Well, Dang.

We've been busy-ish here at Casa de Crazy. It's warm outside - in the seventies, don't hate us - and believe it or not it's time to start prepping the garden and get some seeds going indoors. Also, I have a rigorous napping schedule; I'm in training for the Snooze Olympics, and I aim to bring home gold this time.

We spent Saturday at K2's new house, helping her move in. Well, Someone helped move things. I mostly held down the couch.

The new place had an electric range, but gas hookups were available. K2 prefers cookin' with gas, so she took her stove from the old place, which left her with a glass-top slide-in to spare.

Hey, I said, the oven at Casa de Crazy is behaving like...well...like any appliance that's living in the vortex of doom. How 'bout we take hat glass-top off your hands?? Yep, I'm turning into a scrounge, a scavenger, a first-class mooch - but the oven at Casa de Crazy doesn't always turn on when we try to activate it. Sometimes it takes 14 tries to get it going. No, I'm not exaggerating, nor employing hyperbole - it actually took Someone 14 tries to turn the danged oven on, one morning. Can you blame me for glomming on to a possible replacement??

K2 allowed as how E the Amazing (her husband) didn't really need a stove in the basement for brewing beer, so if we wanted to cart it off, we could. I think E the Amazing took it very well...he only cried for fifteen minutes!

I hadn't seen the range at that point, but figured it was worth a shot.

Here's the thing - the stove/oven/range/cooking apparatus of doom at Casa de Crazy is a drop-in. The one from K2's house is a slide-in. There is a world of difference between the two...I just didn't realize how much difference...

I knew we'd have to remove some flashing and screws holding the drop-in to the counter. I knew we'd have to saw off some cupboard from below - called, I am told, mop board - and possibly some counter top from behind. I thought that would be it, though.

Hah!

First, the slide-in is a glass top. That means one should not use cast iron on it. Uh-oh...that's not a plus. Cast iron is a standard around here. Still..an oven that actually turns on when you turn it on? Big old plus! Also, knob controls, not digital? Yay!! And the knobs are up on the back, not down in front, so kid friendly! Hurrah.

Umm...wait.

Before I go getting all excited, perhaps I should look up how one removes a drop-in and converts to a slide-in...just in case there's more to it.

Sure glad I did that.

Yes, we have to unscrew, and yes, we have to trim. We also have to trim the counter, as the space is 1/4 inch smaller than the new unit. 1/4 inch doesn't seem like much until you're mucking with an unwieldy appliance, and then it's as good as a mile. Also, we would have to remove the supports that were under the drop-in, and put something there to bring the floor level, as the Pergo doesn't extend under the stove.

The biggest thing, though, is electricity. You see, the drop-in is hard-wired to the house - no plug. The slide in has a plug. I dunno about you, but I am not an electrician and don't care to learn the trade on the fly.

So, yeah, dang.

Anyone need a nice, GE glass top slide-in??