I would take a good look at that kitchen and make a call on where your money is best spent for the purposes of resale.

1. Leave it. New owners are going to tear it out anyway.
2. Reface the current cabinets and have a cabinet maker build an 18" cabinet to fill the extra space.
3. Sand and paint the cabinets and have a new 18" cabinet built for the gap.
4. Redo the kitchen entirely, maybe using IKEA or something else economical.

My inclination would be either 1 or 4, but I think you need to consult with a local real estate agent. Depending on the condition of the rest of the house, a local agent can advise on what the current local market responds to. Will it be worth it to invest money in the kitchen? Replacing may be comparable to refacing. How much will you need to do to the bathroom(s)? Will you need to strip wallpaper? How's the flooring? It's all a juggling act. As someone currently in search of a house, I would prefer to take on the renovations in such a house myself, but I think I'm in the minority. I keep hoping for a place where it's been left in it's current condition so I can do it the way I want it. *sigh* In any case, do find a savvy agent and ask for advice.

I sympathize for your family. We recently went through the same process with my husband's grandparents.

I've been shopping craigslist in the Portland area for a new range and I've seen a lot of vintage ranges listed that are said to be in good working order. I think you should buy a similar yet working replacement or have that one repaired

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Please don't reface the cabinets. We bought a 1968 home 8 years ago and the previous owners' updates to sell--including cabinet refacing--were actually a negative and we ended up putting in new cabinets within one year. If the finish needs updating, you could have the exteriors painted white (our white cabinets are pure white by Sherwin Williams.)

When we prepared that house to sell last summer, my instinct told me to finish all the updates I had wanted. My realtor told me over and over not to do anything but repair, clean and paint. We followed her instructions (we also had to replace bathroom vinyl that was damaged), kept money in our pocket and it sold in 24 days. Of course, it depends on your market, but it's possible your market is hot enough that updates make no difference.

I will second asking a couple of realtors. We bought our current place with zero functioning appliances (and no heat). There were multiple offers and the place sold in less than two weeks on the market. It's all so local that it's very hard to advise without specific knowledge of the market.

I also would rather buy a house with an "as is" kitchen (priced accordingly), so I could do it to my taste. It's disappointing to see a great house where the current owner re-did the kitchen for re-sale, because I can't justify (or have the budget for) ripping out a brand new kitchen. Remodeling purely for re-sale often means they've gone as cheaply as possible in several areas knowing they weren't going to be living there.

In the case of a 1960's kitchen, you don't know if a potential buyer would want to retain the mid-century flavor, (including the desire for a 48" range) or go in another direction entirely. Clean, repair, paint is really good advice.

We went through almost the exact same thing with my father's house. It had a 1963 Frigidaire Flair range/wall oven unit that is 40" wide and taller than I am. It functions fine, but the realtor took one look and said to get rid of it. But it had a full cabinet run over top (in solid walnut), and was sitting on base cabinets. How could we fill the 40" gap with a 30" range and make it look right?

We had removed some walnut paneling from the dinette area, which almost perfectly matched the color of the cabinets. We ripped out the base cabinet from under the range, and DH made fillers out of the paneling. We replaced the countertops (with inexpensive laminate) so that they fit up to the new (Craig's list) range. We installed a 36" range hood into the 40" space, and it looked fine. The house sold three times (yikes!), but every time there were multiple offers within 24 hours, so apparently our easy fix was not an issue!!

Most homes are sold without appliances (at least around here) - why do you need to replace the range? Only apartments (rental) or, in some cases, townhomes have appliances. I assume this is a single-family home.

Definitely check with a realtor!

Regarding selling as-is - be aware that you will have to reduce the price pretty significantly. In most cases it's still a better deal to sell as-is, but do your research first b/f deciding! An advantage of selling as-is is that you may not have to bring everything up to Code...again, do your research.

