Peg Chabala is who you'd describe as a serious cook. A devoted reader of Bon Appetit, she thinks nothing of whipping up dinner for 35 in her Bridgeville home (her homemade manicotti, she notes with a proud smile, is legendary) and she owns not one, but two smokers in which to make her award-winning pulled pork.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Jim and Diana Behrle put Victorian-style Elmira appliances, including a range, wall oven and microwave in their 10,000-square-foot log home in Racoon, Beaver County. Click photo for larger image. Related coverage Small appliances also go retro Where to find it

So you might expect her kitchen to boast one of those behemoth, commercial-style stainless-steel ovens with all the bells and whistles.

You'd be wrong.

The crown jewel in Chabala's small but darling kitchen is a candy-apple red, old-style Northstar range. A throwback to the '50s, this charmer features a shiny chrome faceplate and a traditional round clock face with hands above its four gas burners. And it's got company: A matching red refrigerator with rounded corners and fin-shaped handles brightens up a corner next to a vintage metal table, which in a further nod to the era, Chabala has topped with a black-and-white checked tablecloth.

"They're big show-stoppers," Chabala says of her appliances, which are the perfect complement to the '50s-style yellow rooster wallpaper and refinished yellow pine floors. She grins. "People actually ask if they can come over and look at them. It's the talk of this little town."

The fact that the dual-fuel range and fridge, crafted by Ontario-based Elmira Stove Works, are brand new only adds to their appeal. Much as she loved the old black-and-white Universal gas stove she picked up at a garage sale a few years back, it wasn't particularly efficient or safe (she had to light it with a clicker). Her vintage-styled Northstar, by way of contrast, which features such 21st-century conveniences as a self-cleaning oven and high-power sealed gas burners, is both.

As for the $7,000-plus price tag for the two pieces? It's money well spent.

"I have a big family, 11 brothers and sisters, and when we get together we love to investigate food," says Chabala, 48, who found the appliances at Dormont Appliance Center and waited four anxious months for them to arrive. "Besides," she adds, "they just take my breath away."

If your taste runs to the sleek and shiny, reproduction appliances like Chabala's might generate a yawn. But to a growing number of homeowners, vintage-styled appliances -- whether they're fashioned after the Victorian designs of the early 20th century or the curvier, more colorful models of the '40s and '50s -- are just the ticket.

	Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Peg Chabala of Bridgeville and her Bernese mountain dog in front of the retro refrigerator her late husband ordered for her. Click photo for larger image.

"It's all about the look," says Alan Scheimer, sales manager of Dormont Appliance, the area's sole distributor of Elmira products. "If you have an old house or a cabin, you want your appliances to look authentic to the time period."

How authentic? In addition to its Northstar ranges and refrigerators, Elmira manufactures a line of retro stoves that harkens back to days when Calvin Coolidge was president and Grandma wore a shirtwaist. Graced with historically accurate curved nickel legs and skirts, door castings and Victorian-style trivets, these antique-looking ranges come in two sizes (30 and 48 inches) and eight colors, including bright blue and green. They start at about $4,000 and, depending on the features, can run several thousands more.

Ontario-based Heartland Appliances also sells a line of old-style stoves, including an oval wood-burning cookstove in its Classics Collection for $5,240 and a 48-inch dual-fuel range with six burners for $6,995. They also make matching refrigerators, built-in ovens and dishwasher panels.

Both companies custom manufacture each piece for their clients, so delivery time can be long -- expect anywhere from four weeks to three months.

	Tony Tye, Post-Gazette The control panel on Peg Chabala's new stove looks as though it came from another era. Click photo for larger image.

While some homeowners are drawn to these appliances because they're nostalgic for the past, Heartland sales manager Gordon Flagler also attributes growing interest in vintage-style appliances to "stainless fatigue."

A standard in high-end kitchens for the past 15 years, stainless appliances have become increasingly cheaper and more mainstream and as such, less desirable to upscale consumers.

"Trendsetters at the high end don't want something that looks mass produced," Flagler says. "They want something a little different."

While many of these old-fashioned appliances are installed in historic homes, others end up in log cabins and second homes. Jim and Diana Behrle, for instance, recently purchased a 48-inch Elmira stove with chrome legs for the country kitchen of their 10,000-square-foot cedar house in Raccoon, Beaver County.

"To me, it just goes with a log home," says Diana, who sweetened the deal with matching microwave and wall ovens. Total cost: more than $8,000.

Jim, meanwhile, was sold on function. In addition to four gas and two electric burners, the cayenne pepper range features a convection oven and a warming tray; digital controls are hidden in a top cabinet.

"Overall, it's a good oven," he says.

But what if you prefer the real deal? A handful of companies across the United States can sell you a meticulously restored appliance from the '20s through the '50s, or refurbish one of your own. Some of the more popular brands include Magic Chef, Western Holly and O'Keefe & Merritt; it's also possible to find a restored Chambers, Reliable, Roper or Wedgewood. But be advised: Theses beauties can be even more expensive than the new ones, and often take a lot longer to acquire.

Consider the waiting list at one of the best-known purveyors of restored refrigerators and ranges, Georgia-based AntiqueAppliances.Com. The average wait for gas stoves is about 22 months, says owner John Jowers; refrigerators take about 20 months. (The restored models on his Web site already have been sold; customers must choose from the catalog of unrestored treasures.)

Yet lest you think that vintage Chambers range you've got squirreled away in the garage is worth getting excited about, consider this: Each of Jower's appliances is completely disassembled, cleaned and rewired or modified to bring it up to current codes, a labor-intensive process that takes anywhere from 50 hours to more than 100. Not surprisingly, they don't come cheap. Gas stoves run between $2,800 to $29,000 while refrigerators cost anywhere from $2,800 to $18,000, depending on the brand. Shipping costs an additional $300 to $800.

A 1938 Frigidaire Deluxe with a left-opening door and twin vegetable hydrators recently sold for $3,800 to a couple in Lower Burrell; a fully restored 1936 Chambers gas range (a brand with an especially devout following) was purchased by a customer in Wayne, Pa., for $9,800. A 1936 Magic Chef eight-burner range can fetch as much as $29,000.

Jowers, who sells about 100 restored appliances a year, maintains "real" vintage appliances are often sturdier and more energy efficient than their modern counterparts once they're fixed; many also boast features you can't find on new appliances, such as built-in salt and pepper shakers and burners that simmer down to 150 British thermal units.

They'll also last longer, giving you more bang for your buck in the long run. Reproduction appliances, because they're made with modern components that become obsolete after five to seven years, says Jowers, eventually will have to be replaced. Original vintage appliances, meanwhile, were designed and built to be serviced and maintained indefinitely.

But their best feature, he says, is the fact that like most collectibles, they only get more valuable over time.

"They're an investment that will always appreciate in value," he says.

Which brings us back to Peg Chabala. Her shiny red Northstar appliances might not have a history, but they're fodder for a whole new set of family stories. She didn't know her husband Roger had ordered her the refrigerator -- which she'd pined after for the longest time but never thought she'd be able to afford -- until after he had died of cancer last June.

Rather than send the fridge back, Chabala, who works with Alzheimer's patients at an assisted living facility in Mt. Lebanon, took it as a sign and dove into her kitchen remodel full force. That included ordering the matching range.

"Some widows go out and buy cars or take big vacations," she explains. "But me, I bought a stove."

"And you know what?" she says a few minutes later, a satisfied look on her face. "I feel like he's looking down at me in my grief, smiling."