I AM CRAZY! PROOF EXISTS HERE

 Hello my friends.  How did this summer find you?  I hope productive, fun and going in a positive direction.  5 months have passed since I last wrote.  I wish I had more to update with regularly but not only has there but not much happening in my 1889 Victorian Restoration, but it has become clear to me once again that I go in spurts of energy and production and then to hibernation or floating elsewhere in the world.

The summer for me has been good.  Hardly any...well no that's not true, NONE of the summer has been spent working on the house.  I spent much of the summer working in Alaska which was great to return to work for as you can imagine very stressful in the new world we live in.  Then after I finished my extended time working in Alaska I spent some time in Europe recharging my batteries so to speak.

While I didn't get much done. I still troll the internet for things I think I need (Even though I don't) and but things I want (but don't really need.  Part of my obsessive collecting habit)  Long story short I have been on the look out for my kitchen ideas that will probably be done in about 2000 years at the speed I am going at now.   I knew I wanted an old stove and so I found lots of inspiration images and then the obsession grew from there.

This was my first inspiration that I really liked.  The idea of an old looking stove that was totally functional to todays needs and that vent hood matches?  I love it.  But these stoves are EXPENSIVE!! They are also really hard to find.  

I like the look of this kitchen and especially the butcher block island.  It also has a lovely early stove, but too small for my over the top imagination.

This is a delicious kitchen stove too and that hood is just perfect.  I start to see what I'm being drawn to.

This kitchen is keeping more in the Victorian style with a later 1920s stove. Close, but not quite what I see

Swoon! This makes my heart love.  I believe this is from the Magic Chef mansion in St. Louis.  A 6 burner stove, 2 ovens with a warming oven, broiler and storage drawer.. It has all you want.

This also has a nice period feel but more country like.  I love the ironstone because I have a big collection of it that I will have in my new kitchen someday.

This to me feels like a perfect Victorian kitchen with a later stove.  Love the wainscoting and I have indications that my kitchen did have some of this originally.  

This is obviously a very modern kitchen with an old stove.  I do love that blue tile behind the stove. 

Hard to see, but I found this image on Facebook one day and fell in love with the stove and had to find out what type it was. 

SWOON! Oh look at this beauty! I love everything about it! The legs, the color, but am I just being dramatic in the fact that I am disappointed that it doesn't have a storage drawer?  Sure 6 burners, 2 ovens, a warming drawer and a broiler are nice, but where do I put my cast iron pans?  Plus this one restored was asking over $10,000.  Geeze, maybe if I win the lottery.  

A Similar strove as before but again no storage drawer and if I'm going to make one more complaint, I have my old kitchen chimney on the left, meaning i think I want the taller part to go next to the chimney.  Sounds good and easy right?  Well from my research I find that very few were made with left stacks, more were made with right stacks.  So let's just make this even harder Matt.

I would KILL for the this refrigerator and for the space to put it in. I love nearly everything about it.

BUT I THEN FOUND A KITCHEN THAT IS NOT EXACTLY MY INITIAL STYLE I WOULD BE DRAWN TO AND I DECIDED MAYBE THIS SHOULD BE MY INSPIRATION KITCHEN

I actually love this green kitchen.  Funny because the house is green, everything is green in this damn house, but if you asked me if I liked the color green I would shrug.  I would say my favorite color is something else, so what about green is my house and me drawn to?  

Look at this set up!  6 Burners, 2 ovens, broiler, warming drawer and storage drawer and oh yeah it has a left stack.  I loved everything about this picture.  Even the Ikea style cabinets I don't hate.  The floor and tilework.  It's not Victorian clearly, but a nice late 1920s/ early 1930s kitchen and I thought.. yeah I could live with this.  BUT this stove is probably one of a kind and I'll never find one like it.  Surly not one with a left stack and that I can afford.  It all seemed too far out of reach....BUT......................................................... My obsessive searches and one day Ebay popped up a very similar stove... but in California.  Being in Minnesota  that's no short drive.  I dreamed that I could have this stove, but just couldn't think of a way to make it work.   MONTHS went by and I decided to throw out a low offer for the stove just for fun AND THE SELLER ACCEPTED!!! OMG.!! So now how in the heck so I get an 800 pound stove from CA TO MN AND I am still perhaps 10,000 years away from doing my kitchen...BUT THESE STOVES DON'T COME UP!! So here are my pictures of my stove I have bought sight unseen that as I write this, is being transported across the USA to the star of the north state.

NOT ONLY HAD I BOUGHT THIS STOVE BUT IT HAS ALREADY BEEN RESTORED AND IS TOTALLY FUNCTIONAL!!!  I cannot believe I have done this!

Here is a historic image of the stove, although slightly different.  This image included a vertical broiler along with the horizontal broiler.  sigh ok I guess I can live with only one broiler.  The stove is made by Wedgewood and is a really lovely late 1920s early 1930s stove.  Top of the line really and a massive piece. I mean every single person needs a stove like this right?  So now that I'll have the beauty in a few days I HOPE it forces me to get going closer to the kitchen to get this beast in.  All I know is that I am crazy.  This seems to be my motive in this old house.  I find 1 piece for the room or have 1 idea and I build a whole room around it.  It seems my kitchen will be no different.  Please pray for my intervention as I am an antique-aholic.