Before you spend any money at all you really should speak with a few real estate agents. If the plan is to sell with the kitchen otherwise untouched it may not even pay to purchase any new appliances. If buyers are going to be looking at the home with the intention of remodeling that kitchen are they really going to even want that range you put there? Are they really going to see that as a selling point for the home? Or are they going to look past that and offer the same amount regardless? You may be best served just by cleaning the place really well inside and out to make the work look less daunting to new buyers and to give the impression that the place has been well cared for. There are cabinet fixes you could do to fill the 18 gap if you really want to, but I highly doubt this is going to be a selling point in a kitchen that's going to be ripped out. Or just maybe your buyers will be vintage lovers and they want to preserve the kitchen as is and get vintage appliances to fit the existing space. Then you'd have ruined it for them.

One of the selling points for our house was that the kitchen needed to be remodeled. We were looking for one that we could do ourselves rather than paying more for a house that's been done in a way we wouldn't want anyway.

I walked away from many many homes that I just wished the sellers hadn't tried to "fix up" to sell.

If it is conventional to sell your house with working appliances (it is here) although in some townships it excludes refrigerators (?), I would replace it with a conventional sized range and leave the gap and call it done. In most markets you will not get any additional return on your investment by upgrading the kitchen. It may sell the house faster, but so will lowering the price.

I was dealing with a client who, mostly pressured by her siblings, would not take my advice and drop the price and sell it "as is". Finally after a year on the market it sold for the price I had suggested.

Her siblings are still bickering about the "comp" across the street that sold for X more because they took the house of the market and installed central air, one of the complaints about both houses.

The reality of the house across the street is that it was originally listed for $400K, dropped to $390K, removed from the market, air conditioning was installed, and the house was sold for a bit under $390K. If they had just dropped the price to begin with they probably would have come out better. Kitchens, baths, AC, whatever. It's very rare in most markets for an individual homeowner, not in a flipper market, to come out ahead in making large improvements for sale of an estate, in my opinion.

Um, have the range serviced and cleaned.

You'd be surprised what a difference there is between "old" and "gross." Scrub everything, paint the ceiling and walls and leave all else alone.

The other option if the Nutone can't be cleaned and serviced to work adequately (I was thinking non-functional from your post rather than "barely functional" which I don't know what that really means, does it work or not?):

For $4000 you can get a Smeg Opera range that is 48" and has a small oven, large oven and griddle.

You could easily spend much more than $4000 doing a low end upgrade just to compensate for the loss of the original range. A relatively pricey range may be your cheapest option, actually, if you can just clean up the rest and leave it alone.

I would clean everything really well and leave it. When I was searching for a home, I knew I wanted to remodel my own kitchen, so I hated homes that had been "updated" with bad granite and badly painted cabinets. I would rather have the cost of the renovation deducted from the price.

Some people might want that vintage range/oven and be willing to get it restored. Never underestimate the power of vintage!

Realtors (at least the ones I've talked to recently) seem to like 'vanilla' houses, so they sell as quickly as possible. The trouble is that vanilla all looks the same and no one really remembers your house.

I'd paint the rest of the rooms and replace any really awful carpet. If they have hardwood or tile floors, just clean them and throw down a few inexpensive (but nice looking) rugs.

As for the kitchen, advertise it as original to the home, clean it well and put some vintage accents (Goodwill finds) on the counter and add a new curtain valance, area rug, potholders and flowers on the table, if there is one.

Oh, and baking apple spice bars right before a showing...that's what got my mom's 'vintage' home THREE offers in one day and sold that week :)

We looked at over 100 homes when buying ours and I really didn't like most updated kitchens because most had already dated or I didn't the finishes. I agree with the above poster than differentiated old from gross. I liked old that is well maintained and in fact we kept our 1960s cabinets in our latest update. So, I'd give it a really, really good cleaning and servicing of the appliances which shows the buyer it was cared for and leave it be. We did change out our old 1956 GE Stratliner range but it was in our own time and the old range definitely added appeal when we bought the home.

Our Updated 1950s Kitchen with French Inspiration · More Info

The problem (IMO) with asking realtors about this issue is they'll almost always say you have to get rid of the vintage range. We have a built-in 40" wide Frigidaire Flair (partially working) and we're currently dealing with the issue of keeping or replacing it. I've asked two realtors I know (emailed them photos) and they both said immediately...absolutely get rid of it. I think most realtors view vintage appliances as obstacles to an easy/fast sale.

The problem is, your potential buyers may have a different view. It's so hard to know! If you do talk to a realtor, how about asking their opinion about offering an allowance for new appliances and/or cabinetry...and not tackling it at this time? Since it's tied in to the issue of new cabinets, I'd at least explore the idea of offering an allowance. That way you might leave the door open for finding a buyer who likes the idea of having the chance to make their own choices.

Edited to say, a really honest realtor might be able to tell you how "hot" the vintage/MCM trend is, in that area, and that would be great info to have. I think it varies a lot from one part of the country to another.

One more thought (sorry, but we are wrestling with similar issues.) I don't know about 1960's Nutone ranges, but 1960's Flairs are very hard to find parts for, unless you surf eBay. And it may not be possible to even hire someone to repair it (again, probably depends on the location.) In my city, so far, nobody wants to work on our Flair because of the age. In a bigger city it would probably be easier. So that's why I was thinking offering some kind of allowance might let the OP extricate themselves from the whole adventure.

It's not an easy question, for sure!

Beyond cleaning it up and making it sparkling, do not touch the kitchen! And leave the marvelous Nutone alone (just make it shine). Mid-Century Modern, Vintage, Retro, whatever term you want to give it is very popular right now and the buyers who may jump at getting that house might be looking for the very things most realtors would tell you to replace. Retro-Renovation, a successful and popular website devoted to the 30's-70's, but mainly 50's-60's, has many a tale of folks who would squeal with glee if they could find a house of that era that is still original. Some haunt Craig's List and such just to buy vintage cabinets that someone else is pulling out so they can pull out their kitchen's newer cabinets and replace them with vintage ones.

Even if the buyers want a modern kitchen, I agree that I'd rather pay less for the house in as-is condition so i could create the kitchen I want. I think most people would. I don't think you have to have an actual kitchen allowance for that in the offer but, rather, just price it accordingly. But I suppose that practice might vary by market.

Ha ha. I seem to have started an avalanche....

If you do decide to replace the range, I'd consider a standard 30" range with 9" cabinets on either side. You could make them simple narrow cabinets, and they'd be great for storing cookie sheets and/or cutting boards, etc. Then you'll just need single door fronts (or doors and drawer fronts) purchased/made with whatever you are refacing the other cabinets with (or even something complimentary/close).

Then, above the range, you can replace whatever cabinetry is there (assuming it can't be used) and put in a 30-36" hood with blank wall on either side. That'd look just fine if you do a simple "chimney style" hood. Although that hood costs a bit more than an under-cabinet hood, it will eliminate the issue of dealing with the upper cabinets.

If you decide to replace the range with a 30 inch range, maybe you can find a butcher block cart on wheels to slide in on one side?

My experience with realtors was not being told to make rooms more bland. We have sold two houses and in both we were advised to leave some pretty bold paint (yellow and green dining room in one house, navy study in another for example). And we bought our current house with no working appliances. I don't know what the listing agent advised of course, but in this market I frequently see houses for sale with very old appliances, bathrooms and kitchens that date to the 1920s or 1930s, etc. Houses sell fast here for over asking price and in this market "updating" just isn't necessary so very few people do it. Where my parents live is a very different story. That's why I think it's important to ask local experts.

I didn't give a single thought to the old appliances in the house I bought last summer. Never looked inside or touched the range or the fridge or dw, nor any of the cabinets. I knew it was all destined to be gone before moving in.

I think it depends a lot on your area and market. In some areas, people clamor for "MCM design aesthetic"; in others, it's old junk. In some areas, the majority of people want move-in ready and are willing to pay top dollar; in others, there may be more buyers who are willing to renovate more extensively.

I think the op has left the building ...

Put as little time and money into it as possible.

Seriously, I'd clean the place really well, fix anything that leaks, remove any badly worn carpeting, maybe paint it a neutral color like Swiss Coffee and list it. And list it as "Original owners selling 1960s home" ...