam had been.

This is the ceiling:

We had some choices.  Try to repair it, rip it all out, or leave it and cover it up.  We originally tried to cover it with 4x8 sheets of beadboard from the home store.  We got two pieces up and decided it looked awful. Then we talked about drywall, but thought it would look off in the room.  So we went with a product we've worked with before in our old house, tongue and groove pine planks.

By now, you're seeing the white washed paneling in the photos.  It's the same paneling, just sanded and white washed with Minwax Whitewash Pickling stain.  We DIDN'T follow the directions, which is why it has the vintage-y worn look.  We brushed it on, let it sit for 10-20 minutes then wiped it off with a towel.  It dried in some places and not in others, giving it that worn barnwood look.  It has to be done carefully, you don't have to use pressue when wiping the stain off, just let the towel run over the boards.

And now, the more recent "now" photos from the left corner to the right:

Next up, information on the cool stuff you're seeing in the now pictures, and the "what were they thinking" photos of the "framing" of the window you see in the last image.

Cleaning the stove, Part I

So, the Bengal doesn't look all that bad in the listing photos, but when we got there, we could see it could use a good cleaning.  I did some research on cleaning an older stove, and some looking into natural cleaners and came up with a vinegar water cleaner.  I mixed it about 75% vinegar and 25% water because the grease was really cooked on and thick.  I also mixed a 25% baking soda 75% water mix to neuralize the vinegar after cleaning. 

Here are some photos, BEFORE:

And AFTER:

It took about 4 hours and I'm not done yet!  I forgot to take a photo of the black cover that the burner grates sit on, but that was about 2 of the 4 hours worth of work.  I used a straight edge blade to scrape off layer after layer of scum and grease, and followed it with a Brillo pad.  I still have to finish that also.

What I did:

I mixed my vinegar solution and wiped it on with a soft cloth.  It broke up the grease almost instantly.  I then wiped where ever I had cleaned with the vinegar with a soft towel soaked in the baking soda solution.  Finally, I wiped everything down with a damp cloth with just plain water, and dried with a clean soft towel.  I am by no means an expert, but I wanted to use the baking soda water to neutralize the acid in the vinegar since I've heard vinegar can stain and I know that my stove's finish isn't in perfect shape as it is!

Stay tuned, I still have more cleaning to do on the outside, AND inside the oven and broiler too!  We still have to tear out the kitchen floor to do some repairs and find two replacement burner grates so the stove is not yet hooked up.  I am also still looking into converting it into propane.

A new wood stove photo

I just thought I should post an updated photo of my beloved Lopi.  It's been doing a great job keeping the Cottage warm this winter, and now that we've been here a bit I've added more "stuff" around it.  Mr Eclectic Cottage bought me an antique coal hod to use as an ash bucket.  We've added a great green jug with led lights on the wood box along with other things.  This was my "test run" photo session for this year's Christmas card, which is why there's an abundance of Christmas items:

A new stove!

As I had mentioned before, the kitchen range that came with the Cottage is in poor shape.  The burners function well, but the oven...well...it's scary.  So I undertook an extensive search for a replacement.  I started off looking at new stoves, but decided circuit boards belong in my computer, not my kitchen!  I've been wanting a vintage 50's era stove for many years. 

Originally I wanted an antique wood style stove, but figured insurance companies might not really prefer that (they did make ones with gas burners and a gas oven, as well as a "wood side" so we wouldn't have to over heat the house to cook in the summer).

So, I checked out all the great O'Keefe and Merritt stoves, the Wedgewoods, the Tappans.  I decided I really liked the mint green Chambers, and thought the griddle and Thermowell were pretty cool too. 

I found a 1951 Tappan Deluxe Doughboy with the great chrome oven and light up burner rings.  I was excited.  It even had the chrome crisper trays!  Then we remeasured the area we were going to remodel a bit to fit it, and found here was NO way it would fit :(

Then the stars aligned.  An unusual stove showed up on a nearby Craigslist.  A 30" 1950's stove!!  Anyone that has searched for vintage stoves knows it's rare to find a 30" stove that's from that era.  Typically they are 36"-40" or the smaller "apartment" stoves (21").  But, just listed only 2 hours away (one way) was an honest to goodness 30" stove!!  It's a farely rare maker too.  You'll find O'Keefe and Merritts, even Western Hollys and Magic Chefs, but search for a Floyd Wells Bengal, and there aren't many hits.  I have yet to locate another 30" gas Bengal in all my web searches (if you know of one, I'd love to hear about it).  All I've found are the larger wood/coal and gas combo stoves.

It doesn't have any of the typical bells and whistles of the era.  No bbq side, no thermowell or griddle.  There isn't even an oven light.  Just a cute little white and chrome stove.  Has a great cover for the burners though.  It's PERFECT!

Here it is (these are the listing photos, we haven't installed it yet):

Those two chrome "trim" pieces below the knobs are crumb trays, they pull right out for easy cleaning.


And the data plate:

It appears to be style AA-1.0.

We've got some work to do before we take out the old 30" Hotpoint and swap in this sweet little vintag beauty.  Two of the burner grates are cracked, so they will need to be fixed.  It needs a good, through cleaning.  All four of the burner knobs are cracked, so we'll need to replace or repair them (I prefer repair).  The biggest issue is it has been running on natural gas and we only have propane.  I've struck out with a local company to have it converted, but might have found a valve that can be switched from NG to LG with no orifice changes.  I'll be looking into that. 

In the mean time, we've still got the good ole Lopi to cook in and the Hotpoint has working burners.  I am not in a huge hurry to rush into converting it to propane, I'm just happy to finally have it!

This is a photo from when we bought the Cottage.  Look to the left, you can see the burners from the Hotpoint.  This is where the Bengal will be going:

And a more recent pic, excuse the dishes and mess, I was making chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (in the toaster oven):

A few more pics:

Uh, about that china cabinet...

It's a project in progress for now.  In otherwords, I got side tracked!  It's cleaned up and sitting in the living room, waiting for me to get the time to mess with it.  For now, it's fine as it is-perfectly shabby and cottage chic! 

I got distracted by our wood stove.  We went to Tractor Supply on Black Friday for a couple of new jackets, and I saw cast iron cookware on sale.  It got me pondering....could we just use our stove to cook on instead of the range?  Well, we might just  be doing that!  We picked up skillets, a dutch oven and deep pan and I'm fixing to give it a shot.  Especially after checking our propane tank and seeing it had dropped 10% in a week or so!!  It seems our kitchen range may be on the way out, since we don't use the propane for heat.  We're watching to see if it is just the oven or the range in general.  In the mean time, I'm "cooking up" some recipe ideas for the stove, including chicken soup in the dutch oven.  Lopi has a recipe on their site for frying pan corn bread, I might even try it tonight!

Here's the cabinet as it sits: