THE DOMINO EFFECT

It all started with one stupid button. You see, we have this Jenn-Air oven/stove that came with the house. 

I guess it's ten or fifteen years old, though it hardly ever got used until I moved up here full-time five years ago. Two or three years ago the clock/timer display went kaput. Everything else still worked, you just couldn't see the numbers telling you what time it was, what temperature the oven was set on, etc. I figured all we needed was to replace a light bulb or a battery or something, but nooooooo. We had to replace the whole dang computerized panel, and it cost a bloody fortune!

Now here it is, just a couple of years later, and there's something wrong with that "Bake" button -- the one you have to push to turn on the oven. First you had to push it 2 or 3 times before it would come on. Then it was 5 or 6. Now it's 10 or 12. One day soon, it just won't come on at all. Now, some of you might see that as a good thing, but me? I would miss it.

Hubby is not at all happy about having to replace that stinkin' control panel again this soon. In fact, he refuses to do it at all. He says it's time to replace the whole dang oven, but here's the rub. Jenn-Air is the only one to make an oven/stove combo with a downdraft vent, but hubby really doesn't want to buy another Jenn-Air. (can you blame him?) We can get a cooktop with a separate, pop-up vent behind it, but it would have a different footprint from the current one, so that means a new countertop. And then what do we do for an oven? Hubby did some research and said he thinks we could install an oven/microwave combo over here, between the pantry and fridge.

That's when I got that "Uh-oh, here we go again" feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Yesterday our contractor and his cabinet-man were at the door bright and early, "just to take some measurements and give us a ball-park figure." Then he and Hubby got to discussing radiant burners vs. induction, and convection microwaves that can act as a second oven when you need one -- which is probably a good thing, since any oven that will fit in this narrow space won't hold nearly as much as my current one.

And that, my friends, is how one stubborn little button morphs into a total kitchen re-do. I did draw a line in the sand, however. They will NOT be doing anything that requires replacing that still-new flooring!