I hope my kitchen which is on tour next month can be a shining beacon of TKO!! :)

.. although.. no tapmaster, no "pro" appliance (well depends how you define that), no bright enamel stove etc so I don't fit your definition very well. But I (and my DW/coworkers and probably everyone else I know) can tell you I definately was TKO.

Since you did just get back from the tour anything I can do to make it a better experience for the tour visitors? I've actually never been on one of these tours. I am not allowed to be here during the tour. I was thinking of telling the people running the tour to let people open cupboards etc even though they are not supposed to do that on the tour (my DW keeps things pretty organized). I think that could add to the whole experience to just try things.

I wouldn't expect a SubZ or tapmaster or pro-style SS range in a restored 18th/19th century home in a historic district.

Funny you bring this up - we were nominated for a kitchen tour and had the committee come through - I was told by them that they loved it and couldn't believe how different it was for this area and yet last week I got a letter saying that our's isn't "traditional enough" for the tour. One thing that threw them off was my 2 inch (5 cm) marble - I got a good long chuckle out of that letter!

Mysterymachine, I think being able to open the cabinets & inspect the appliances would be a wonderful thing; I had to catch myself a few times from doing this but a few of the owners didn't look that happy to be involved.

idrive65, what kind of appliances & finishes do you think are appropriate for houses of this era? In this area the original kitchens were mostly seperate buildings (long since destroyed) with huge fireplaces & there were no appliances or running water so there is no way to truly restore a period kitchen if it is to be used. Are pro appliances more inappropriate than any other type?

mnhockeymom, you're not 'traditional' enough? Sounds like a compliment to me! And it sounds like the tour is being run by June Cleaver.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. I am sure it was intended to be educational as well as raising funds for the district. In absolute terms, historic preservation or historic rehabilitation means work is 'in keeping with the historic character' of the building, in this case a house.The value of preserving or sensitively rehabilitating an historic house is in keeping the entire house historic.

Public spaces in 18th and early to mid 19th century homes were much grander than kitchens. Feeding the family was done with the assistance of or completely by the hired help. It is much different than today where the kitchen is the 'heart of the home', a status symbol, and/or the gathering place for entertaining. The TKO kitchens you describe would hardly be appropriate. ''Not a SZ or a piece of pro equipment, or a TapMaster to be seen. . .no one had stainless appliances . . . or imported, bright colored enamelled stoves.''

When we lived in Baltimore, our rowhouse was in Mt. Vernon, which had traditionally been the "good" neighborhood from the 1840's-1920's. White flight of the 1950's and 60's had taken its toll, and the neighborhood had fallen into disrepair.

In the 1990's (and on 'till currently), there was a pretty big transformation. A lot of the old Federal row houses which had been chopped up into apartments began to be reclaimed as single-family dwellings. Since many of these were gut jobs, people could do what they wanted to.

Most folks I knew did install very nice, modern kitchens. One in particular stands out. The owners were very wealthy, and she was a wonderful artist. This was her 3rd (I think) renovation to old houses, so she knew what she was doing. Her kitchen was completely state of the art... high end / industrial all around. The amazing thing? You could be at a party in her house and not even know you were in the kitchen.

She had this room which was approx 20 ft across (very large by Baltimore Row House standards). On each side of the room was a section 3' or so deep which contained all of the cabinets, appliances, etc. She then had custom made green / frosted glass doors which concealed these areas. At a party, it just looked like you were in a sleek, modern open space.

She also had a butler's pantry which concealed the more mundane items / second fridge. It was an amazing, unique space. I've never seen anything else like it.

Our particular house was one of the less grand houses, smaller, and built in 1896. We renovated it, but the kitchen was basic. Nice, but basic.

I can see having the Tapmaster & SubZ & other bells & whistles in a restored house. I think the point of these is to incorporate modern conveniences but keeping the look & feel of the original. For example, I wouldn't expect the people to have water drawn from a well or a pump, but it should have a faucet in the style befitting the time, not some sleek, ultramodern faucet.

I wouldn't excpect them to have an outhouse either, but there are bathrooms that can have old-fashioned charm but with an indoor toilet.

I'm with Antiquesilver on this one. I would expect SZ, because of the money the people who do these restorations are willing to spend and the ability of the SZ to look like traditional cabinetry. I certainly would expect custom or very carefully chosen cabinets. The simplicity and form-follows-function style of pro-looking appliances seems like it would be more in keeping with the older kitchens than sleeker, more stylized modern appliances...Unless they put in something that was antique or supposed to look like an older stove.

