Dateline: At the intersection of synchronicity and good luck
Can we all just thank God for insomniac interior designers? Julio can’t sleep, and it’s been a boon for me.
About ten days ago, I kind of threw in the towel on my ability to pick flooring that would complement my 1930’s house and remain more-or-less period correct. Yeah, I could do it. But there are folks more talented than me out there, and I’m making a big investment. As I’ve alluded before, my friend, Julio, is an incredibly talented interior designer. Better yet, he’s as in love with Art Deco as I am. When I bought the house, I was hoping he’d give me a tip or two. And he did come by, tour the house, and provide some helpful suggestions. Secretly, I hoped he’d do more. But I didn’t want to press him either. After all, designing interiors is what he’s doing for a living, and no one likes a mooch.
So last week I just asked him if he could perhaps work on the project for me. Maybe design a bathroom for me, maybe help me decide exactly what to do about a surface for my ground floor. I’d of course pay him a reasonable fee. We had lunch last week and he said he’d love to work on the project.
Well, literally the next day, he sent me a text message. “Yesterday I was gripped by insomnia and I couldn’t stop thinking about your house project. I set myself to looking for a stove for you, and I found a divine one! It’s in perfect shape, and I’m excited! They already sent me photos; can I send them to you?“
And you can see that what follows is PERFECT for a 1930’s kitchen. An O’Keefe & Merritt stove from exactly that era, in nearly perfect shape. I think there’s one small chip and that’s it. It looks like someone who always ate out bought that stove for the looks and then never used it.
Yesterday we went to see the stove. The asking price was $18,000 (about $900 USD), but we negotiated it down to $15,000. I put down a $2,000 deposit. Best of all, delivery is free, and the store is happy to keep it as long as I need them to.
This is literally the stove of my dreams, and it turned up as soon as we asked for it.
The universe seems to be on my side.
El Gringo Suelto 
That stove is amazing. I can’t spot the chip. Only thing to double check is the thermostat in the oven. It might need calibration or replacement, though judging by the a+ condition of the stove it should work ok.
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Hola Al!
The chip is on the lower hinge of the left side door. I’ll admit it isn’t the greatest photo, but I’ll guess you can probably see it now that I’ve pointed it out. As for the thermostat, I don’t think it has one. Ovens of that era had a variable gas valve, like the burners, and people learned where to turn the dial to maintain a temperature. The “modern” oven in my apartment here is like that. So I’ll just have to learn how many degrees rotation of the knob relates to degrees of temperature. Cheers and thanks for your comment!
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OMG I have serious stove envy!!! Have been looking for a wonderful stove for a number of years. I’d have snapped this one up in a heartbeat had I found it first and had it fit my space. Love it and am so happy it’s found its home with you!
Might you send me the name of the store that sold it? Perhaps they have or could be on the lookout for one for me. Thank you in advance.
And thank you for staying true to the period in the kitchen. It makes me crazy when people have cool period houses and then go ultra-modern in the kitchen.
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Hola Barbara,
Thanks for the comment. I’m glad I got to that stove before you, hehe. In the states, such stoves aren’t particularly rare, at least in worse condition. But here? It seemed like a Godsend. So I snapped it up. Before Julio finding it, I was even beginning to think about driving my C280 back to Boston, and then swapping it out for my truck so I could buy such a stove somewhere between Boston and Laredo, and schlep it down here. Fortunately I was spared.
The store where I bought the stove is quite interesting. They have a TON of old furniture, refrigerators from the 50’s, an amazing wall of beat boxes from the 80s, old TVs, whatever, piled into a couple of floors of an old building. The business is called:
El Bazar de Toño
Lago Zug 21, Torre Blanca, Mexico City, Ciudad de México. The store is on the corner of Lago Zug and Calzada México-Tacuba.
This is an alternate address: Calzada Mexico – Tacuba 868 Esq, Lago Zug, Torre Blanca, Miguel Hidalgo, 11280 CDMX.
Both addresses will get you to the same place.
55 1228 7563
Don’t expect them to speak English, hehe.
