"How expensive is it?"
"It's so expensive Jay-Z raps about fixing up our new house."
"It's so expensive it's becoming suggested as a comparable alternative to law school."
"It's so expensive they sell it exclusively at Whole Foods."
"It's so expensive Kim and Kanye made it a part of their wedding."
In addition to re-painting the cabinets, which was well worth it to eliminate the pumpkin color scheme, there were a few more necessary things to do to the new house... all of which were expensive.
Part 1: Installing a new oven
The old oven was a double oven, which is great for if you want to bake a ton of stuff, which, ahem, I always do! But it was really old. You just looked at it and knew it was really old. The clock/timer had analog roll-y numbers on it, which is practically Pleistocene.
In addition, there was no built in microwave, and I didn't want to bring our crappy old countertop microwave, which had lived for many years under Husband's dorm room bed (that was the place one kept a microwave in our dorms. they were small.) So we decided to get a new oven, which was a microwave on top (that could also be a small convection oven) and the oven on the bottom.
Getting a new oven was especially feasible because I got a discount on appliances because someone at my law firm either once sued someone or defended against a suit from someone on behalf of an appliance manufacturer. I was pretty jazzed about getting a discount, because I love a good sale. But it was terrifying how much appliances cost even WITH a discount. Who decided refrigerators are a four-figure operation? How did this oven cost twice as much as my 3D plasma TV? Either there is some shady oven cartel happening or TV manufacturers are getting a raw deal.
Once I was over my sticker shock with ovens, I bit the bullet and bought a new one, strengthened by the thought of how ugly the old one was.
The game was afoot. The first task was to remove the old oven. Neither of us had previously pondered what one should do once one has removed an enormously heavy oven from a wall. The solution we settled on was to set it on a milk crate as if we were on MythBusters testing the load-bearing capacity of milk crates.
Once the oven was out, we discovered that there was a different shade of green paint underneath the orange paint on the cabinets. How deep did the conspiracy go???
Because this would be shorter than the old double oven, we got a contractor to build a space for a new drawer on the bottom (and in the meantime the painting occurred).
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| I mean... come on. |
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| The black oven and orange cabinets have a nice Halloween look. |
Getting a new oven was especially feasible because I got a discount on appliances because someone at my law firm either once sued someone or defended against a suit from someone on behalf of an appliance manufacturer. I was pretty jazzed about getting a discount, because I love a good sale. But it was terrifying how much appliances cost even WITH a discount. Who decided refrigerators are a four-figure operation? How did this oven cost twice as much as my 3D plasma TV? Either there is some shady oven cartel happening or TV manufacturers are getting a raw deal.
Once I was over my sticker shock with ovens, I bit the bullet and bought a new one, strengthened by the thought of how ugly the old one was.
The game was afoot. The first task was to remove the old oven. Neither of us had previously pondered what one should do once one has removed an enormously heavy oven from a wall. The solution we settled on was to set it on a milk crate as if we were on MythBusters testing the load-bearing capacity of milk crates.
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| Ready, steady... |
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| Answer: A milk crate can support at least one oven. |
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| Look above the cooktop and to the right of the ovenspace. |
Husband got excited for me to blog about the oven because, in his words:
- It was really heavy to move the old oven out and the new one in
- It took forever to install the new oven
- He has a bunch of pictures of the installation process.
Unfortunately, I think he forgot the main obstacle to me blogging about it, which was.... I totally left him to do all of the work and didn't help at all. Everything was too heavy! The Brothers were over to help with the lifting! I .... am horrible and selfish and didn't want to deal with it and don't have experience hardwiring appliances or ANYTHING ELSE and... had important iPad games to play. I only helped a tiny bit at the very end to side in the new oven once they had it installed.
I know. I am a terrible person. Unlike Husband, who is a brilliant person who can fix literally anything. It's very impressive.
What I can tell you is that this oven BARELY fits onto the wall. It has like half a millimeter of clearance on either side. If we put too many coats of paint on the wall, it won't fit anymore.
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| It also has a digital display because this is America. |
But I do remember this. Once the new oven was installed, we were waiting on the new drawer to come for the space beneath the new oven. Husband came in to the house holding a drawer.
Liz: Did the contractor drop that off?
Husband: No, I just found this in the garage?
Husband experimentally tried the drawer in the hole in the wall - the hole that, keep in mind, the contractor had JUST BUILT and built expressly to fit our new oven.
The drawer fit perfectly.
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| ?!?!??? |
We were both baffled.
Liz: But he's already building the new drawer.
Husband: Well, now we have this one as a spare, I guess?
It was HIGHLY improbable. But I guess with all of the money we paid the contractor to build and for the new oven, it was nice to find something - however duplicative - for free.
return next week for parts 2 and 3 of the saga in "Home ownership is expensive, no duh Liz, everyone knows that"!
return next week for parts 2 and 3 of the saga in "Home ownership is expensive, no duh Liz, everyone knows that"!
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