Installing A New Stove - Goodbye Ole Whitey

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We have now officially been in this house for a week, and the tweaks have already begun.

At first, we thought we may be able to hack it with the old white stove for a little while. The rest of the appliances are stainless steel, so despite wanting a new stove to match that, we weren't sure we could justify buying a new one for purely cosmetic reasons when there are other, bigger projects calling us (I'm preparing to go at the bathroom with a freaking hammer).



But, there's always a contingency clause, and for us, keeping Ole Whitey was contingent upon cleanliness and functioning. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Ole Whitey ended up with a few issues...

First, the clock didn't work. We tried setting it a few times and it would seem to work but then the next morning it would be back to flashing --:--. <--what's up with that?

Second, it was missing a rack inside (it had only one), meaning we could only cook one thing at a time. I need a high functioning oven because I like to cook ALL THE THINGS. We could probably have bought some new racks, but it felt like 'polishing a turd' to do that. You can fancy it up all you want, but it's still a stinking turd.

I can't believe I am referencing turds on my blog.

Third, it's an old stove, so it was DIRRRRRTY inside (see above). Could we have cleaned it? Yes. Did we want to clean the heck out of a stove with problems #1 and 2? Nope.

After a while, my husband managed to convince me we needed to just buy a new stove. I was on the fence about it for a while, but he kept reminding me that I use the stove at least once a day (usually twice, but who's counting?!), so it would not only be a good investment for the kitchen, but also a good investment into my daily experience.

The fact that I resisted for a while still amazes me. You want to buy me a new stove? Twist my arm already!

We ended up ordering a new one from Best Buy. We wanted something stainless, gas-run, and with burners that have varying intensities. There is not a lot of space for the stove in this kitchen, so we replaced it with the same size we had before, which is 30 inches.

Our dishwasher is GE, and we ended up getting the same brand for the stove, but it was somewhat unintentional.

Why did we go with Best Buy? They had the best deal on the stove we wanted, they offered free delivery, and they were willing to recycle the old stove.

They delivered the stove a few days later, but it was up to us to actually hook it up. We turned off the gas and got to work, and it ended up being pretty simple: Just attach the gas to the new stove (it screws in; ours had an adapter we removed from the old stove and kept), seal it, and plug the stove in to the wall (aka get power). Then, all you have to do is scoot it into place without scratching your floor.

Now that it is in place, I am in love with it. It really did make a huge difference both visually and functionally, and I think it helps the kitchen look a bit more "grown up" and cohesive.

The design of the stove also helps hide a design oddity of our kitchen. Because the top of the new stove is curved/domed instead of flat, it doesn't make it as obvious that the stove, itself, is actually overlapping somewhat with the doorway trim. We have considered doing a renovation to shave off some of the counter/cabinet space in order to get rid of this overlap, but at this point, it seems like a lot of cost for a somewhat minor issue, so this was a nice tweak for the meantime.

There is also a neat feature on this stove that will allow me to very efficiently heat my huge pots - such as my large oval le creuset. In the center, there is a tall, oval burner that will be perfect for those kind of crockpot-like shapes.

 And there you have it. So far, so good. Now, let me get back to cooking...

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

• Do you think it is a big improvement?
• Have you ever replaced a stove?
• What "changes" do you think go the farthest in updating a kitchen?

House Update - Meet The Project!

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As some of you know from reading this blog, my husband and I recently moved to Michigan to renovate and sell a house he has owned for 7-8 years. We stayed with my in-laws while we made the changes and then quickly listed the house. Things ended up moving faster than anticipated, so you may know from Instagram that the house is already sold.

We actually sold it at the end of February. So, we moved, updated, and sold the house within two months. We move fast, people. So fast that it was all over before I got a single blog post up. Bad blogger!

For now, here's a bit of an intro of how the house looked before we made changes:

My husband bought this house when he was pretty young. It's about 1,500 square feet, has three bedrooms, and 1.5 baths. Not too tiny (especially moving from the Chicago rental market!), but also not quite the amount of space we wanted for two people who work from home and need two offices.

The home is bungalow style, built in 1926. It has a few features that were considered 'upgrades' at the time, such as brick all the way around the home (lots of homes during that era of building skimped on costs by doing brick only on the front half of the home instead of all the way around).

