Can we have a rayburn/aga in kitchen fireplace?

[sarahj]

Hi Everyone,

My husband and I are about to commence serious renovation/restoration work on our small cottage; the current sitting room used to be the only room downstairs and therefore was the kitchen. It is a lovely square room with a large chimney breast which apparently once held a range - the flat fronted type - but which currently houses a log burner. We would like to turn this room back into the kitchen and would love to put some kind of range cooker into the fireplace but the height of the opening (about 5') seems to be just right for smacking our heads on every time we bend over the hobs! It is also quite deep. I've tried to google pictures of ranges in inglenooks but haven't come up with any where the chimney breast comes down so low. I don't think we can raise the height of the fireplace by more than about 5 inches ( the cottage is Grade II) so does anyone have any suggestions about what our options might be? I know of a listed farmhouse locally where they still have the original flat fronted range (not used but they are not allowed/don't want to remove it) and a rayburn on a different wall.

Thank you,

Sarah

 

[Feltwell]

5' sounds a bit low but not unduly so. We have a modern "range style" cooker in the same position as where the kitchen range was originally (previous owners ripped the original Victorian range out - it had survived intact until about 12 years ago :evil: ).

The shallow arch above ours is about 5'6" above the floor at it's centre. Not a problem for Mrs F at 5'4" tall, but not a problem for me either, and I'm over 6' tall - and I do cook occasionally! The cooker does sit flush with the front of the opening.

 

[sarahj]

Thank you Feltwell, that sounds most encouraging - you couldn't post a picture could you? Yes, ours was apparently removed in 1982 when the house was extended and given a cheap renovation to convert it into a holiday cottage: when we moved in seven years ago the inglenook had a strip light and 3 bar electric fire! We are still living with the cork floor tiles and avocado bathroom suite, the damp is so bad now that all of my furniture downstairs has mildew on it and we are persecuted by an army of slugs.... at least the recent bat survey showed the bats live next door so we're ok on renewing the roof!

 

[steveb]

probably look something like this

5"1 at the edge and 5"3 to the centre of the arch. I don't put my head "in" to cook but wouldn't want it any lower



We had to rebuild the fire opening as it was a horrendous mess, but we couldn't take it any higher due to the height of the ceiling



did manage to re-use most of the bricks and the iron support though

-Steve

 

[Feltwell]

Thank you Feltwell, that sounds most encouraging - you couldn't post a picture could you?

Yes, it's nothing special though, see below - our kitchen still needs work. A bit awkward to get a decent picture with our kitchen layout and no wide angle lens! Just measured the arch properly - it's actually a little higher than I thought, 5'8" in the middle and 5'6" at the edges. Still a bit lower than me at 6'2" though - I got used to it very quickly. Like Steve, I don't put my head "in" when cooking.

I felt very old the other day - see the telephone in the middle picture? My daughter's friend was visiting - "What's that thing?" says she. On telling her what it is - "Cool! Where are the buttons?"

 

[Penners]

I felt very old the other day - see the telephone in the middle picture? My daughter's friend was visiting - "What's that thing?" says she. On telling her what it is - "Cool! Where are the buttons?"

My dear chap, I can remember when phones had no means of dialing at all. You lifted the receiver and waited for the operator to say "number please". You told her the number you wanted and she put a jack plug into a socket in the exchange to connect you.

Strangely, I can still remember that my grandparents' phone number was St Mawes 16.

Best regards,

Methuselah

 

[Moo]

My grandad installed the first telephone in Wimbledon. Telephone number: Wimbledon 1.

 

[worms]

I can still remember that my grandparents' phone number was St Mawes 16.

There's posh! No party line? We were once 396 and 5 rings - 1 ring to get the operator, 2 rings meant you were finished, then a different house for each of 3 rings, 4 rings and 5 rings!

 

[Keith Bowman]

I can remember my grandfather's house having a little generator thing on the wall beside the telephone - you had to wind the handle to generate the ring at the exchange!

 

[LadyArowana]

I felt very old the other day - see the telephone in the middle picture? My daughter's friend was visiting - "What's that thing?" says she. On telling her what it is - "Cool! Where are the buttons?"

Never mind the lack of buttons, the cable needs sorting out. Cordless phones are so much more relaxing, no OCD issues.

 

[worms]

Cordless phones are so much more relaxing....

Beg to differ! When the cordless rings, there is that frantic running around to try and find where the memsahib left it, before the person rings off or the answering function kicks in. And because it has been left all over the house, it runs out of charge and starts giving a plaintive beep in the middle of the night!

