This Oven's Insane Makeover Will Make You Wish You'd Kept Grandma's Old Kitchen Stuff
The struggle of cleaning out your house or apartment is real. On the one hand, you want to get rid of everything not currently being used, declutter, and feel clean and organized AF. On the other hand, once those trash cans come out, you suddenly can't bear to part with things you didn't even know you actually owned. Sentimental value! Your children may want that one day! What if those clothes suddenly come back in style? But this story of an old ovens refurbishment is going to justify every old item you currently have piling up in your garage or closets. And if you're one of the few who are able to easily part with things and tossed that old stuff years ago, it's going to rock your entire world.
When Annemarie Conte and her husband decided to renovate their home, she knew instantly that she wanted to design the kitchen around her old, childhood stove. It had been hidden for years in her parent's garage when they decided to replace it with a newer model. The 600-pound Chambers stove from 1953, however, though an incredible oven to cook in, was extremely old, and popping it into a brand, spankin' new kitchen was not an option. So she reached out to The Stove Lady, Carlita Belgrove, to turn her antique into something a little more befitting of a modern kitchen.
This wasn't an undertaking that was necessarily cost or time effective-restoring old stoves takes an incredible amount of work, and as Belgrove told Delish, it's not something she recommends doing on your own due to the electrical intricacies of a project like this, but Conte knew it would be worth seeing the project through. Not only did this stove hold sentimental value, but Chambers ranges are truly exceptional ovens. They outperform modern ranges, have unique features such as the oven cooking with the gas turned off and a Thermowell, and are well equipped to last 50+ years.
In addition, copper Chambers stoves like Conte's are especially rare. "When the movers came to get it from my parents' garage, they got really excited and said they'd never seen a copper Chambers in person. These are guys who move stoves all the time, so that was a really cool feeling, to have something so rare," Conte said.
And when you see it in it's restored glory, you're totally going to understand this undertaking.
I mean-whoa. If "Fixer Upper" has taught us anything, it's that we love seeing the impossible made possible, the almost ruined turned into something incredibly beautiful and functional, and this stove's transformation is definitely one for the books.
But what should have been a happy ending ended up much more unfortunate-Conte and her husband ended up not renovating their kitchen, and their current one is much too small to accommodate the stove. "The idea of putting it into storage makes me want to cry. I really want it to go to a home where it will be loved and used," Conte said.
To Conte, it's not about making money, it's about wanting this piece of her childhood to go to a home where it will be loved and used," she says. "Anyone interested in buying the stove can contact me through my web site, annemarieconte.com."
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