What you see before you is my “new” stove, a 1950s-era Magic Chef gas range and oven which pretty much outclasses everything else currently residing in my kitchen.
Never mind you that the new stove is currently residing on the back porch. It’s in good company. It’s got a disconnected Swedish woodstove and a mysteriously non-op gas-powered bar-b-que gril to keep it from getting too lonesome.
We’re Klassy.
There’s also a bathtub in our back yard. Not on the porch, mind, and not housing a B.V.M, but it is here nonetheless, awaiting its eventual installation in our bathroom. It’s an old clawfoot, circa 1910 (like the house, actually) and has since been turned turtle and tarped over, so as not to accumulate water.
So yeah, the whole process of renovating a house is a freakin’ pain in the ass. DIY has that whole “doing it yourself” aspect which, when taken into account the time you have available to do it, and the money required, and all that business, means that doing it takes for AGES and you end up forgetting what your house looked like when you didn’t have a full backstage pass to the stud show.
(sheepish shepherds get in free) (cats who destroy my beautiful seafoam green lounge suite, however, are barred from the premises – assholes)
Anyway, enough with the woes of dallying DIY. I really came here to show off pictures of a pretty stove, so click away and enjoy all of the chrome-plated, Bakelite-knobèd glory.
I HATE you! (No, not really. I am green with envy.) I want one of those desperately.
I have the tub tho, and got THAT installed. Nothing like the old tubs for a good soak. The fittings are a nightmare if you need to replace them, however. And I do feel your pain about the renovations. Mine is about 60% done.
How I came into the possession of this nutty old stove is a bit of a house-that-Jack-built chain of events.
A friend of mine had a big-ass 6-burner restaurant stove (with a non-op oven) that took up WAY too much room in her kitchen, plus a range without an oven didn’t suit her purposes well. Her brother-in-law just bought a house on our block, and was interested in her 6-burner range. She did some swap and trade with another friend for a more conventional 4-burner range, with a working oven. In order to install his “new” 6-burner range, Jack had to get rid of the stove you see above. I voiced an interest in it, whereupon he rounded up his brother-in-law and another buddy, and they just walked it down the alley and up on to my back porch!
It was truly a matter of right-place-right time.
So, now we need to get the Magic Chef tested for safety and functionality (last anyone knew, it worked just fine, about a year ago) and get it installed. Then, I guess I’ll need to find someone who wants to take our old, but-not-as-old Kenmore range.
That is one sexy hunk of a bombshell stove there. Clock and all, sigh. I trust you’ll be cooking with gas come next autumn.
I’m pretty stoked. Let’s hope it bakes as well as it looks.
Hello, excited to see your stove! We just got one from a friend for free. It is still sitting on the back of our truck and as soon as we can get four or five heafty fellows out here to help usget it off we will be extatic. The gent that we got it from had it painted fire engine red at a car shop but the car paint doesn’t hold up quite as well under the heat as the origional surface. By any chance do you have any recomendations of anyone who restores such gems?
I know that there are places that do powder coating which can be a pretty good answer to re-coloring an old stove, and surely they’d have the means to strip off the extant paint.
I have a Magic Chef stove identical to the one you have, I have searched and searched the internet trying to find out what it would be worth and this is actually the ONLY stove I have found that looks like mine……You wouldn’t by any chance know how much they are worth??? Thank you, any information is GREATLY appreciated!!
Unfortunately, I have no idea. I got mine from a friend who just needed it gone from his house, so no money changed hands.
From some of the looking around I did online when I got this stove, it looks like a good example can run to the thousands in working condition, but in non-working or battered condition, you might get a couple hundred from someone who wanted to part it out. The best way to find out for sure is to have someone who’s an actual antiques dealer have a look at it.
I have the same stove at my cabin, it works great. if you need parts or restoration info try http://www.antiquestoves.com
If anyone out their is looking for an early 50 s magic chef gas stove please reply to my email and I can send pictures thanks