Girl Power AKA My Vacation…

I’ve spent this week gutting and reorganising the kitchen. We purchased a new oven because replacing the same part for the fourth time in the same oven is just stupid. It’s had a good run, it’s 10 years old and has worked hard. But it’s time. Less bells and whistles and more commercial is what we went for. Better quality, we use it so why not get what works.

So preparing for this, I had to reorganise cupboards because being a more commercial model it didn’t have a warmer drawer that everyone just uses as baking pan storage…. right? I mean who even uses the warming drawer? Anyway that began a snowball effect and I just kept going. 8 hours later, every cupboard had been reorganised and things were thrown away.

I had also wanted a water dispensing fridge, which we haven’t had since moving to America and we missed it. However with nothing actually wrong with our current fridge and spending $1600 on a water dispenser seemed excessive, so we opted for a water dispensing bar fridge instead… way cheaper and extra fridge space… bonus.

So while the family had their road trip I gutted the fridge, finding things that had no business still being in a refrigerator. The shit we buy and never ever use again is amazing. So wasteful.

While cleaning out the fridge and rearranging all the selves I discovered features I had no idea even existed.  Feels like a new fridge now for no cost but a little elbow grease. Perception is everything here.

Two full days down, bar fridge delivered and put together, Wednesday was delivery day of the oven. Part of my excuse for not going on the road trip. The other part of course was how much My Lord Dr King has been away in the last couple of months and the kids needed to hang with him and I needed to not. 🙂 (hang with the kids that is)

Anyway, Wednesday morning came, I prepared for the delivery and figured I could unhook the old one at last and prepare for the new baby. As it turned out, the delivery guys were happy to disconnect and remove the old one for 20 bucks, I’m sure they recondition them and sell them but that’s not my worry. I told them what was wrong. We would have just put it on the street anyway. If it gets repaired and a second life, so be it, recycling works.

I could have paid them to install the new one but they assured me I could do it, as I thought I could, they generously gave me the correct connection and some sealant.

Connecting gas isn’t hard but you know it’s gas and gas goes BOOM, not something I wanted to happen. So I connected it, slid the oven into place and leveled it all up. Girl power was running rampant in me and I felt pretty confident that I’d done it correctly. The proof was in ignition.

I turned it on, didn’t smell gas…. so continued.

The scrambled eggs I tried were a total success.

As the hour progressed I got braver, not smelling any escaping gas, I decided to give the oven a test drive. Sending an arrow prayer not to end up on the evening news in a gas building explosion, I made cookies….

As will all new appliances the first run has to burn off the chemical smell. I stood over it smelling for gas, then stepping back, then stepped back in again to smell. I was nervous but as the smell continued, I could tell that it was just the factory chemical and all was safe.

I had cookies within 20 minutes 🙂

New kitchen complete.

Spring cleaning is a hell of a thing, but now we have what feels like a new kitchen with just a few small additions. And I did it ALL.

Not content to finish there, with no one in the house I decided that spring cleaning all the rungs was the next order of business… Um wasn’t I supposed to be having some time to myself?  Oh well, only another hour to get the dog smell out of the rugs and all the windows open for an airing. I know, I have  no idea what’s wrong with me either but it’s all done now.

Having a few hours left, I stocked the new drinks fridge with goodies for everyone and headed out for a massage.

Finally some me time…..and then…

Hi Honey we’re home!