He also showed me a 1950’s O’Keefe & Merritt stove in red enamel. I’ve never seen such a thing (in red) and probably won’t ever see one again. It was an amazing stove, 36″. It’s in good shape, save for a bit of shattered enamel on the left side of the panel that holds the knobs. That could probably be fixed with bondo and auto paint, though it’ll never be as tough as the enamel.
I joked with the guy that if I bought it, I’d only be able to make Mexican food as with a red stove, green kitchen, and white cabinets, I’d have the colors of the Mexican flag. But, it’d never have really worked with my kitchen. If I were to do a 50s kitchen, that’d be a whole other matter. He’s asking $50,000 MN, probably a steal compared to what such a rare thing would cost in the states.
Anyway, send me a message if I can help further.
Cheers and thanks for your comment.
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Thank you!! I’m going to have a friend who is from there and goes often check things out next time he’s there. I absolutely love period stoves! Yours is such a sweet deal – after seeing it I’m not going to give up on finding one. I’ll let you know if I do!
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Barbara: I wish you the best of luck. When I was there, they had the red stove I mentioned, plus a stove that might or might not be complete. It was hard to tell as it was under a pile of junk. That “store” isn’t easy to navigate. Much of what they have is just piled up here and there. But if you like old junk, and aren’t afraid to poke around, treasures can be found. There’s a large, mid-century dining table for 8 with chairs and a sideboard and the guy wants $20,000, which seems like a steal. I’m sort of tempted, as it’d fit into my enormous dining room. But I’m not really trying to do mid-century. Cheers!
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Natural gas or propane? You might run a little gas through the system before you fork over the rest of the funds. Getting parts for old stuff is hard, retrofitting to modern burners and internal controls might be something to investigate.
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Hola Norm,
They told me that it’s LP, which makes sense as there is little piped, natural gas here. I already took delivery of the stove this afternoon, so whatever problems it has are truly mine now. That said, these old babes are built like battle tanks, only tougher. I doubt anything is wrong. Even the tubes to the burners are a solid cast iron piece that’s part of the burner. Cheers!
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Natural gas only arrived in CDMX to any extent in the last decade or so. Battle tanks is correct. You won’t have any problems.
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I grew up with a propane fueled Wedgewood stove, probably from the 20s. While the burners and oven were gas-fired, there was a wood burner on the left side, with this amazing crank device that would shuffle the grates to sift the ash into a metal box which you could use to throw away the ashes. I never really forgave my mother for not taking that stove with here when she bought her next house. That stove makes my recent purchase look like something tinny and cheap. Today it’d be worth a fortune.
In my early childhood, we also had a GE Monitor refrigerator, the kind with a big coil on the top. I was kind of heartbroken when my mother, in the early 70s, replaced it with one of those indistinct rectangular boxes which now occupy kitchens across the world. Sure, we had fully-frozen ice cream for once. But we had lost the charm of something that was only one generation removed from a true ice box. That Monitor refrigerator was a tank too. It was made of enameled metal, like an old stove. Not paint, but real, heat-fused enamel. It also had a handle that was this big, chrome thing bolted to the outside of the door. It made a very satisfying “clunk” when you shut the door. When my mother replaced it, I took it apart and discovered that the insulation was made of panels of cork glued together. Sigh… I’d love to have that fridge now, and I’ll bet it’d still work today.
The appliances they make nowadays are junk. They are engineered to last 10-15 years (maybe) and then you have to replace them as they are full of electronics which can’t be repaired. I’ve often wondered at the environmental cost of continuing to make crap that we have to replace vs making good stuff that lasts. I’d much rather buy something that lasts than have to keep replacing.
Cheers!
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I am a huge fan of that period too. It wasn’t that long before I was born. Yipes! That stove looks absolutely fabulous! Divine even.
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Michael: Yes, I am VERY happy to have found a period-correct stove, never mind one that is in such good shape. Cheers, and thanks for stopping by.
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Is the chip that black, roundish spot located to the right of center at the top edge of the backsplash?
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Hola Fred,
The only one I can see is a very small chip on the lower hinge of the left door. But thanks for playing, hehe. Cheers!
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Awesome!
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Thank you, Ms Stone. I’m really feeling fortunate. Cheers!
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