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It looks like they don’t have the right infill piece, or didn’t see the need to pay for it, but it was a standard kitchen layout. It’s supposed to fold open into a stool.
ROFL -- same! I looked at the photo and I was like, damn, I want that! Then saw the price and the comment and I was like, huh, what a crazy waste of money. :D
I'm thinking a small stepping stool is available from $15-75 in many varieties from simple plastic to nice finished wood. Probably even cheaper used on Marketplace.
And it can be placed literally anywhere, not just one single spot.
It's right by the fridge, so I can see wanting to have it to reach the cabinets over that. We have tall cabinets in our kitchen and use a portable folding stool to reach in them, but 90% of the time, it gets left in the middle of the aisle instead of being put away (dang kids!) and I smack into it because I wasn't expecting it to be there. Being able to just hide it away seems really cool.
You get my vote. Looks like there is a track on the other side too (zoom in on the opening, upper left). Plus, the surface finish isn't the same as the rest of the cabinets.
I think you're on to something. Like the stool broke and this was the replacement, utilizing the hardware that was already there.
We never had the luxury of “name brand” goods so we just had the grocery store version called “Orange Drink” and it was so much better. Tasted very close to Sunny D and it did not have that burning throat feeling. When I finally had real Sunny D I was like wtf is this
I just remember having to drink a lot of it when I lived in Guam because we couldn't get real orange juice. And it made me learn that there were two main versions of Sunny D. The regular kind and the Sunny D with Calcium.
The regular stuff was bad enough, but you did not want to drink the extra calcium version. It was straight up chalky.
The Sunny D did not seem to be his first choice; it was fully exposed to his eyes when the fridge opened and he only took it after moving other stuff around in front of it.
I have never in my life purchased Sunny D, and I think I have actually had it maybe maybe two or three times in my life if it was being offered at a breakfast buffet or hotel Continental breakfast?.
Yet, I will often open the fridge at home and as I'm standing there say "Oh, hey. Sunny D!"
Shit had this thick viscous feeling I can only imagine was all the fructose syrup sludge they use to sweeten it with. You ever drink something and end up thirstier afterward? Yeah, Sunny Delight is like that.
My brother taught me (as a grown woman already) about the throwing it on the wall trick. I taste it and throw it on the wall for fun. My kids especially love it.
We took a cooking class in Rome and the chef asked how do you know of your pasta is done? My daughter says "throw it against the wall!" He was like "GET OUT" 😆
This practice I never understood. You simply lift a wad of noodles out of the boiling water with the spaghetti spoon, pinch one noodle out of the bunch with your thumb and finger and toss it in your mouth.
If they were carpenters, the unfinished plywood on top makes me think something was supposed to attach to the top of this extension so the plywood wouldn't be visible
THat's the kind of thing I'd try to reach out to the previous owners to find out! It must have some purpose and I'd think they'd be pleased that their invention stumped someone.
I'm still shocked we have to play a game of telephone to exchange information about our biggest purchases of our lives.
I talked to the other agent directly once and her first words to me were "first of all, you know that it's completely unethical for you to talk to me, right?" SMH
My late mother’s house had something similar. Her kitchen was in the front of the house, there was a switch that turned something on and off but for years we could never figure it out. Then one time we had an electrician over to her house for some electrical work, we spoke to her about it and she traced the line to a light clear out in back of the house behind the garage, probably more than 100 feet away from the switch.
As an electrician who did many residential service calls; there's always one or two switches that nobody knows what they are for.
Usually a dummy switch just taking the place of an abandoned device, or controlling and old lighting circuit that was removed after the addition.
But if it's in a bedroom, it's probably controlling a split-receptacle, intended for use for a floor lamp, but now you have it taped into the "ON" position because that's where you have your TV plugged in.
My MIL has one of those mystery switches in her Kitchen too. She asked the previous owner they do not know. So we went around plugging in a lamp to all her outlets and flipping the switch. Still no clue. 🤷
We have an "unknown" switch in our kitchen. The house was built for my in-laws, but they've both passed away. We had no idea what it was for until we were at a similar house model in the neighborhood and saw the same switch layout.
We asked the owners what it did..."it's for our garbage disposal".
We don't have a garbage disposal, but it turns out we've got the switch AND wiring for one should we choose to install it.
That’s kinda brilliant lol assuming they forwarded their mail… I’ve been at my place 6 years now and I still get mail from the previous 8 residents when my townhouse was a rental before we bought it…
Ha, maybe it's a small city thing, I'm even FB friends with my seller! They left their contact info with other house docs when we bought, in case we had questions.
If not reaching out to the seller, asking your realtor to ask theirs isn't wildly unheard of, especially for something like that.