At least with the old wall mounted one you knew where it was!

 

[LadyArowana]

When the cordless rings, there is that frantic running around

:lol: OCD is such a blessing.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

When the cordless rings, there is that frantic running around

:lol: OCD is such a blessing.

Oh not its not. When I still had the instructions for our phones, I was able to program names for each phone into the little screen. Now the instructions have outlived their useful purpose and been filed away somewhere safe, I have no way to reprogram them. Consequently I'm driven to distraction by people who leave the "Lounge" phone in the "Bedroom" charger.

:evil:

 

[LadyArowana]

When I still had the instructions for our phones, I was able to program names for each phone into the little screen. Now the instructions have outlived their useful purpose and been filed away somewhere safe, I have no way to reprogram them. Consequently I'm driven to distraction by people who leave the "Lounge" phone in the "Bedroom" charger.

:evil:

So the OCD gene has skipped a generation or Mrs W isn't a carrier? Look forward to the grandchildren, teeny Wiggs neat freaks :lol: , very handy for fiddly DIY projects in latter years.

 

[Penners]

Now the instructions have outlived their useful purpose

No chance of that in our house. Mrs P (and I make no implication of OCD here) has filed away every instruction book or leaflet that we have ever received, in a massive collection of ring-binders with clear plastic wallets inside them. The only trouble is that she religiously files the paperwork as the device arrives in the house, but she doesn't un-file it when the gizmo dies a death.

If you ever need to know how to operate a Pioneer QP424 in-car 8-track cassette player, feel free to give me a call. :roll:

 

[Lime]

Now the instructions have outlived their useful purpose

No chance of that in our house. Mrs P (and I make no implication of OCD here) has filed away every instruction book or leaflet that we have ever received, in a massive collection of ring-binders with clear plastic wallets inside them. The only trouble is that she religiously files the paperwork as the device arrives in the house, but she doesn't un-file it when the gizmo dies a death.

If you ever need to know how to operate a Pioneer QP424 in-car 8-track cassette player, feel free to give me a call. :roll:

I have a large ring binder marked "House".
It has every main detail in it in chronological order.
From questions to my solicitor when buying the house, the receipt for the new floorboards 22 years ago right upto the receipt and instructions for the storage radiators bought a month ago.
I keep everything to help in the future if needed.

For instance when the drains were relayed (21 years ago) apart from photographs, I made detailed diagrams of the all pipes and cables (new and old) underground, distance from house, depth in ground (taken from dampcourse in house) etc.
These have proved to be very useful recently when a trench was dug over/under the drains, gas and electric.

 

[Feltwell]

Cordless phones are so much more relaxing....

Beg to differ! When the cordless rings, there is that frantic running around to try and find where the memsahib left it, before the person rings off or the answering function kicks in. And because it has been left all over the house, it runs out of charge and starts giving a plaintive beep in the middle of the night!

At least with the old wall mounted one you knew where it was!

And you have just nicely illustrated why I bought (for the princely sum of £10) & fitted that old black wall phone in the picture, and why a cable is such a blessing!

In the lounge we have a modern digital cordless phone - which Mrs F used to drive me insane with by never putting it back in it's base unit. So, when the phone rang, you would go to the base unit and find no handset, then frantically try and find the handset before the answerphone cut in - and you weren't able to easily hear where the handset was because the base unit was also ringing :evil: . At least if you want to ring out then you have more time and the base unit is equipped with the "page" button (or as I prefer to call it - the "Where's the bl@@dy phone gone?" button) to help you find the handset.

So in the kitchen is the old fashioned wall phone, which has a ring that can wake the dead and IS ALWAYS WHERE IT BL@@DY SHOULD BE!!!!!! Intolerant, me?

The other phones around Feltwell Towers are all corded as well, so no base unit confusion ensues.

Now, if someone can just come up with a TV which has a button on it to make the remote control beep loudly................

 

[sarahj]

Our family had one of the first remote controlled video players - it had a cord from the player to the remote! Cordless irons etc, nothing new under the sun is there?

 

[philpjuk100]

Now the instructions have outlived their useful purpose

No chance of that in our house. Mrs P (and I make no implication of OCD here) has filed away every instruction book or leaflet that we have ever received, in a massive collection of ring-binders with clear plastic wallets inside them. The only trouble is that she religiously files the paperwork as the device arrives in the house, but she doesn't un-file it when the gizmo dies a death.

If you ever need to know how to operate a Pioneer QP424 in-car 8-track cassette player, feel free to give me a call. :roll:

Instructions are just someone elses opinion!