Interesting old porcelain sink, counter, refrigerator unit
 

We're looking at buying a 100 year old house on some property in the country. We think it was repaired/restored/renovated, maybe in the 80s or 90s. There's a "feature" in the kitchen that's, to us, VERY unusual.

THere are cabinets in the kitchen with porcelainized metal doors. And the kitchen counter and since is porcelainized metal. And under the counter there's a built in refrigerator.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this?

You can see the open vent at the top of the door under the sink in this photo. And the cabinet doors over the counter are the same or similar to the unit under, but I think the cabinets themselves are wood. (I didn't really explore this that much.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1601223896.jpg

In this photo, you can see the refrigerator (not currently running, maybe turned off) on the right. I thought the small box at the top might be a "freezer" like little dorm fridges often have, but I couldn't get it open, so maybe it's not. Under the sink at the bottom, there's a box with a knob. Presumably that's the compressor and temp control. The fridge is surprisingly roomy.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1601223896.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1601223896.JPG

Before and current photos of the front.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1601223896.JPG
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1601223896.jpg

Has anyone seen anything like this before?

Look like a 'sears house'

Probably original cabinets. We remodeled one in the early 90's, I kept the uppers, all steel with wire shelves for my garage.

1950s - 60s. We torn out some of those cabinets over the years. I have no idea where they came from?

Looks like a nice place.

That's what I was thinking (the 50s-60s part).

Thanks, we're pretty happy with it, and hoping nothing keeps us from buying it. So far it's looking good. The inspection didn't turn up anything heinous. It's got issues (mostly minor), but for a 100 year old house, it's in pretty good shape. There's half a dozen native pecan trees on the property too. I love pecans. I brought a few back on Sat. Now I'm waiting for them to dry so I can try them. They are smaller than a regular pecan, and supposedly have a much harder shell to crack (apparently "improved pecans" are often called "papershell pecans". But the guy that told me that they are native pecans said that the meat is sweeter. (apparently, his grandfather had 4 different kinds of pecans on his property).

It's on almost 6 acres of land. There are 3 other homes nearby, but they are all just over 1/8 mile away and with natural barriers between this house and the others.

It'll mostly be a weekend place for us, and is just over an hour drive from where we're currently living.

All right, party at Steve's new house

^^^ Red Beard's in charge of the kegs! Good luck with the purchase Steve. There are a few pecan trees on my family property... both thin & thick shells. I never realized, until watching a doc a few years ago... they only produce pecans every other year.

Pull out all those plants in front and replace with some Azaleas. Would be the perfect plant for a house like that.

Hope things work out for you, Steve!

Get thee a zero-turn mower... it'll make mowing a snap (and fast) when you visit on weekends ;)

Which is good. I think the fenced area immediately around the house is 1-2 acres. THen I'm sure something will need to be done to the land outside of that fence too. I'm guessing maybe once or twice a year, but I don't know. It'll be a learning experience.

It's currently got an ag valuation (commonly call 'ag exempt') for lower taxes. I won't be putting cattle on it. I think I'm going to try my hand at having bees to keep the ag valuation.

For the "proper lawn" a good commercial grade Z-turn, not the crap found at Home Depot or Lowes. If outside the fence is fairly smooth, and free of debris, the Z might be fine for that also. Otherwise .... a "bush hog" behind a tractor once a year... mebbe you can find a neighbor (current owner mebbe?) that can do it? It looks like an awesome get-away place :).

Good luck!

Yeah, the current owner has 2 mowers and a large tractor in the "garage." They also have another 27 acres that they grow hay on.

They currently keep 2 horses on the property who roam outside of the inner fence. They keep 2 trailers and a horse trailer on the property as well as the various mowers and tractors in the inner fence and/or garage. The rest of the property that they are keeping doesn't have any buildings of any sort. I've wondered about maybe giving them a period of time where they can still use the garage and/or property to store the mowers, tractors and/or horses in exchange for them mowing/clearing the land. It would probably be temporary and we'd put it in writing so there wouldn't be any issues down the road. It's just something that I'm considering at this point.

Part of the area outside of the proper lawn is mostly flat, but another part has a ravine that runs through it.

Being out in the country...I would think a 'well set up' cooking area with plenty of storage would be priority #1.

