We got our stove!
And not just any stove!
We are now the proud owners of a vintage 1930's Chambers gas stove. We found it on Craig's List and brought it home this afternoon.
I was very nervous about the whole transaction as this was my very first experience with Craig's List and it all seemed too good to be true. The seller had recently bought the house the stove was in and just wanted to get rid of it so the kitchen could be remodeled. The stove seemed to be in good condition, according to the pictures and the seller's description, but the price asked was much lower than I had seen elsewhere, so I was still skeptical as I walked into the kitchen to look it over.
To my delight I found a beautiful stove in excellent working condition. The burners, oven, griddle, broiler and thermowell (complete with pot and lid) are all intact and in working condition, and a pilot light had been added at some point. It's pretty dirty, but will be absolutely gorgeous after a good scrubbing. I was very excited to see all the original knobs and levers and only normal wear and tear on the cooktop. But imagine my excitement when I found it has the top that folds down over the cooktop and the timer still works!
But the best of all was when I was looking at the timer, I happened to notice two "knobby" things on either side of it. Suddenly I remembered something I read about Chambers stoves before and I thought, "...it can't be..." I reached up, grasped the "knobs", saying, "Does it actually have the..." and pulled out the original salt and pepper shakers complete with original lettering and rubber stoppers! All of us in the room gasped! I couldn't believe it! I still can't! I never dreamed it would be in such good condition for the price we paid for it!
I have wanted a vintage stove ever since we moved into this house, 8 years ago. I have looked online, at house sales, on ebay, even bid on a few (and lost), but it never seemed possible. Recently, after doing more research I discovered my love for the Chambers stove in particular, but never thought I would actually be able to find and afford one. And now I own one! I cannot wait to install it and cook my first meal on it! It's a dream come true.
In other kitchen prep news, we picked out our faucet and paint for the cabinets at The Depot 
and are picking up the sink tomorrow at Lowe's.
All that's left of the big items after that is the dishwasher, but we're pretty sure of the one we want, and Lowe's has it so we'll probably have that by the end of the week.
I still haven't made any headway on packing up the cupboards to prepare them for degreasing and priming, but with all the other things we've gotten done, I don't feel so bad. But with only two weeks to go, I guess I'd better get crackin'!
My new beautiful stove is gonna need a nice home!
