This (hopefully) is our kitchen-to-be. The granite countertops are new, but the cupboards are all original from the 1980s and they’re all perfectly clean and well functioning, but (important point coming up) they’re probably something we will want to ultimately replace in due time. You can see clearly the big spaces that need to be filled: the smaller (30 inch) gap on the left is where the cooker is supposed to go with a microwave above it, and the larger (38 inch) on the right is for the fridge/freezer. A-ha, I thought, I will do some research on these, which I did, and came up with this sort of thing: a nice modern-looking stainless steel dual fuel range with convection oven (good for baking), and a nice big double-doored fridge freezer (and we’d probably put another chest freezer in the garage as I’m a bit of a freakazoid with food storage, and tend to freeze EV-ER-Y-THING we buy).

Ahh, pretty and shiney and new. We want to try to get the best stuff that we can so that when it comes to selling the house again the kitchen will look good and be a nice selling point.

BUT

It turns out that not too far away from us is a rather large home-improvement chain that is having a rather large liquidation sale. Promises of 40% discounts were definitely something to be investigated, so DrMrNin called in after work. And when he did, he only went and found THIS:

An AGA.

This very one to be exact, a brick red 36 inch dual fuel Legacy. Ho. My. Good. Ness. It’s not the original oil/wood-fired one which can heat your whole house, but a modernised version of it which is perfect for California where you don’t really need to turn the heat on. PLUS, this type you don’t have to install permanently in the kitchen, so you can take it with you when you move (this would be a life-long friend).

If you haven’t heard about AGAs before, you can find out more here, but all you need to know is that I’ve wanted one since I was about six years old which just about says it all. THESE ARE THE MOST SUPERB OVENS IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD AND THEY ARE ENGLISH TOO. They are like what Dualit is to toasters, and Hunter is to wellies.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

Now obviously there is a catch, it’s 36 inches wide, 6 inches too big for the space currently allocated for the oven. But, but, but, at 36 inches it would fit PERFECTLY into the 38 inch space currently allocated to the big fridge freezer, and what we could do is get a SMALLER fridge freezer to fit where the oven is supposed to go (about the same size as we have in the apartment, and the price of the smaller unit would help to offset the extra cost of the AGA too). Obviously we would have to re-plumb the utilities slightly but that would be fairly straightforward (the gas isn’t even plumbed into the kitchen yet but we’re told it can be done) and it would be easy enough to rearrange the vent through the other cupboard.

So again here is the kitchen:

But this time it would be with these appliances:

Do you think that would work? The obvious downside is that it might look a bit weird having the fridge in the middle instead of at the end, but as I mentioned, we’re probably going to re-do the kitchen at some point anyway so we could always change the arrangement back to normal at that point and get a bigger fridge then too (and I’d put in a big corner pantry at the end where the ‘G’ is, and I’d put this smaller fridge-freezer in the garage and use it for drinks and more freezer space as you can *never* have enough freezer space, hehe).

Ho. My. Good. Ness. So here’s the decision: normal-looking, practically-aranged kitchen with small range and big fridge-freezer, or a (temporary) more unusual kitchen arrangement with a smaller fridge-freezer BUT WITH AN AGA??

(Incidentally I was planning a sand-coloured and cranberry colour-scheme throughout the house, so the AGA would happen to match perfectly).

HELP! WHICH ONE DO I CHOOSE?

****

PS Here’s what it would look like against wooden cabinets…

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Ho. My. Good. Ness.