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Friday night was easy.... too easy, as it turned out. Mr. Smeddley had already looked at the stove on Thursday night and declared it was easy enough to pull out. And, indeed, it was. Unhook the vent tube and tug, and that was it. An action shot:
Proof of two things, as far as anything on the internet is proof: I do, indeed, have a husband, and on a rare occasion he actually does work. ;) No, seriously, I know I like to say I can do anything, but this could not have been done without him. I need to bake him some cookies. Or something.
Anyway, we originally thought we could leave the vent and motor in place. There was nothing wrong with it, so why not? Well, let me tell you why. The old stove simply plugged into the motor, just like a lamp in a wall outlet. But the new stove - it had to be different. It had a special fancy connector. So the old motor had to come out.
The old motor, sitting on what was evidently the original kitchen floor. Nooooo, you can't tell the house was built in the 70s at all! As much as I do hate the white tile floor (and I do - it's really hard on your feet and don't even try to keep a white tile floor spotlessly clean!) it's a bajillion gazillion times better than that.
In removing the old motor, which was duct-taped to the vent system, we (and by 'we' I mean Mr. Destructo) pulled apart one of the adjustable elbows. So we went downstairs where - in a very, very, very rare moment of luck in this whole thing - the venting was accessible (not very, but enough) from the unfinished area of the basement. If we'd have to have ripped out the new drywall downstairs I would have been one sad puppy. We (and by 'we', I mean Stretch there) reached up through all the pipes and wires and pulled out the venting. Which was all duct taped together, disgusting and sticky. So we ran off to the hardware store. It was a coin toss whether we went to Lowe's or Home Depot based on which place we wanted to stop for food (Sonic or Culvers). We (and by 'we' I mean me) chose... poorly. The Mocha Java chiller and the Jalapeño poppers were awesome, but the only 5" adjustable elbow Lowe's had was broken. Off to Home Depot, who had what we needed. Now came the trying to assemble it. Not an easy task, but after a few false starts, we (and by 'we' I mean Gumby Guy) managed to stretch, wiggle, coax, and finally tape everything into place (with proper foil duct tape, mind you). The motor was in place. We thought out troubles were behind us.
Oh, how we were wrong.
[Wait, I forgot the step where poor Mr. Smeddley spent an hour crouched down in the opening, straddling the motor, hooking up all the electrical bits. While nothing major went wrong with this step (other than a few cuts from the sheet metal) it was time-consuming and tedious.]
Now for the kicker - the stove didn't fit. The island, built around the old stove, was just a *wee* bit too small. Like, 1/4-1/2 inch. And the top of it is three layers - wood, concrete board, and tile. All-in-all well over an inch thick. And it needed to be shaved down.
Another frantic trip to the hardware store. By now, it's 8:30 (the stove was delivered at 3:30). We rush frantically out and buy a Roto-Zip. Yay! Another tool! Yay! Another $100... But better spending the $100 on a tool than wasting $2400 on a stove we can't use, right? Or rebuilding the island (which will TOTALLY happen when I get new counter tops, but we're talking 5+ years out here, and we're talking professional people doing that!). Nine billion pounds of dust and a bit of hearing loss later, and after several false starts, the stove finally slides into place. Mostly.
There's a tiny gap at the back center where the tile doesn't quite meet the stove. We think the back edge is cut in a bit of an arc, so while the two ends are touching, the center is a bit too far away. With stuff on the island it'll not be noticeable, and I told him I'd run a line of caulk around it - it'll disguise that and also give it a nice, finished look. I figure I'll use the rope caulking since it's stiffer and won't fall into the crack.
Just one more step. One more simple, easy step - hooking up the flexible vent hose. It runs from the stove to the motor, and you access it through the removable bottom panel (the one thing I really don't like about this stove is that there's no drawer under it for storage!). It's... a small space. I married an orangutan. Things do now go well. In fact, things go so blindingly not well that I may have learned some new swear word combinations, and narrowly missed being hit by flying vent-bits. But, despite being thoroughly hacked off, he kept at it and, with the help of some more foil tape, eventually got everything secured.
Anyway, now the stove is in place, it seems to all be working, and all we have to do is clean up the dirt and dust and mess. And it's after 11:00 by now (I'm sure the neighbors appreciated the Roto-Zip at 10 pm, too...). My feet hurt (stupid tile floor), my body aches (probably from lifting the stove so many times), and I'm exhausted. I can't imagine how Mr. Smeddley feels, as he did the lion's share of the work (which is why it's 11 am and he's still sleeping, and gets to stay in bed as long as he wants today!).
So cleanup happens (mostly, there are still a few things that need to be wiped down - dust got EVERYWHERE) and we fall into bed after midnight.
A picture of the new stove (before all of the cleanup was done and the stuff was put back into place - see, the clock says quarter after 11!):
Proof of two things, as far as anything on the internet is proof: I do, indeed, have a husband, and on a rare occasion he actually does work. ;) No, seriously, I know I like to say I can do anything, but this could not have been done without him. I need to bake him some cookies. Or something.
