Going industrial in the kitchen

Picture of a cousin of the kitchen stove we will have custom made

Through no fault of my own or of my architect, I find myself with kitchen cabinetry built around a stove that has been discontinued in Uruguay. We´re down to the finishing touches, the painter is painting the kitchen and living-room already, and the thought of having to chop my drawer-unit in order to accomodate a stove that is not even the one chose originally really threw us and Fabian into a funk. Worse yet, the ventilator is already installed, and a new, larger stove would ruin the alignment between the cabinets, stove and ventilator. All very depressing.

Enter Mr. Juan Carlos Martirena, from Mercado Libre and Deremate auction sites. He specializes in restaurant equipment which he makes from scratch. So after posting a fake order for one of his listed stoves (see above) we got in touch and agreed he will make me one to fit the space. I am so thrilled. I always liked industrial, and in fact the stove we had chosen was a "fake industrial" one, so now we will get the real thing. They are pretty rough looking, sort of so ugly they are cute. Tomorrow he will drive to the house to measure the space and bring some catalogue for us to choose from, discuss specs, etc. It feels like a real luxury, custom appliances, and it costs the same as the one we were planning to get. Low tech, but built to our specifications, with gratin burners in the oven.

Let´s hope it turns out OK. I´m insisting on supersizing the oven insulation, on account of the wooden house and the fire risk. We once purchased a custom-made oven in Turkey that almost ignited my husband´s restaurant... it was glowing re-hot, zero insulation.