Ok, so I know I'm posting this out of order and I totally skipped over June and our whole moving ordeal and all of that, but I'll come back to all of that...eventually. For now, I wanted to share a blessing and an answer to an un-prayed prayer.
For those of you who don't know, we secured this rental house sight unseen and the real estate agent assured us it would be cleaned before we got here. Well...it wasn't. Far from it. It was disgustingly dirty and I burst into tears after walking through it. (I'll tell more about this whole ordeal later.) The stove was really gross and I couldn't imagine having to cook on it. My family ended up pitching in and we cleaned the house top to bottom before getting settled in. They did a great job on the stove, as much as could have been done seeing how bad it was. It was at least passable and I felt I could make a meal on it with only a small chance of contracting some disease. :)
After it's scrub down, and from a distance it didn't seem too awfully bad. But....when you looked up close...
The display was cracked in 3 places, the timer didn't work, it was yellowed and gross in all the hard to reach nooks and crannies (that was just for you WB!).....
The paint was bubbling and chipping off along the metal parts, there was just grease and thick grime in the places you couldn't get to.....
and the broiler drawer was a nightmare. Corroded and rusty and disgusting.
The range hood above wasn't much better. It was almond colored, but it was supposed to be white. It had really yellowed from age and probably from smokers.
It was yellowed and gross around the switches, and the paint was chipping off all over it.
The very worst part was up underneath. It was SO greasy and sticky and filthy that you couldn't even touch it!! I tried to scrub it down with a steel wool SOS pad and even that wouldn't clean it!! Bleck!! :P
So.....I said all of that to say, the very first night that I was finally able to cook a homemade meal I did spaghetti and garlic bread. I got the pasta all made and went to heat the oven for the bread. I checked it a couple of minutes later and....nothing. No heat at all. I called my dad, he told us what to try, we tried it, and it didn't work. I was secretly jumping for joy and praising the Lord it didn't work!! I was hoping beyond hope that this would mean we could get a replacement.
I emailed the agent told her the problem (along with all the other things wrong with it) and asked about the possibility of replacing it with a nice used one instead of trying to repair it. I offered for us to do the leg work of finding one and installing it, saying that it would make it easier on her, but really it was so that I could pick out my own and not have to worry that they'd come in with some avocado green monstrosity that I'd stroke over. Amazingly the owners said we could spend up to $400 on a replacement. They never even questioned the fact that we were claiming it didn't work.
We started searching Craigslist, but weren't having a whole lot of luck finding a gas range that was nice, in good condition, the right color, and in our price range. Finally we found one for $250, but the guy told us he wouldn't be able to meet with us until the following evening. Later that night we called to confirm that we could still come see it and found that he had sold it out from under us! I was so aggravated, but I was trying to trust that God had something better in mind.
So...the next morning we headed out to a town a little over an hour away to check out a used appliance store. There we found a really nice, really clean GE range for $250. I hadn't actually asked the landlord about replacing the range hood, but figured it really needed done even if we had to foot the bill. I didn't see any in his shop, but went ahead and asked if he happened to have any. He thought for a moment, then went and dug out the only one he had. A brand new, never been out of the box, beautiful white one. He said he'd sell it for $35 (the cheapest one I saw at Sears was $170!).
He gave us a discount for paying cash as well as a little discount for bringing in the old stove, so we got both items for a grand total of $265, well under the budget. It is SUCH a huge improvement in the kitchen and makes me so much happier to cook on.
Ahhhh...much better!!
It worked out really well that Robert hadn't started work yet because it allowed us to run all over tarnation hunting one down, and also it gave him time to do the installation. It was set up for natural gas, but we have propane here so he had to convert all the fittings and reset all the orifices correctly. Thankfully he had plenty of time to complete it all.
I hadn't even prayed about the disgusting stove. I just figured it was one of those things I'd have to learn to be content with, but God saw fit to provide a blessing even though I hadn't asked for it. I am so very grateful for His all knowing ways and for His love for me that shows even in the little details of life.
