Saturday, June 28, 2008

3 years in the making - Phase 1

I remember the first time I went out to "try" and buy a new range/oven. I say "TRY" because I didn't come home with one... in fact, I didn't get to buy a new range until 3 years later - today.

When I got this place, it came with original double oven range. Given that this building might be around 20 years old, this oven range should be around that age too.

It was fine, really, except that the left front burner was burnt out and couldn't be repaired because according to the manufacturer, this model was obsolete and there were no more replacement parts available.

Shortly after moving in, the right front burner died too and for the next 2.5 years, we made do with the 2 back burners.

In 2005, I decided to replace the entire thing and fell in love with those new smooth glass top electric ranges. I must have blogged about my entire shopping experience somewhere... but I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't. I remember feeling drained each time I try and buy a new stove.

You see, there were too many questions. I knew that my stove was 30 inches wide and that it was electric. That was it.

Do you have an outlet ? a 220v outlet ? is it hardwired ? what kind of socket do you have ? oh, you want a microwave range hood ? do you have a 110v outlet ?

I was aghast at all the questions. I should have an outlet, right ? After all, I have a stove right now and it runs. Apparently, some installations are hardwired and don't have a socket at all. Hay, nako. The salesguy tells me that IF they come to deliver my appliance and that the old one is hardwired when they pull it out, the delivery guys won't touch it. They won't put it back anymore and will leave me with both appliances sitting out in the middle of my kitchen.

Nightmare central! It was the same in every store.

So I decided to wait till I get married and then this can become my husband's problem *evil laugh*.

2007. Hubby comes over, looks at the stove and we go out to try and buy a new one. It was the same experience all over again but I wasn't surprised. I keep telling him, "see ? see ? I told you it was hard."

Oh, yeah, I have to mention this too. It was difficult for us, almost impossible, to know the answers to those questions because we had to take a peek behind the current stove to know what's behind it. The hard part is that it seems like the big hulking thing we have has not been moved in the past 20 years so it's stuck. 2 strong people (hubby & me) couldn't pull it out.

It wasn't till April of this year, when brother-in-law came for a visit, that we were able to successfully pull this out and see what's behind.

Eto pa, bro-in-law has gotten interested in Feng Shui these past 2 months, he showed us a video that explained that each burner stood for something - wealth, knowledge, children and one other thing (I forgot). The 2 broken burners in our stove was for knowledge and children. Ayun, natakot tuloy ako, so we decided to just replace the entire thing. Maybe, we could get preggy after this :)

Early tonight, we drove to Home Depot to look around. Wala. Pangit.

Best Buy... nope. They didn't have a lot of models on the floor. Pangit.

Sears was our last stop for the night and boy, did we make a Sears Sales Rep happy tonight. We came in, browsed through the aisles for less than 5 minutes and found one that we liked. We glanced around for a sales rep and put in an order. We were there a total of 10 minutes, tops, and that includes the entire sales process.

220v line? yes
socket ? stove is hardwired, but we will handle this (we can easily disconnect / connect this)
110v line? yes
socket ? no, but we just want the micro-hood mounted, we will take care of the wiring after

Galing! I felt like I was in the lightning round of a quiz show.

When we were done, the sales guy said "wow, you guys know what you want and know what you need, you were quick to make decisions."

We smiled but in my mind, I was thinking "yeah... it only took us 3 years."

Excited na, can't wait to get this delivered this weekend. Ang bilis no ?

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