AGA Stoves and a Winter update....

I haven't posted much about my new village, the sweet little hamlet of Woods Hole.  I was traveling a lot in the fall and with the shorter days the town seemed to go into a winter hibernation mode.  A summer tourist draw, each restaurant in town gradually shut-down between October and January and now only the Capt. Kidd is still open.  The still beating heart of the village is Pie In the Sky bakery where I get my coffee every morning.  Today I was chatting with owner Eric about the pros and cons of Aga stoves, a connoisseur's ultimate "comfort stove", and remembered my pics from a showroom I stumbled across in London a while ago.

Behold the beauteous AGA!

Okay, the polka-dots are bit much but how about that mint one!?!  And a truly fascinating short history of the AGA, including the story behind its invention by a Nobel Prize winner, can be found here on wikipedia.

I also popped into Smallbone nearby, purveyors of bespoke kitchens that have inspired past renovations of my own.  Here is a detail of a beautiful wood countertop.  For a lot less money you can call up your favorite carpenter and go to Lumber Liquidators--the unfinished cherry butcher block countertops are waiting for you to arrive.   Here's a link to another post about my home-made wooden countertops.

Wooden Countertops in Kitchen

(Bruce Buck for NYT)

 A week or so ago this picture of performance artist Marina Abramovic's kitchen was in the New York Times.  Everything was starkly modern but the wooden island made it all seem warm and welcoming.  Eighteen months ago I installed wooden countertops during a kitchen renovation (ironically it replaced simulated butcherblock Formica from 70s).  I bought two 12 foot lengths of cherry butcherblock unfinished countertops from Lumber Liquidators for $329 each and one 8 foot length for $250.  I hired cabinet maker Devon Thibeault, "The Underground Carpenter", to cut them to size including the mitered corner you see below and some complicated cuts around the cabinets on sideboard and around sink.  Then I finished the counter pieces (on saw horses in middle of room) with a tung oil product called Waterlox that I can't say enough good things about.  I used the Waterlox SEALER/FINISH in Medium Sheen.

Here are a few more technical details.  I believe Devon used biscuits and special counter brackets (underneath) to pull the corner together.  You could obviously make the big island seen in the Abramovic kitchen the same way by splicing two pieces together.  We were worried about the end grain around the sink but it has been perfectly stable.  I used a brush to apply Waterlox and put two coats on underside and five coats (I think) on top surface sanding with very fine grit sandpaper between coats, using the very finest between last two coats.  A deep luster came up through this process.  One counter I did during a few days of very high summer humidity and it took many weeks to cure completely (so don't make that mistake).  The other was fine from the get-go.  The counters are impervious to standing water (even overnight) and I have only used soap and water to clean.  I have never waxed or polished surfaces (all pictures taken this week).  I once scrubbed the finish so hard it got dull and cloudy, so I lightly sanded the spot and brushed a new thin coat of Waterlox on it and it looked like new---you cannot tell there was a "fix".

No one recommended installing wood counters, in fact quite the opposite, but I think that is just because people generally have little experience with wood in a kitchen.  The counters are very slowly developing a nice patina, especially the section to right of stove where I do a lot of work.  This picture below shows that if you shine a bright light just right you can see little divots from the bottom of wine bottles opened on the counter.

The backsplash tile was two odd lots bought for $20 at the Boston Building Materials Resource Center, a great recycling place; sink from Craigs List; faucet from ebay; stove/hood from liquidator; knobs from Lowes.