Monday, July 21, 2014

No I'm not dead....

We've been having more fun than you can imagine getting that oven installed.  We bought the oven from an Amazon affiliate; mostly because it was $800 less than at Home Depot or Sears.  However, there was a slight delivery problem.  It was a week late arriving here.  Grrr!  My wife was about ready to fly to New York and kill someone.  However, finally it showed up.  The guys unpacked it and we inspected it carefully.  Happily it was just fine.  The only problem is that the thing weighs something over 300 lb (135kg)! 

Now that we had the oven we felt comfortable getting in touch with the electrician.  They couldn't come immediately so it took a couple days and we had the new oven sitting in our nook.  Now we felt comfortable about taking the old one out but it was a little heavy for my wife to help me.  So we waited for the electrician.  He showed up and was great.  He helped me pull the old one out and unhooked it.  Then he wired up the new one and helped me put it in.  It fits like a glove!  Happy days.  Well, almost.

The instructions for the oven tell you to remove the oven doors prior to installation so we did that; then we couldn't get them back on!  Jeez, let me tell you, we tried!  We tried time and again but finally had to admit defeat.  I called our local appliance repair person and got on their schedule.  Finally, the day comes around and the guy shows up.  I've got to give him credit; he didn't even laugh!  It took him about half an hour but he did get the damn doors back on.  Finally we could trip the breaker and we have an oven again.  Jeez!






We've tried a couple things and so far it's working well.  It has all kinds of bells and whistles that will never be used.  For example, you can connect it to your wireless network so you can use a smartphone to fire up the oven before you get home.  Really?  Gradually we are getting the various settings modified to our liking.  There are a few things to get finished, like painting, but nothing too challenging.  And we get to eat in the meantime. 

We did take the old ovens and microwave to the recycling center.  It was 300 lbs of various metals and glass; we got $20 for it.  It's hardly worth doing but I like the idea that it will be something else someday rather than just taking up room in a landfill. 

There are a few other things going on but I can't talk about them right now.  Besides, I have some kitchen duties calling me.  Have a good one!

Monday, July 07, 2014

Oh gee, crappy blogging again!

Here's a headline that talked to me; except I'm not so stupid as to try to hide my knife.  When we were in China I forgot to pack my Swiss Army knife in my luggage one time.  When I admitted this to our guide, he recommeded leaving it behind.  He even called a friend to come 'find' it.  Well, it was a great way for the 'friend' to get  a nice pocket knife but I figure it would probably found it's way to a landfill otherwise so I guess I'm ok with the friend having it.  I've had two Swiss Amry knives:  one from when I was about 21 and visited Switzerland for the first time; the other from my mid 40t's after the first started being kind of sloppy.  Well, now I've got a third.  Same version but just tighter.  Too bad we can't get a new body like we get a new knife!  LOL!

Things have been rather quiet around the homestead these days.  We pulled out the over-the-stove microwave/vent hood and replaced it with a regular stove vent hood.  The old one didn't do a very good job of venting the stove AND somehow grease found it's way into the thing to drip into the microwave.   Weird but nasty.  So now we have a dedicated vent hood.  I'm really sorry to say it took us all day to change it out!  Guess that we made almost every error known to humans.  I even made a template which did help in positioning the screws but was a bit off.  Gee, wish the maker had thought to give us one.  $400 noisy POS! 

We are waiting, impatiently, for a new double oven to replace the one we currently have.  The new guy will have convection in both ovens and the self cleaning feature as well.  The current ones are just a pain in the a55.  We should get them next week and after the torture of installing them, I'll post a before and after photo. 

Gotta wander off now.   It's almost 22:00 and time for old guys to be in bed.  Take care!