Boswell House Kitchen

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 1:45 am

Does anyone know what the Boswell House's (currently for sale and listed on this site) kitchen originally looked like? How extensive were these renovations? Anyone have links to pics of the original?

Take care,

Jon

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:38 am

I was thinking the same as well. I looked at Storrer's floorplan in his book. The workspace looks like it was formerly designed more for servants then some of FLW's other Usonians.

Reidy · Post by **Reidy** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 2:59 pm

If you can track them down, former owners, the original contractor or the remodeling contractor might have photographic or written documentation of what was there.

The FLlW Foundation in Scottsdale will have copies of the drawings and specs, but these don't always show what was actually installed.

If the house is 45 years old, its original kitchen would be hard to live with today - a 4-burner stove, a small refrigerator that needs periodic defrosting, no microwave, a primitive dishwasher that requires you to do most of the work in advance and a garbage disposal that breaks down if you give it anything tougher than wilted lettuce.

Peter

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 6:50 pm

Reidy wrote:If you can track them down, former owners, the original contractor or the remodeling contractor might have photographic or written documentation of what was there.

The FLlW Foundation in Scottsdale will have copies of the drawings and specs, but these don't always show what was actually installed.

If the house is 45 years old, its original kitchen would be hard to live with today - a 4-burner stove, a small refrigerator that needs periodic defrosting, no microwave, a primitive dishwasher that requires you to do most of the work in advance and a garbage disposal that breaks down if you give it anything tougher than wilted lettuce.

Peter

Are you saying that people eat more or cook more now? I'm always curious about this whole huge modern kitchen thing, so I'd like to hear more...

I've never had more than a four burner stove and never felt the need for more. I could see how a small refrigerator might be a pain. Microwave, that's easy enough. I've lived in a few places with dishwashers before, but I have no problem doing the dishes. I've also garbage disposals before (don't now) and I don't miss those either.

Is there something I'm missing...?

Take care,

Jon

.Paloma · Post by **.Paloma** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 8:48 pm

I agree on the 4 burner stove being okay. I think if I were buying a $4+ million house I would definitely want a modern dishwasher and other items. Keep in mind you can still have these put in and keep with FLW standards. Mr. Wright specified SubZero and Thermodore appliances. Why not just take out the old appliances (old SubZero and Thermoadore) and replace with newer models? Just don't go overboard and put in 8 burner cooktops or 3 SubZeros.

rgrant · Post by **rgrant** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 9:56 am

The family that bought the house from the Boswell estate and did the restoration attended the Conservancy conference in Florida in 2001. I don't remember the name, but it was an unpronounceable Polish name. Anyone who has the list of attendees at that conference could easily figure it out: just go through the list until you find a long string of consonants and a single vowel. That should give you a lead to follow.

I, too, find the huge kitchen fetish hard to fathom, unless the family does a lot of entertaining with caterers running about. Then it makes sense. The real puzzle for me is the mega-bath. A horrid addition to the Adelman House in Phoenix has a bath with its own zip code. You could do laps in the tub. I just don't get it.

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 12:33 pm

rgrant wrote:The family that bought the house from the Boswell estate and did the restoration attended the Conservancy conference in Florida in 2001. I don't remember the name, but it was an unpronounceable Polish name. Anyone who has the list of attendees at that conference could easily figure it out: just go through the list until you find a long string of consonants and a single vowel. That should give you a lead to follow.

I, too, find the huge kitchen fetish hard to fathom, unless the family does a lot of entertaining with caterers running about. Then it makes sense. The real puzzle for me is the mega-bath. A horrid addition to the Adelman House in Phoenix has a bath with its own zip code. You could do laps in the tub. I just don't get it.

I'm with you on that.

I've lived with small bathrooms my entire life (although, we had one in Spain large enogh to accomodate a bidet!) including a bathroom without a sink, which was a huge space-saver. Even in the case of the bathroom without a sink, I never really felt like small bathrooms were a problem or even a hassle.

Take care,

Jon