Friday, September 15, 2006

Spontaneous cabinet retrofit

After receiving the new stove and reading the installation instructions, we learned it required air space next to the burners, something that wasn't going to happen with our current cabinet configuration due to this unfortunately-placed little wall between the stove and the counter (as shown in the pic below).
The old Wedgewood stove skirted this issue by having a trash burner on that left side, so there was no actual top burner next to the wall.

We debated several solutions: moving the new stove a few inches away from the cabinet (which, as I pointed out repeatedly, would provide us a perfect area to store all the food we dropped as it rotted and nourished some very pleased potential vermin), or just not using the back left burner. But none of these brilliant solutions went over very well, as you might be guessing. Timely measures needed to be taken to prevent one of us from flying into a screaming frenzy and tearing out the peach-colored cabinets and green formica. Not that I'm anxious to do that or anything. Finally Popsey decided it shouldn't wreck everything too much if he just sawed out that part of the cabinet. Hacking noises ensued.


While this process was going on I was having trouble reckoning with how we would heal the holes and jagged edges in the formica, but the Master of Disguise managed to pull it together. He installed a piece of trim along the back wall, and screwed a narrow wood shelf on the counter that not only masks the gaping hole in the formica, but also spans the crack over to the edge of the stove.


In the end it looks great, and removing that little wall actually improved the flow of the kitchen. Screaming frenzy averted. For now.

5 comments:

  1. I remember the good ol’ days when flying into a screaming frenzy was a daily occurrence.

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  2. I know...you really should have kept your temper better than that.

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  3. Temper? It was just a good excuse to get out of eating carrots, peas, and spinach!

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  4. Yeah, kids have it so easy these days. They can use e.coli as an excuse to not eat vegetables. Things seemed bad then, but when you remember our parents' rule that we had to eat as many peas as our age, it does seem like maybe we were overreacting.

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  5. Wow, love the new stovetop! I'm agog (sp?) that you replaced your fab old stove, but I can definitely understand why - I was thinking to myself that it looked like a challenge to use the last time I was there and wanting to warm something . . .I seem to remember live flame just to get it going . . .

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