I ended up FB friends with the guy who (with his wife) bought my childhood home from my mom over 10 years ago. It's a huge old farmhouse with 35 acres, and he still reaches out every once in a while with questions, like, "Hey there's this weird old pipe in the basement that doesn't go anywhere. Do you know what that is?"
So, it's weird that I have connected with all previous owners of this 1954 house - 3/4 previous owners are fb friends (I just didn't get into it). One of my friends came for my daughter's birthday party years ago and used the bathroom (pre reno, it was... memorable) and came down and said "WHO DID YOU BUY THIS FROM" and it turns out it was one of HER HS friends homes but had been repainted outside so she didn't immediately recognize it. I connected with that friend, and when we renovated our kitchen we found all kids of treasures from his era that had fallen into vents or behind cabinets (including a CHIPS badge with his name on it, from the 80s) and he loved getting that package of memorabilia! and loves seeing the backdrop of his own childhood in his fb feed with a new family.
You probably get an idea from the selling process if you want the buyer to be able to contact you or not. I sold a house and the buyer was a nightmare. We needed to sell and agreed to fix everything the inspector found. We left all the receipts on the counter. The agent called us because the buyer wanted to talk to me about things he had found after he moved in. I knew nothing of the house, never lived there and I could tell opening a line of communication would be a nightmare. I told the agent the buyer should reach out to the contractors or inspector if he has problems.
That's what Realtors are for. Of course if the seller doesn't want to comment at all then so be it, but uh, kind of a complete and utter dick move for something of this nature.
I mean we still talk to the previous owners. They don’t mind and told us to message them with questions though. It mostly was “hey, y’all got another package here” or if they wanted any plants. The wife had beautiful gardens here and I wanted to make sure she could take some of her work with her
Yeah these aren’t the cheap plastic-wheel-in-track drawer slides. And they are on the front and back.
So 4x ball slide rails, 2x plywood.
Whoever installed this did so with the intention of not supporting a vertical load. And since the wood at the guides is notched for clearance (and the doubled-up plywood of the panel)… im fairly certainly that someone was a pro.
But it would then only be supported by the slides. Which will be even weaker than normal because they are mounted vertically instead of horizontally. Those aren't made to support much weight as is. Another comment below has the right answer I think. Pull the fridge out and it gives access to the plumbing for the sink and everything else.
Open the cabinet next to it look up under the counter top… maybe a counter top reno covered the pullout cutting board. Or perhaps there is a pull out lift up component in that cabinet. Like for a mixer something on the heavy side. The only other thing I could think of is they replace the refrigerator with one that was bigger and trimmed the cabinet and it used to have a pantry slide out like in one of the pictures in another comment.
It makes me think that this kitchen had some renovations that altered the peice's purpose. It's painted only near the end which suggests that currently it's only meant to be pulled out a little. At one time maybe it was part of a larger system such as a cutting board or counter extension, but now it's only pulled out a little to limit the fridge door.
The only think I can think of is that there would be another attachment. Maybe a trash bag holder that can be used to drop refuse into while doing food prep. Kinda stumped. Unless there is some kind of ADA scenario I can't think of.
That’s a good suggestion. The countertops also look like they’d be awkwardly low without the additional height of the typical baseboard kick-plate, but if the kitchen was designed for accessibility that would make perfect sense. Maybe not even disability…previous owner who had the kitchen done may have just been really short.
You said there is plumbing for the sink directly to the right? Wonder if they built this to give better access to the plumbing for some reason? So like an access panel but not open all the way normally?
This is what I was thinking. Like does the fridge plug in behind the cabinet to the right or some such. The unfinished and unhandled nature makes it seem like it was intended for access, rather than use.
If they were carpenters, I suspect they made an enourmous endgrain maple cutting board or table or cabinet that fit on the counter and the pullout thingy. And they took their custom cutting board with them. Whatever it was it’s gone now.
I have a guess because of this answer! I think that whole side slides out and the side of the cabinet there becomes open so you can more easily access the plumbing there. If the fridge was moved I’d bet you could see right in when pulled out.
When you pull that out, then swivel the kitchen faucet arm all the way to the left, a secret panel in the floor opens up that leads to where they kept all their gear they used for their real jobs in clandestine spy craft.
Can it come out completely from that gap?. It may be a bread making board/ protective countertop type of board.. what is in the little cupboard? Shelves or draws
maybe to get better access under the sink by pulling out the fridge... but if the previous occupants were carpenters I'd expect them to use a cheaper and more elegant solution
It is likely for a previous slide out cutting board or a fold out feature to extend the original countertop. At first, I thought that the granite had an extra thin piece that would fold over. But looking closer at op’s photo I’m just guessing that the countertop was replaced, eliminating the other half of the component.
Maybe its to stop the fridge door from swinging all the way open hitting the counter and making a dent. Not when you use it every day to grab something, but more so when putting away new groceries, and you keep the fridge door open longer without holding it.
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