The Very Crazy Story of the Day we Finally Went Oven Shopping

We’ve had a lot of appliances down for the count in the past year and a half.  It started with the toaster. Our old one almost started the kitchen on fire, and we had to replace it.  Then the freezer gave out after our big thunderstorm catastrophe last summer when it was overworked for too long.  We had to get a new freezer.  Next, the dishwasher, which had been dying for years, stopped draining.  You might recall how we had the kidlets do all the dishes by hand for a few months before we finally broke down and got a new dishwasher this spring.  Last fall a burner on the stove stopped working, but we still had three burners that did work, so I said, “Let’s just keep using this stove until we can’t anymore.”  We hobbled by on three burners, which was fine most of the time except when we had people over and were cooking something major, and then it was a bit sticky.  Partly I was holding off on the stove because my Dr. Peds has wanted  new stove since we moved in.  He loves gas stoves.  I love flat top electric stoves and HATE gas stoves.  I had the feeling my days of comfort and ease were about to end, and I was going to hang on to every last one.

Then, just a few days into July, after our host daughters arrived from Latvia and bumping up our food preparation to the larger serving sizes to feed a family of 8, the oven randomly started quitting.  It would usually turn on.  Most of the time it would work just fine, but about 1 out of 7 times, it would simply turn itself off in the middle of cooking something, and then a few hours later randomly turn itself back on, after you had abandoned what you were cooking in the first place.  This was a hassle, and I was ready to cave in and admit that we needed a new stove, but we didn’t want to tackle stove shopping in the middle of hosting. So we just made do.

The oven seemed to be getting worse, and last week it ruined two loaves of homemade rosemary bread, and that was kind of the last straw for me.  I told Dr. Peds I was ready to go stove shopping. He was busy working, so we decided we’d go on the weekend.  Saturday was busy.  On Sunday afternoon we didn’t really want to go stove shopping, but we considered what was on the schedule for Monday and decided that we had better just get it over with, since Dr. Peds was going to be working nights all week and we wouldn’t probably get around to it for a long time.

At two o’clock I reluctantly got in the van.  I didn’t really want to spend money on a new stove.  But we needed a new stove.  I was hoping I could convince Dr. Peds that sticking with an electric flat top was the way to go, but not certain that I’d be able to hold him back away from the gas stove in the end.  It was a gloomy day.  I felt impending doom.

The Banana came along because she loves to go places.

We drove one block down the street, and turned the corner and drove another block, and on the street corner there was a stove sitting on the curb.  We laughed a little at the irony and Dr. Peds made a joke about it, but as we got closer, the stove looked better and better.  The sign said “Free– Works.”  We decided to stop and take a better look.  The stove was clean.  It was about a decade  newer than our broken stove.  It was an electric flat top.  The drawer on the bottom even slid smoothly.

It sort of felt like providence.  God definitely has a sense of humor.  Who were we to pass up a free working stove?  We drove home and got the truck, loaded up the stove and brought it back home.  We were a little skeptical that it was actually a working stove (who gets rid of a working stove?) but we figured it made sense to try, right?

We moved the old stove out and cleaned the thick layer of grime behind it.  We moved the new stove in.  Dr. Peds had to cut off a piece of metal so it would work with our outlet, but lo and behold, the stove works!  It works great!  In fact it boils water seven times faster than the old stove.  All the burners work.  The oven stays on.  It’s amazing!  We couldn’t be happier.  We are so excited about this new free oven.  Did I mention it’s an electric flat top?  Hooray!

I realize that this might be why my kitchen is not featured on Pinterest design boards. It’s OK, readers.  The stove was FREE!  From the STREET!

We are still laughing days later.

Mr. TOF did tell me yesterday that he felt a little sad about the old stove.  He missed it a little since it had been a part of his entire life.  Mr. SP and The Banana campaigned hard for keeping the old stove in the yard to use as part of the mud kitchen, but I objected.  Our poor neighbors put up with a lot as it is.  Dr. Peds suggested hauling the old stove to the curb and putting a sign on it that said “Free — Works sometimes.”  In the end he headed for the dump.