Kitchen Renovations

After "making do" for 14 years, we finally decided to buy a new stove.  Everyone has always marveled that I put up with an old stove to do my "gourmet" cooking, but I liked the fact that it was gas and that it had two ovens, both requirements for me.

After the usual false starts and disappointments (our condo is out of electrical lines -- until they run some more -- so I couldn't but the sexy JenAir gas top with electric double oven model I lusted for because it needed a new 220 line).  I settled for a brother, an all gas Maytag (Maytag owns JenAir) with all the same features. 

One thing, of course, leads to another, so we decided to replace the very old and ugly kitchen floor.  I love the look of tile, but it's impractical if you do a lot of cooking (and standing) -- and if you own lots of expensive pottery that you might drop.  We bought high-end vinyl in a don't show the dirt shade.

Of course, now we're looking at our cabinets and shelves with a jaded eye and trying to figure out a way to rejigger them so we'd get at least as much storage and more counter space.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, our old stove just departed since it can't be here when the flooring men arrive tomorrow.  Next I have to prepare our two refrigerators to be dismantled and removed tomorrow morning.  We've already moved boxes of pots and bowls and appliances and spices to the dining room -- discovering in the process that we have enough frying pans for three families and enough dead spices for any cafeteria for life.

Putting things back is obviously going to take time as we try to get rid of what we should never have kept!

But then if our lifestyle were not cooking-centric we would not have thousands of cookbooks to find spaces for -- or friends and family who are always eager to find out what's cooking when we ask them to join us at the table.

And what do you eat without a stove?  Today we'll make do with lunch and dinner out (it's Labor Day and we're going to a barbecue).  Tomorrow night we'll have the brisket I cooked on Saturday, delicious reheated in the Microwave.

I haven't decided what meal I'm planning to treat the stove to for its debut cruise.