Original (1953): Stove on the street-side of the kitchen, from what we can tell.
1980s: Renovation that included building out the sunroom, adding the french doors from dining room & living room, and renovating the kitchen. New cherry cabinets added around the fridge & under the counters. Orange laminate countertops (the originals I presume?) replaced with white laminate countertops.
Major kitchen appliances:
- Fridge – replaced before we moved in, maybe 2011?
- Dishwasher replaced on move-in, 2012, with a low-water usage Bosch. Dishwasher post with manual.
- Electric oven died in August 2014 — replaced with a Samsung glasstop electric oven (Samsung NE58F9710WS) from Sears. Manual.
Lighting: Two eight-foot long fluorescent tubes in 2012 during move-in; maybe installed in 1980s? or maybe older? These began overheating in summer 2018 & were removed. (We also went through & pulled out similarly vintage fluorescent tubes from closets, mudroom, & bathroom. Some of the others we had replaced with standard light fixtures when we moved in.) We used a floor lamp for some years, then replaced with track lighting in 2025. Also in 2025, added under-counter lighting on the major prep surface.
Plumbing: Interestingly, there are TWO separate plumbing lines to outside the house. One is from the kitchen, and one is from the bathrooms / laundry room. We have been lectured by plumbers to not put coffee grounds down the drain, to not put oil down the drain, and to not use the dispose-all grinder in the sink. So we don’t!
We haven’t done a lot to the kitchen over the years besides replacing the stove in 2014, and improvements to the lighting over the years (2018 taking out fluorescents, 2023 adding undercounter lighting to one side, 2025 adding undercounter lighting to the other side & installing overhead track lighting).
Timeline:
- 1953 built – stove on street-side of wall
- 1980s – renovated & cherry cabinets added, orange counters replaced with white; probably this is when oven & stovetop was moved to sunroom side (Jonathan Wright, Northampton)
- 2011 – fridge replaced (Handyman Hank, acting as custodian)
- 2012 – dishwasher replaced with Bosch on move-in; outlets upgraded, GFCI near water
- 2014 – stove replaced with Samsung (Sears)
- 2018 – fluorescent bulb fixtures removed
- 2021 – Dining room shaded fluorescent light fixture, long broken, replaced with LED (Jay Watson)
- 2025 – under-counter lighting added; overhead lighting replaced; two additional shelves in cabinets added (Jay Watson)
Photos from 2011-2012 below. Cherry cabinets below, original wood paneling (cedar or redwood?) above. Fluorescent light tubes and electric range visible on the left. On the right, the old KitchenAid dishwasher that we replaced, and in the window, the reflection of one of the fluorescent light tubes!
2014 oven replacement:
