Oven Tales

While it is entirely possible that the title could apply to the weather hereabouts of late, it does not. 

(Summary of our weather - much like I guess for most of the US lately - is: gross. Hot and gross. Like living in Satan's wool sock when he's on mile 24 of a marathon hot and gross.)

(That said, yesterday and today have actually been lovely.)

I digress.

No, in fact, the oven in the kitchen is the subject of today's tale of woe. 

You can probably see where I'm going just from the words "tale of woe" can't you?

Of course we just replaced our fridge. (Did I talk about that? I can't recall and I'm too lazy to look. If I didn't, well, now I have. Literally less than a month ago. New fridge. Was the other one broken? No. But I hated it. And the new one was on sale. However, had I known the oven was breathing its last, I would have held off. Except I really do love our new fridge.)

But alas, on Monday, I went to set up to start a round of sourdough and as I was digging things out, eldest wandered by and said, "Is the oven working?"

"Wait what?"

"I tried to make a snack last night after you were in bed and it wasn't working." He reaches up and pushes the "Bake" button and there's furious beeping and a scrolling message of "Function not available."

"Oh." I put Pedro the sourdough starter down on the counter and move to eye the oven with eldest. Of course, being human, I push the button again as if somehow he had done it wrong or the magical pressure of mom's finger might have a different response.

It did not.

Nor did any of the other oven-centric buttons produce a different result.

I googled a little then toddled off to flip some breakers and count off two minutes slowly before flipping them back on.

A repeat of the button dance revealed the same result. Function not available.

As if there were any functions that were available. (There were not.)

I texted the hubby and put all the bread makings away, then poked at various appliance dealer websites to see what I could see.

Of course, here's where things take a definitively Sleepy Family turn. Because our current (non-functional) oven is an oven/microwave combo. Two separate devices in the wall, but one unit. The microwave? Still working like a champ. But it has to go because the oven is dead.

Hubby (and I to a lesser degree) is not so much about having to replace perfectly functional things, so he's all, "What if we just put in a single wall oven and built a shelf upon which to place a separate microwave?"

Eh, sure. Why not?

So night before last, we went over to Lowe's to take a gander at their wall oven options (because they were on sale - woo!) and upon finding what I figured would suffice, we nabbed a salesman and began to explain the situation.

Salesman began shaking his head. "We'd have to come out and measure and look. It's $35 for that."

Head scratch. "But why?"

End of the day, because we're not replacing it with the same exact thing (combo oven and microwave) people have had our same idea but then been annoyed because it didn't look pretty when the install was done and tried to blame Lowe's.

"What if we promise not to blame you?"

He smiled and shook his head. "They have to come out and look. Even then, they may not agree to do it."

Grumbling a bit, we leave sans purchase.

Last night, hubby gets home from work and stands with his hands on his hips staring at the oven. "How hard can it be?"

I'll admit, my heart sank. Nothing good starts that way. Ever.

And still, within maybe ten minutes and a little help from eldest, the broken appliance has been removed from the wall (and is now sitting on the kitchen floor blocking use of the stove, but hey, who needs to cook?) and un-hooked from the electricity. 

"If you wanted a double oven, this hole would be easy to expand."

Well now. That's a thought.

So that's where we are right now. Oven/microwave combo on the kitchen floor. Hole in the cabinetry waiting to possibly be expanded (and one of the lower drawers removed) for installation of a double oven instead. And yet another decision that I need to make (do I want a double oven? Or do I still want a single oven and a shelf? Or just to raise the single oven and put in...another drawer? Or a lower shelf? )

Do I have any idea what I want?

I do not.

But maybe this weekend I'll figure it out.