Double Oven :)

Well, a dream of mine was fufilled Saturday when we had a double oven installed. As most of you know by now, cooking and especially baking is a passion of mine. It started back when I was a toddler and my mom would give me small pieces of dough to make pies and has been a part of me ever since. I actually remember the first double oven I saw. A family I baby sat for in HS had one, and I just thought it was the coolest thing ever. How great to be able to have TWO ovens going at the same time. Weird I know, but hey, we all get excited about different things, right?

When Geoffrey and I started looking at houses last year, a double oven was high on my list, but after housing sticker shock it soon fell off, and we bought out wonderful (though dated) 1980 colonial with a 24" wide oven that could only cook one item at time. So much for the double oven. I soon found out from my neighbor, that the wall oven slot could be opened, the built in microwave removed and a double oven would slide right in. I filed that in the back of my head, knowing it would probably be a while before I'd actually see a new oven there.

Well, rewind 2 weeks. I went to preheat the oven to bake a pizza and heard some strange popping sounds, followed by smoke. This wasn't too surprising, as the oven is old. I called Geoffrey down and he agreed that the oven was on its way out. He then said what was music to my ears "well, you better figure out what oven you want to get!" Yippee! I picked out a beautiful stainless steel GE profile double oven with convection, thanks to a recommendation from a neighbor and a nice little discount that Nicole shared with me.

Tuesday Geoffrey and I got to work removing the old oven and microwave...and we discovered this:

Not good. What we thought was the broken oven actually turned out to be the junction box wiring going bad. I quickly contacted every electrician recommended to me, and found a guy recommended by a neighbor who was willing to come out on Saturday, as he didn't want to have us without an oven any longer than we had to. He arrived during the VT-ECU game, quickly went to work and 2 hours later the problem had been solved and the oven was in place. Just in time for me to whip up some enchiladas for our Saturday night dinner with Anne & Jon.

Here's a progression of the work that took place. First, Geoffrey had to add 1/4" shim strips on either side of the cabinet box, to meet the installation requirements of the oven. He then used a jigsaw to open up the "box" an additional 9" and built a frame for the oven to sit on, which had to hold a minimum of 300 lbs. I feel pretty darn lucky to have such a talented husband...after taking 2 red eye flights back to back!
To install the unit, the oven needed to sit at the exact height of the rails, so all the electrical wiring could be hooked up. Geoffrey built this neat little stand that was perfect. We're storing it in the basement but hope we don't have to use it for another 26 years!

The partially installed oven. To lighten the load and gain access to the attachment points, the doors of the oven had to be removed. A neat feature of these ovens is the typical coil see in ovens is hidden below a sheet of metal. This will make it much easier to clean up after pesky little spills.
The new working oven! It makes me so happy every time I walk by it. And Geoffrey will be happy by all the yummy things I will now be able to bake. I'm very excited about the holiday season this year, as I should be able to knock out all of my Christmas cookie baking in one day.

I think the only guys in the house not so excited about the oven are the pugs. All they know is that they had to stay in their crate while Geoffrey worked on getting the opening right and during the oven installation. Luckily their brains are small and they forget things pretty easily :).