Sometimes you just want something else even though you have a reasonable functioning item in place. For me it has been the kitchen range-top. We have lived in this house for seventeen years using a range-top with only two burners.
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| Griddle, Vent and Two Burners |
It has become increasingly harder to cook for many people as our family has expanded with many grandchildren. Menus have to be planned around only having the oven, microwave and two pans on the range-top at any one time. This sometimes means staging the cooking over a few days and deciding on hot versus cold dishes to offer.
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| Covered Griddle |
Also the knobs and griddle cover have weathered over time and attract dirt more easily now. So finally we decided it was time for a replacement range-top. I wanted a newer, sleeker four burner ceramic glass unit.
So Walter set about finding one to fit our counter as we did not want to buy or install another one. We had an electrician suggested to us and he removed the old unit.
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| Hole After Heatproof Tape Was Removed |
This left a gaping hole in the counter. As fate would have it, our new unit was too large to fit into the hole. The electrician could not cut the counter. We had to find a company who installed Corian counters to come out and trim the needed 3/8ths inch so the range-top would drop in properly. This added about a week to our installation time. It also added $150.00 to the project. The company representative told us that the trimming would produce a lot of dust, so Walter emptied all movable items from the kitchen and put up plastic to protect the cabinet fronts and other areas of the house.
This small replacement project had now turned into a major inconvenience. We planned meals without a need to cook anything on a range-top or ate out. I even asked my Women on Missions group to feel sorry for me as we had to eat out so much! Ha! Ha!
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| Newly Installed Four Burner Streamlined Range-Top |
Several days later, the new hole was created and the electrician returned to install the new, beautiful range-top. It fit perfectly!
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Sleek Modern Style |
It has a heat sensor that displays a red light while the surface is hot, even after the burners are turned off. It is a nice safety feature. I worry about the children touching the top while it is hot and now they can see for themselves that there is still heat even after all the burners are turned to the off position.
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| Vent Protrudes Into the Cabinet Space |
An unplanned bonus was also in the works. The old unit needed space under the cabinet for the vent that the griddle needed. The new unit does not have a vent, so all the under counter space opened up for storage space. I had not realized that I would have no vent, so I had not considered what the under cabinet would look like. I was so excited to have new space in the kitchen!
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| Newly Organized Pans and Trays on New Shelves |
For years I have had trays stacked up on ends and pans stacked around the vent. Both of these storage plans were not good. Seemed every time I needed a pan I had to take out most of the pans until I got to the one I wanted. The trays were just as hard to get to.
When the vent was removed, we had all of the under range-top space to use. At first we thought about buying some removable storage units to hold the items. But since the project had added extra costs for the counter trimming, Walter decided to build in shelves from some thin wood, LuAnne, that he had leftover from another project. He worked out the design and spacing so that he could add two shelves in the space. They will hold lightweight items and give us much more storage in that area now.
He covered them in white contact paper and added cleats to the cabinet walls to hold them. While he was working, I went through all the pans and other stored items and was able to set some things aside to be given to Goodwill. Now I have only items that I want in the shelves. We also changed the contact paper out in a side cabinet that I had reorganized.
Even though we lived for several days with cabinet contents in other rooms and no range-top access, the finished project is more wonderful than I had envisioned. I love the new function of our kitchen.
Side note: The electrician did two other small jobs while he was in the house. He added an electrical plug to the wall behind our display cabinet. Now we can use the light which is in the cabinet without having to run the plug into another room and across a doorway. He also moved an intercom speaker from one room to the downstairs room that we use mainly for watching the television. Now we can hear if anyone comes to the front door while we are so far away from it. We had wanted these repairs made for many years. They were just too small to call an electrician in just for them but bundling them in with the kitchen work just made sense. I love the fixes!
God is good!
