We got ourselves a new stove...sort of.

We've spent a very long time without a stove at the house. Originally the house came with an electric stove from the 1960s, half the burners worked, and the regulator for the oven was all screwy, so we just asked the previous owners to take it out when they moved.

After much searching for the perfect stove we were finally lucky enough to come across an early 1950s Magic Chef stove on Craigslist, just about a 5 minute drive from our house. It was being used as a canning stove in the previous owners basement, and hadn't been in use for years. They were trying to sell it for $500, but after a little research, and some price comparison, we felt $250 seemed like a better price. So we offered, they accepted, and the next day we drove down the street and picked it up.
It was a bit of a chore getting it out of the basement, but it wasn't quite as heavy as I thought it would be. I guess it makes sense now, these older stoves are really simple, no digital panels to break down, , just some knobs and a thermometer, oh, and a really cool clock/timer as well as a wheel with various suggestions for cooking times and temperatures for different meats and puddings.

Before I installed it I did bring it down to a local oven repair shop to have it tested for leaks, lucky for us nothing came up bad. The salesperson was pretty excited for us, as the stove was in perfect condition, apart from some grease a little rust on one of the broiler handles.

So we got it home, it took a bit to get the right size fittings in place, then hooked it up to the gas line that we had installed before we moved in. The only issue we're having with it is that it's 36 inches wide, a about 2 inches too wide for it's current location. The location is temporary, as we're moving the stove to an outside wall, but that's not going to happen until we figure out what we're doing as far as cabinets go.

My suggestions, go vintage, post WWII, but nothing past 1960, and go gas. You can find them for pretty cheap, especially compared to newer models, plus they almost never break down. I even had a chef friend of mine say that our stove was putting off almost as many BTUs as some professional kitchen stoves.