Okay, I give up...what does TKO mean?

Quick, me too I want to know.

Totally Kitchen Obsessed

Totally Kitchen Obsessed

Here is a link that might be useful: Forum Acronyms

I've spent the last hour or so demo-ing the lowered ceiling in my kitchen. I had some time to think about antiquesilver's OP. I think you are right. Those kitchens were rehabbed by folks who care more about historic integrity than the latest kitchen appliances.

I have more to say, but I do not want to hijack your thread, antiquesilver. I'll start a new one.

Thanks for everyone's responses but perhaps I should've generalized more with my description of TKO since I fully realize that everyone's opinion of this is different. The examples I used were meant to be just that - examples. My point was that none of these kitchens had attention-grabbing details that I associate with TKO. On a kitchen tour, I expected at least one that was 'spectacular'. I see no reason why a kitchen in a 150 year old house should be less attractive than a new one. YMMV.

With that said, I've lived in a mid-19th century house for 20 years & when it comes to preservation, there are few who are more hard core. But as I stated above, few outside kitchens of this era (or earlier) remain so, for the most part, there's nothing to preserve or rehabilitate - & few of us would choose to live without electricity, water, gas, inside plumbing, refrigeration, HVAC, etc. for the sake of preservation.

For me, the main consideration is that the kitchen 'blend' with the house & nothing of the original house be destroyed in the making of the updated area. I don't see why high end materials & appliances can't fit in this senario.
Hester

Hester, I didn't intend to be critical, just realistic. No doubt your love of preservation lead you to tour the historic kitchens.

People have various goals for rehabbing a kitchen in an historic house. In my experience, people who intentionally purchase a home in an historic district that may also have the restrictions of a local preservation commission strive less for the WOW and more for historic integrity. I have seen amazing kitchens in historic homes that hide the refrigerator in a closet, DW in a cabinet behind a door, and have a drainboard & sink that most of us would run away from because there is no counter space on one side. It is challenging to design the kitchen to look like it evolved with the house (electricity, water, etc.) Most of us would not enjoy living in a museum.

I don't mean to hijack either but this thread did lead me to think about the whole idea of wanting to preserve an historic home and to what extent this is possible or even desirable. For example, in many older homes, the footprint of the kitchen is tiny and the space often sacrificed for a grander dining room. But does this configuration make sense for a modern way of living?

In all of this discussion, I'm sensing that everyone has varying interpretations of the "not TKO" description. I wonder if you can give us more information and detail about what you saw, Hester. Did they sacrifice TKO sensibilities (in regard to zone layouts and current technology) for historical integrity, or did they, as I took it, plop in a kitchen without real thought to either history or kitchen passion? When you said that only one home had custom cabinetry, I'm thinking stock cabinets and Frigidaire appliances in an otherwise high-end, historically restored home...Attention to detail in places other than the kitchen; in all but the kitchen.

I have no problem with the fact that they might have had to deal with the difficulties of an historically sized and organized kitchen. My son and I were studying drawings of Greene and Greene and Frank Lloyd Wright just last night, and a kitchen layout in those small, disjointed rooms would be difficult, as clax66 pointed out. Being TKO indicates a passion past just pro-performance appliances, and integrity with an historically accurate house can be a big part of that. But did most try to remain true to the time and make trade-offs to do it (like the French country example), or are they just not kitchen-focused and put in builders' grade quality stuff in builders' grade fashion? That would make a big difference in how I looked at the rooms.

Rhome, "just not kitchen-focused" is probably the best description. Most kitchens were mid-grade & pretty, but a tad boring. None sported a style that clashed with the historic feeling of the house - in fact most could have been easily transported to any given residence in any average town. Nothing stood out that said I love to cook or I'm passionate about this space & I handpicked everything in it for a reason .

In retrospect, all had large dining rooms & I suspect little or no entertaining was done in the kitchens even though most were good sized. All had counters that were completely bare (except for a few choice nicknacks) so it was hard to tell if any were serious cooks. Maybe they do consider it a 'back stairs' kind of room, but in my historic district (which is from the same era & class but a larger city with smaller houses) kitchens have been a main gathering place for years.