A face lift for the kitchen

A few months ago I had Joe and Paulette over for dinner. That's when it all started. So, let's just say it's their fault. :) Sesame chicken strips were on the menu. Well, I obviously needed my oven for them. Well, my oven had different plans that night. I noticed that the oven didn't feel very hot. Usually, the cabinets and handles above my oven get pretty warm when it's on, but I wasn't feeling the heat. I opened the oven and it didn't feel as warm as it should for being at 375 degrees. I waited, and kept it to myself just hoping that I was just imagining it. I don't know how many minutes had passed, but I checked on the chicken. Still the same result except I think the oven was even cooler. So, I tell Chris. Him and Joe come out to look at the oven. Something was not right. Chris said maybe it just got overheated. So he turned it off and let it sit for a few minutes then turned it back on. Nothing. So, off I went to KFC to get our dinner. While we were eating dinner, we heard the gas finally kick in and the oven turned on. Well, this started many weeks of practically the same scenario. I was finding that my oven wouldn't work and the pilot light wouldn't light unless I had the oven turned on to over 425 degrees. Well, naturally my food was not baking correctly and things were burning. It was just an ongoing frustration after another trying to work with this oven. The last straw was a Thursday night. Chris had mentioned to me that he would like me to make some muffins to take into his work for the guys to eat. His boss was out of town that week and he thought that would be something nice. So, Thursday I went grocery shopping and bought the ingredients needed to make blueberry muffins and apple streusel muffins. It was late that night by the time I got home from shopping. I had bought some frozen pizzas that night and Chris saw them. So he asked me to make one up. So, I started pre-heating the oven. We waited and waited and it didn't light. We turned it off and on again and still nothing. Chris played around with it and lit a match and tried to light the pilot light but nothing. This went on til about 11:00 p.m. Then miraculously it worked. So, we rushed to prepare the muffins. I started on the apple muffins and Chris on the blueberry. Chris got finished first so we threw those muffins in the oven while I finished mine. The muffins were almost finished when I got mine finished and threw them in. Well, the oven decided it didn't want to work anymore! I noticed a few minutes later that it didn't feel very hot by the oven and my muffins weren't rising. So, Chris tried messing with the oven some more. By this time it was midnight. I told Chris to just go to bed because he had to get up early for work. I said I would stay up and mess with the oven. I would let it sit for a while and then try to re-heat it. Well, by this time it was 1:00 in the morning. Miraculously the oven turned on. Well, there was no hope for my beautiful apple streusel muffins at that point. They looked like tiny little bowls. The insides had sunken in and they looked horrible! So, Chris got to take blueberry muffins to work in the morning. Later that day, when I talked to Chris, this is how he began the phone conversation, "Why don't you call around and check online to find some good deals on an oven." LOL I was so happy! I was bouncing off the walls! I was going to get a new oven! So, later that night, after much research from Chris (the best researcher and deal finder EVER!), we ended up at Lowe's to buy this beautiful appliance.....







But don't let the beauty of this machine fool you. It was no easy task to get it in there. Friday night we brought it home and I helped Chris take out the old counter top stove and I cleaned out all of the kitchen cabinets in that corner. My dining room table was packed full of pots and pans and drawers. It was driving me nuts! We got as far as we could that night and left the rest for Joe to help Chris with the next day. Saturday came and I left in the morning to go scrapbooking. I was excited and nervous because my new oven was being installed that day, but I know our luck and I was expecting something hugely wrong to go on. Around 2:00 in the afternoon, my patience couldn't wait any longer. So I picked up the phone and called Chris. BAD IDEA! Apparently they were NOT having good luck and ran into many problems and my timing was not the best! lol So, I got home around 4:00. I was stressing because my house, more specifically my kitchen and dining room, were a mess! There was tools and saw dust EVERYWHERE! All I wanted to do was get out my broom and vacuum! Every time I walked in the kitchen I could feel the bottom of my shoes getting more slippery from the saw dust I was walking on and knew I was tracking through my house! To make matters worse and to kick up the nerves and stress a notch - I had company due at my house in an hour and half! There was no way this kitchen was going to be done and to my liking to have guests over! I kept hinting to Chris that I wanted to just cancel, but he kept saying "no" and that he was confident they would be done in time. I watched the clock nervously. Finally we decided that 5:30 was too early since the kitchen was still tore up and the oven wasn't even in place yet and the old cabinet was still sitting in the middle of the kitchen. So, I called and asked if they could come at 6:00 instead. At 5:30, the new oven was rolled into place, the old cabinet was carried out, and Joe left with his tools. In that next half hour, Chris and I did the best blitz, shakedown - whatever you want to call it - on that kitchen! I'm telling you, we are AWESOME! I wish I would have taken a picture so you could have seen what I'm talking about. It was a disaster! But in the half hour, we managed to get everything cleaned, put away, dusted, and the house looked as if the oven had been there all along and no remodeling had taken place whatsoever! We could NOT believe we got it done in time and had a few minutes to relax before our company showed up! WHEW! (Needless to say, I did not cook dinner for our guests. lol We got Chinese take-out).

The next morning, Sunday, I made eggs and bacon on my new stove! It was so nice! Then Monday night I made brownies for dessert and a frozen pizza for dinner just so I could use my new oven! lol

And my beautiful brownies that were the first thing to get baked in my oven! :)


Thank you so much, honey!