A tale of two ovens

My kitchen at my old house really was lovely.  After years of living with a small kitchen just larger than that in our first apartment, we decided to redo and enlarge it by tearing down some awkward columns and taking in one of the three living spaces in our 2000 square foot house.  The results were wonderful and served our family and guests quite well.  One of the things I loved the most was my large set of Frigidaire double convection ovens.

Those are my beloved ovens in the background behind my beloved daughter, an avid baker, around Christmas time a few years ago.

As much as I loved those ovens, I knew I needed a comparable replacement for the kitchen at the new house.  The oven left behind by Previous Owner had been grossly neglected by Previous Tenant.  It was a cheap gas range that was dirty, unlevel, heated unevenly and all around stunk.

I considered getting the newer model of my old Frigidaires, but they changed several features and added a "Chicken Nugget" button.  To me, that was a stupid enough addition to keep me from buying from them.  I researched and researched and finally decided on a beautiful, double-convection, classically styled Kenmore Pro.  To my delight, I found a floor model on the Sears Outlet website for half the cost of a new one.  I selected the coordinating 5-burner gas cooktop, added both to my online shopping cart, made my purchase, including the extended warranties, and waited for them to be shipped.

My cooktop arrived a short 10 days after the placing of my order, as promised.  I ordered these way back at the end of December, knowing full well that the kitchen renovation was still months away, so I was in no hurry.  But then several more days went by and my ovens had yet to arrive.  Then several more days.  And then a couple of weeks.  I began placing calls to Customer Service.  The service reps were absolutely wonderful--so polite, well-spoken and appearing genuinely concerned about the delay in my order.  I can't speak highly enough of them.  But I still didn't have my ovens.  Long story short, after several calls that I had to place (Sears never called me to explain the delay) as well as broken glass on the original oven that was set to be shipped to me, I received three more large discounts off of the already discounted price I originally paid and had a brand new, straight from the factory, non-floor model that finally did arrive--about 3 months later than originally promised.

The ovens then sat in my carport waiting for the day they could finally get moved in.  They are, however, quite huge, and my house sits a good 4 feet off the ground and has no ramp.  My husband suggested that he and I could handle moving them in.  While I appreciate his confidence in my strength, I knew this was a bad plan.  We called a local kid who has done some work at the Rectangle for my father-in-law, but he was busy.  Thankfully, his older (and much larger) brother was available. Randy came over and, with seemingly relative ease, helped my husband hoist the beast up the back steps and into the kitchen where it awaited final installation.  I think I may have held my breath the entire time the ovens were in motion, but they made it to their next resting spot unscathed.

I conquered IKEA cabinetry

We pretty well knew from the beginning that we would use IKEA cabinetry in our kitchen renovation.  The price is right (especially during one of their 20% off kitchens sales) and it looked like something we could do ourselves.  While we were in the process of selling the old house, we made several trips to IKEA as well as their website as we planned a layout for the new kitchen.  One of the very first things we did after getting our check from the sale of our house was head straight to IKEA to purchase our cabinets.

Their cabinet experts are super helpful and aided us in laying out exactly what we wanted using their computers at the store.  I received a complete printout of everything we needed and how it was to be laid out.  We scheduled delivery, and like with so many other things we purchased for the renovation, stored the piles of boxes of flat-packed cabinetry in the carport until we were ready to get to it.

Overhead shot of kitchen layout

IKEA cabinets are wonderful because they really can be completely customized to your own space and tastes.  However, because of the degree of customization available, each feature is basically an option and therefore comes separately from the base product.  That means LOTS of different boxes each with their own numbers.

I went through my item list from the order print out and began sorting the item numbers into my own list based on which wall of the kitchen the items were intended to be installed.  I could not have done this without the IKEA app for my iPhone. I sat on my sofa (also an IKEA purchase) with a clipboard, a pencil, my original item list and my phone.  I entered in item numbers and figured out which cabinet they went to and which accessories (drawers, drawer fronts, etc.) went with what.

The app was also invaluable when it came to installation.  Every item that requires assembly (which is just about everything from IKEA, hence the savings) is listed in the app along with the instructions for installation AND a list of all parts that correspond.  For instance, I was installing a base cabinet with 4 drawers.  I was able to go to the kitchen product section, find the cabinet I wanted, select the cabinet front that I was using and then found a complete list of all related item numbers.  I, then, could cull through the piles of boxes in my back room and locate the boxes based on their numbers.  From there, the assembly instructions are really pretty simple.  They get even easier after you put together 3 or 4 or 17 or... I did this over and over and over until every cabinet was assembled.  It became somewhat of a tedious process but completely worth it.  I will, however, admit that my hands and fingers actually became sore and nearly rubbed raw from the masses of tiny screws and nails that I handled over the course of the several days that I was doing this.

I can't say it enough:
If you are going to install IKEA cabinets yourself, GET THE APP!!  Also, it's free.

I originally had not planned on purchasing my sink at IKEA, but I fell in love with the double-bowl apron front.
Also, it was 20% off along with all our cabinets, as well as our dishwasher and vent hood.

Conveniently, flattened IKEA boxes make GREAT floor protectors as we continued with kitchen renovation.

I love that we were able to purchase a cover panel for our dishwasher that matches the rest of the cabinets.
It installed really easily, and for those who have concerns about buying a Swedish dishwasher, worry not.  All IKEA appliances are actually Whirlpool appliances and can be serviced by anyone who services Whirlpool.  It's been 4 months and we have no issues to report.
Actually, we were having some issues with film on our glasses and dishes not getting clean, but we figured out that our well water was the issue.  We switched to all LemiShine products, and now our dishes sparkle.