It also has porches both on the front and back of the house. On the front of the home, there is a large, well-protected 3 season porch with a fabulous view of the park, which the house sits right across from.

The porch at the back of the home functions like a mud room, and allows for a large entry to the back from the garage.

Note: I took these images before our old renters moved out, so please excuse their furniture and clutter!

On the first floor, there was a large living room, small dining room, and kitchen, as well as a very small bath. We didn't alter the layout, but we did make some changes, such as exposing the gorgeous wood floors (coming soon!).

Note: I took these images before our old renters moved out, so please excuse their furniture and clutter!

There was also an appliance situation... I have no idea how old these are, but they were clearly not cutting it. We debated the Great Appliance Crisis of 2014: whether to really splurge on nice, stainless steel appliances, or to go for white appliances that were cheaper but simply way more updated than these.

Go ahead and wonder what we chose, cuz I ain't spilling the beans until its own blog post. :)

Note: I took these images before our old renters moved out, so please excuse their furniture and clutter!

Upstairs is a full bath and three bedrooms. There was beige carpeting through most of the upstairs, but the master bedroom had a pretty hideous shade of purple. This crap was a major headache to remove, but we'll get to that in another post!

And there you have it... the starting off point for our house. I'll be updating soon with some much more drool-worthy images of the final product that we sold. I will be sharing a few of the quick-and-easy updates we did to get that sucker sold...

• Removing carpeting and exposing natural wood floors
• Dealing with stubborn old brittle carpet
• What to do when you reveal floors only to find they are completely nail riddled
• Super cheap appliance swaps

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

• Have you ever done small changes to a house to sell it? What made the biggest difference?
• Have you ever done a home renovation? What gave you the biggest headaches?

Making Over The Tiniest Kitchen In The World

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Perhaps you recall when we gave Justin's Wicker Park apartment an overhaul... At the time, we did nothing to the kitchen. We were stumped, to say the least. There was no storage. Hardly any shelving. No place for spices or pots and pans. 

Before:

The cabinets you DO see are filled with cups and plates... and the cabinets underneath the sink have no shelving or layering. Just one big space under there. So that means your food would be next to your under-the-sink garbage bin and cleaning supplies. Yuck? I think so!

Progress:

To deal with the shelving and storage problem, we decided to add some storage of our own. We added a bright red spice rack, which helped alleviate some of the kitchen stress... and, for a bit of fun, we smacked up a piece of art that mimics the bright red.  

  

We also added a few shelves above the sink, which we picked up at an antique store in Holland, Michigan. The industrial-looking silver shelves can hold a few odds and ends, like coffee grounds, paper towels, and an awesome non-aerosol olive oil spritzer.

Adding a super cheap (thanks, online shopping!) under-the-counter mug rack also freed up some space in the cabinets (while also helping play off of that mustard yellow color). I grabbed it online for 11 bucks and it arrived within two days. Semi-instant gratification? Thanks, internet (I mean Al Gore).

So, using a thrifted spice rack, antique silver shelves, and a cheapo under-cabinet organizer, we had freed up lots of space and organized as much as we thought we could. Yet, there was still a big problem. The new most obnoxious thing (because as soon as you eliminate one nuisance, another one pops up to take its place) was the clambering noise of pots and pans.

Every single time I wanted to cook, I had to wrestle (yes, wrestle) the appropriate pot or pan from an under-the-sink cabinet. Not only did I have to "get low" (sure, I'm only 23, but getting down on your hands and knees to cook is just obnoxious), but, inevitably, that the pan I wanted would always be stuck in between all of the others. Right in the middle. The most inaccessible place. It's Murphy's law... or perhaps his first cousin. Anyway, piles were spilled. Pots knocked other things over. Nothing was organized. And my brain was screaming.

And then I had a dream. Wouldn't it be splendid if, instead of being stacked 10 pots high, the pots and pans were hanging? It came just like a dream to me. To have pots and pans hanging from above, easily plucked like grabbing an apple from a tree?! It must be the kitchen version of the Garden of Eden! Can it exist?

Oh, that's right. Such a thing does exist! It's called a pot rack! For $39.42!

Come back tomorrow to see how it looks :)