When my daughter got a teaching job in Grand Island, Nebraska she decided to buy her first home.  I went house hunting with her and after looking at several homes she decided to buy a very cute bungalow-style home built in 1905.  The home needed some cosmetic work but it was structurally sound.  Best of all, the "arts and crafts" charm of the home had not been irreparably molested by the home's previous owners. 

She wanted to return the home to its 1905 charm and since I would soon be retiring I told her I would help her with the restoration.  Little did I know that my first restoration effort would not be on the home itself but on an appliance she likely wouldn't need for several years.

One day while "day-dreaming" about the changes she wanted to make to the house she mentioned that when it came time to redo the kitchen she would love to have a modern version of an old wood-burning kitchen stove.  She did a little research on the internet and soon decided that with prices starting at $5000 these stoves were probably out of her price range.

I few weeks later I was talking to a co-worker about my daughter's new home and the price of those replica stoves came up in the conversation.  He mentioned that he had an old stove that was in the basement of an old house he had bought and that he would sell it if someone didn't mind "fixing" it up.   "Fixing" things up is what I do best so I arranged to meet him that evening to have a look at the stove.

The stove was in his garage under piles of the kind of stuff that collects in garages.  After we go it uncovered  I was awestruck at the beauty of the stove.  It was like nothing I had ever seen and it looked to be in "decent" shape.  A little rust here and there and a few chips in the enamel but otherwise in good condition.  I struck a deal for $300 and I picked up the stove the next day.

I figured after restoring Maych, how much trouble could it be to restore a little stove. Well, if you click on the "Progress" tab, you will see just how much "trouble" it was.