Anyway, we originally thought we could leave the vent and motor in place. There was nothing wrong with it, so why not? Well, let me tell you why. The old stove simply plugged into the motor, just like a lamp in a wall outlet. But the new stove - it had to be different. It had a special fancy connector. So the old motor had to come out.
The old motor, sitting on what was evidently the original kitchen floor. Nooooo, you can't tell the house was built in the 70s at all! As much as I do hate the white tile floor (and I do - it's really hard on your feet and don't even try to keep a white tile floor spotlessly clean!) it's a bajillion gazillion times better than that.
In removing the old motor, which was duct-taped to the vent system, we (and by 'we' I mean Mr. Destructo) pulled apart one of the adjustable elbows. So we went downstairs where - in a very, very, very rare moment of luck in this whole thing - the venting was accessible (not very, but enough) from the unfinished area of the basement. If we'd have to have ripped out the new drywall downstairs I would have been one sad puppy. We (and by 'we', I mean Stretch there) reached up through all the pipes and wires and pulled out the venting. Which was all duct taped together, disgusting and sticky. So we ran off to the hardware store. It was a coin toss whether we went to Lowe's or Home Depot based on which place we wanted to stop for food (Sonic or Culvers). We (and by 'we' I mean me) chose... poorly. The Mocha Java chiller and the Jalapeño poppers were awesome, but the only 5" adjustable elbow Lowe's had was broken. Off to Home Depot, who had what we needed. Now came the trying to assemble it. Not an easy task, but after a few false starts, we (and by 'we' I mean Gumby Guy) managed to stretch, wiggle, coax, and finally tape everything into place (with proper foil duct tape, mind you). The motor was in place. We thought out troubles were behind us.
Oh, how we were wrong.
[Wait, I forgot the step where poor Mr. Smeddley spent an hour crouched down in the opening, straddling the motor, hooking up all the electrical bits. While nothing major went wrong with this step (other than a few cuts from the sheet metal) it was time-consuming and tedious.]
Now for the kicker - the stove didn't fit. The island, built around the old stove, was just a *wee* bit too small. Like, 1/4-1/2 inch. And the top of it is three layers - wood, concrete board, and tile. All-in-all well over an inch thick. And it needed to be shaved down.
Another frantic trip to the hardware store. By now, it's 8:30 (the stove was delivered at 3:30). We rush frantically out and buy a Roto-Zip. Yay! Another tool! Yay! Another $100... But better spending the $100 on a tool than wasting $2400 on a stove we can't use, right? Or rebuilding the island (which will TOTALLY happen when I get new counter tops, but we're talking 5+ years out here, and we're talking professional people doing that!). Nine billion pounds of dust and a bit of hearing loss later, and after several false starts, the stove finally slides into place. Mostly.
There's a tiny gap at the back center where the tile doesn't quite meet the stove. We think the back edge is cut in a bit of an arc, so while the two ends are touching, the center is a bit too far away. With stuff on the island it'll not be noticeable, and I told him I'd run a line of caulk around it - it'll disguise that and also give it a nice, finished look. I figure I'll use the rope caulking since it's stiffer and won't fall into the crack.
Just one more step. One more simple, easy step - hooking up the flexible vent hose. It runs from the stove to the motor, and you access it through the removable bottom panel (the one thing I really don't like about this stove is that there's no drawer under it for storage!). It's... a small space. I married an orangutan. Things do now go well. In fact, things go so blindingly not well that I may have learned some new swear word combinations, and narrowly missed being hit by flying vent-bits. But, despite being thoroughly hacked off, he kept at it and, with the help of some more foil tape, eventually got everything secured.
Anyway, now the stove is in place, it seems to all be working, and all we have to do is clean up the dirt and dust and mess. And it's after 11:00 by now (I'm sure the neighbors appreciated the Roto-Zip at 10 pm, too...). My feet hurt (stupid tile floor), my body aches (probably from lifting the stove so many times), and I'm exhausted. I can't imagine how Mr. Smeddley feels, as he did the lion's share of the work (which is why it's 11 am and he's still sleeping, and gets to stay in bed as long as he wants today!).
So cleanup happens (mostly, there are still a few things that need to be wiped down - dust got EVERYWHERE) and we fall into bed after midnight.
A picture of the new stove (before all of the cleanup was done and the stuff was put back into place - see, the clock says quarter after 11!):
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So now we know Mr. Smeddley is real ;)
YAYZ for getting it all done in one night - I know how it is to want to install something and then you can't because you don't have the stuff you need and having to go out and get it.
May you have many hours of great baking and cooking with the new stove!
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I am so very happy we pressed on and got it all done - we're using it as I type! :D
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(and I knew he was real! Haha. Unless I was dropping acid on the night of the HP book release, hehe, which I wasn't. I think.)
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-Mr. Smeddley