Some of the cabinets in my 100+ year old apartment building are old metal cabinets some previous owner installed over the years. I'm not sure what era they are from. They have held up reasonably well and can be painted effectively if prepped properly.

I would turn the left side into a food-prep (clean area) right next to the stove.
Add a pull out garbage under the counter to sweep it all into the pit.

Turn the right side into storage.

If there is room put the full size fridge left or right, with a small table next to it to set stuff on.

Interesting. I would wonder if these were original except that they have an integrated refrigerator that would not have been possible in 1920.

I'll be getting a grill. I haven't had one in 6 years. It'll be good to have one there.

The house actually has a fair amount of storage space. The kitchen isn't exactly flush with storage, but it's adequate. Since this will likely only be a weekend place, at least for 4-6 years, we don't need to keep it stocked for the zombie apocalypse.

The kitchen is surprisingly roomy for something from 1920, at least, it seems that way to the missus and I. Most of our experience with older homes is that the rooms are usually tiny.

Hopefully, these pics aren't huge.
https://photos.harstatic.com/187055227/hr/img-11.jpeg

Very small pantry next to the fridge.
https://photos.harstatic.com/187055227/hr/img-14.jpeg

And then directly behind the stove-sink-dishwasher is a room that was probably once a porch, but now houses the water heater, washer/dryer, and some shelves. It's pretty roomy and could probably be pantry overflow for the less perishable items or non-food items that sometimes end up in a pantry.

That's a nice space. I could live with that.

When we did our basement a few years ago we went with a porcelain vanity that looks very much like your kitchen sink setup. We love it. I strongly suggest retaining all the porcelain fixtures and cabinets. The feel of porcelain is somehow better even than granite, marble or Corian.

Very nice artwork, by the way. Very inviting and comfortable space. Maybe you can make an offer that includes the wall hangings?

Are you still buying in town as well, or are you going to rent here?

And, when do you want the observatory built? :)

We are currently renting in the Montrose area, about 1/4 mile from the AIG building and bayou. We will probably buy something in the burbs next year closer to the grandkids once the kids figure out what they are doing.

According to the Internet, the place should be ~Bortle 4 which is very exciting.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1601348561.jpg

And I've been planning to get one of these.
100mm ED bino-telescope. Interchangeable EP, hence the bino-telescope vs just "binocular"
https://www.cloudynights.com/uploads...1529515618.jpg

Lightweight (10#) and easy to move around.

I should have been more clear. I have 6 units in my building. A couple of them have metal cabinetry and it is not original. It was built in 1910 or so and all of the kitchens are different even though the layout of 4 of them is identical. I don't think any of them are original. It's just been redone over the years at different times and some of the previous owners were cheap as heck. I'm sure they used whatever was the least expensive or even used at the time.

Gotcha.

The dark site for the Houston club is probably a mile away https://goo.gl/maps/LqvFUgDiFZLCpu2N8

Still, would be better in an observatory...sexy observatory...designed and built by your local observatory guy...

True that! I mentioned your comment to the missus and she said something like "that would be cool." So it could happen. Although it may take a while before we're ready as there are going to be lots of projects to do to the house itself before we start doing extra stuff. Actually, when I'm ready to purchase, I may reach out to see what sort of gear you've got available.

8.8 miles away, our property is just North of I10.

Near the greater metropolitan town of Borden. I can wave as I haul down 10 at 80 MPH. ;)

Yes, exactly, the address is Weimar, but on the map, it's Borden. Between 10 and 90 at 210.

I've seen many of these over the years in cool old houses in So Cal.

An electric stove next to a sink - what could possibly go wrong?
(And from the days when they didn't ground everything...)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1601663224.jpg

whacky, but also cool. Is that a fridge underneath?

Yep

I just never could get comfortable with water so close to voltage.....

That same sink/fridge/cabinet setup in the OP, was standard in all of our NY Telephone Co break rooms, back when I started working with them back in the 80's. Only difference was most had a 2 burner electric cooktop above the fridge. There are probably still a few around.


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Fortunately, we never see these shower heads..

https://cheapbeertravel.files.wordpr...5528.jpg?w=736

That's very cool. Thanks for the info.

Some people do it on purpose.
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/08/denki-buro-electric-baths-of-japan.html

It's a Dwyer Kitchenette

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Cool, thanks.