What a 1950s Littleton kitchen was planned for
In 1955 the Nor-Mar Apartments at 110 Grant Street, Littleton’s first building designed from the ground up as apartments, advertised ten-cubic-foot refrigerators with ice water compartments in the door. That was a selling point. Kitchens of the period were laid out for a freestanding box of that kind, set in an alcove, often under a soffit, on the original floor.
In a house from then, every built-in is a retrofit
Fitting one meant cutting down or rebuilding cabinets, trimming or dropping a soffit and, over the decades, laying new floors around it. Each choice, often by a different trade, changes how the unit breathes and how its doors close.
What we check in a retrofit opening
| Where | What we look for | Who fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Soffit and top grille | Trim, a valance or a lowered soffit pressed against the grille. | A carpenter |
| Sides and fillers | Doors that brush a filler; hinges straining; a unit pushed too far back. | Us (hinges, gaskets); a carpenter (fillers) |
| Floor and kickplate | A front edge sitting low, a tilt, a kickplate boxed in by new flooring. | Us (leveling); a flooring installer (trim) |
| Water line | Blue or green ice, which Sub-Zero ties to a corroding copper supply line. | A plumber |
Fix the opening, or the refrigerator?
Often both, in that order. A new fan in a unit with a boxed-in grille treats only the symptom, so when the cabinet is the cause, our price assumes it gets changed.
Is your house one of them?
The City’s historic survey of 1949 to 1967 found that single-family homes in subdivisions dominated Littleton’s growth in those years. In 1954 the Broadmoor-Woodlawn Civic Association formed to organize the annexation of over 400 homes, and Arapaho Hills went up from 1955 to 1964. If your house dates from then and your Sub-Zero does not, you have a retrofit.
More: how long a Sub-Zero lasts.
Owners of older houses ask
Do you rebuild cabinets or move soffits?
No. We repair refrigerators. When the opening is the problem, we show you exactly where it is and what a carpenter needs to change, and the unit can be checked again once that work is done. You pay us for the visit and any refrigerator repair, never for woodwork.
Our kitchen was remodeled recently. Can a new floor really matter?
Yes. A thicker floor laid up to a built-in can leave the front lower than the back, trap an integrated model’s kickplate, or stop a door short of its gasket. The signs are a door that no longer swings shut by itself, or frost that starts soon after the work.