Jake did the research on getting a new stove way back before we left for vacation. We have gas (ha!) and Jake did research on Consumer Reports and whatnot to find what we wanted. He also did some sweet sweet bargaining, doing some internet sleuthing for a good deal, and finally taking that deal to Home Despot, where they gave us a price 10% cheaper than Best Buy was going to give us. Nice move! We also got a free delivery deal, and some kind of rebate thingie. All in all, good work on Jake.
Upon our return from vacation, we had the impending stove delivery to deal with, combined with the getting rid of the old stove, which is still actually functioning. Just for old time's sake, here's our old stove (with the final blueberry-peach crisp it baked for us sitting on top):
You may remember it from stories such as the time we used a bungee cord to fix it, or the time Jake fixed it with help from some random dude he found through the internets. Good times, good times.
We were very hopeful that we could find it a new home, and Craig's List didn't fail us. Magee stoves w/ built-in heaters actually are pretty popular out here for folks who want to heat small cottages or apartments. The company doesn't exist anymore, but the old stoves don't die -- they are built to last. We actually sold the thing for $150, which was a nice bonus. (Yes, we fully disclosed all info about the stove to the buyer).
The new stove and matching hood was delivered and the old one taken away; the only thing left was to hook up the new one. Should we call a professional for this job? Well, maybe. But instead, Jake took on the project, with the professional help of our good friend Matthew. Thank you Matthew, for overseeing the potentially very dangerous gas hook up!
So here's the stove, in action (cooking breakfast!):
We also have the matching hood, which we need to install. The old hood was the kind which recirculated the air right back into the kitchen. So in other words, it was pretty much useless. This means we have a bit of a project ahead of us, installing the new hood so that it actually vents outside. This will be a very big improvement on the kitchen (and hopefully enable us to start a kitchen painting project!), but will take some engineering. This will NOT be a do-it-ourselves project. We have professionals on board, and hopefully we'll be having it done in the next few weeks.
I know our loyal readers will be disappointed if we omit the gorey details and associated discoveries that the new stove hook up created. So for those of you who still care, here's what it looked like when we took the old stove out:
That black pipe on the left is the gas hook up. Jake (w/ Matt's assistance) took the top part off, and hooked up the flexible gas hook-up right above the shut-off valve.
And here's a close up of that hole:
The hole is where the heater vented outside, through the chimney. New gas stoves don't need this kind of vent, so now we just have a hole there. After we get the hood hooked up and whatnot, we'll close up this hole and tile over it. No one will ever know it was there. Unless they read this blog. We feel this is a better solution than what was done with another hole in this same chimney.
And here's a close up of the flooring underneath the stove:
Take a good, close look. Does that look like a piece of linoleum to you? Yeah, it did to us, too. We thought that was weird. But what's really weird is that that is actually a piece of plywood that has been PAINTED and made to look like linoleum. Someone apparently took quite a bit of time, using green paint as well as white and black, and various faux-finish techniques to make this look like marbled linoleum.
All that, for a piece of floor that is UNDER the oven. That seems crazy. Why do that? I am intrigued by the suggestion that Matt made that perhaps, at one point, the ENTIRE KITCHEN FLOOR was actually done in this way, and when someone came along and tiled it (which is what we see on the rest of the floor) they just cut away around the stove, leaving this piece un-tiled underneath. This actually makes a fair amount of sense, given the rough cut look of the edges. But seriously, can you imagine the entire floor being painted like this?
So far, the new stove has been awesome. It has several different-sized burners, as well as a huge center burner that can be used with a griddle (see above photo). It also has a warming drawer underneath for all those big dinner parties. Yes! The big thing is that it's BIG. Actually, the outside dimensions are smaller than the McGee, but without that heater on the side, the oven itself -- inside -- is MUCH larger. We're happy about this. We're also happy that, you know, the door closes, the light works, and we can see through the window to what's cooking inside.
I will say that one down side to the new gas stove is the fact that it relies on an electric ignition. This is probably safer, and perhaps more energy efficient than the always-on-pilot light that the McGee had, but, when the power went out, our McGee still worked. That was a nice feature. With the new stove, if we lose power, the stove won't work either. Sigh. But overall, this is a nice step up.
Welcome to 83 Durant, New Stove!
P.S. For any of our readers who knew me sometime around 1990, this post may bring to mind an appropriate sound-track for reading this post: the song "Stove" by the Lemonheads. It's a rather charming, sad song about a guy who misses his old stove. Refrain:
I miss my stove. She's all alone.
She's right out front and looks a mess.
Unwanted guest. We lied to her.
I miss my stove. Feel sad I guess.
I suspect Mr. Dando wasn't really talking about his stove. At least we know that our old stove is living a useful life for someone else's house. No hard feelings, stove.
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