There are things you can count on in life:
1) if you decide to invest $600 in repairing your 11 year old van, they will discover at the end of the repair that there is, in fact, a $3000 problem that needs an immediate repair. You will then need to sell same-said van and pay the $600 repair bill. Murderous thoughts will cross your mind...
2) If you decide you need to lose some weight, you will a) get many invitations out to dinner b) realize that chocolate and wine are food groups that must not be ignored...
3) Within two months of Christmas, you will ALWAYS have to make some kind of major purchase for your house - ALWAYS!
For us, it is a new oven. We have had our current oven, a Maytag dual convection oven, for about 10 years.
I LOVE my oven. I especially love the dual oven aspect. It has made my dinner parties and holiday dinners so much simpler. The upper oven is small, but large enough for a pan of cookies, a couple of small casserole dishes and is the perfect place to heat up a baguette.
A few months ago, the convection part of it broke. I kept forgetting that I needed to call someone. Sunday morning, the smaller oven ceased working altogether. Uh-oh, I thought, this isn't going to be good. I was right.
Yesterday, a lovely and chipper repairman arrived, took off the book of my range and said "Uh oh". I repeated the "Uh oh." "Your circuit plate is dying," he said, in quite a jaunty tone, almost the same jaunty tone you would use if you were saying "You've just won a thousand dollars".... "Is a new circuit plate expensive?" I whispered. Indy, the wonder dog, and I stared at him, wide-eyed, waiting...
He guffawed. "You are not fixing this ma'am. That would be $800! That would be crazy! And this range could die at any moment!" All said in the same happy-go-lucky-manner. Of course, it wasn't HIS range that was dying...
So Barry and I started searching. This is not a good thing. He has his list, I have mine. He wanted a slide-in range (one where the knobs are on the front, not back behind the burners), I wanted a dual oven. We do not have access to natural gas out here in the woods, so that was not an option.
Here is what I REALLY decided I wanted...
A Bertazzoni:
Never mind that I was completely unfamiliar with the Italian brand until I stumbled upon it online. No matter. I was smitten. Sort of in the same way it turns out that I need a 40s era pom pom beret from Brora:
Oh the heart wants what it wants...The pocket book screamed "NOOOO!!! YOU SHALL NOT HAVE A $10,000 STOVE!!! (and then whispered: "Well not yet anyway - why don't you become a bestselling author first?")
I also wouldn't mind having this stove:
But never mind, and as I like to say: Don't Cry for me Argentina..
I found a new stove last night that we will go back and purchase:
There it is in the picture above that looks NOTHING like my kitchen...
It is a beauty - more bells and whistle than I currently have and the bottom "baking" drawer heats to 450 and can fit in quite a lot...
Even has a skillet option on top..
1) if you decide to invest $600 in repairing your 11 year old van, they will discover at the end of the repair that there is, in fact, a $3000 problem that needs an immediate repair. You will then need to sell same-said van and pay the $600 repair bill. Murderous thoughts will cross your mind...
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| Source |
2) If you decide you need to lose some weight, you will a) get many invitations out to dinner b) realize that chocolate and wine are food groups that must not be ignored...
 |
| Source |
For us, it is a new oven. We have had our current oven, a Maytag dual convection oven, for about 10 years.
I LOVE my oven. I especially love the dual oven aspect. It has made my dinner parties and holiday dinners so much simpler. The upper oven is small, but large enough for a pan of cookies, a couple of small casserole dishes and is the perfect place to heat up a baguette.
A few months ago, the convection part of it broke. I kept forgetting that I needed to call someone. Sunday morning, the smaller oven ceased working altogether. Uh-oh, I thought, this isn't going to be good. I was right.
Yesterday, a lovely and chipper repairman arrived, took off the book of my range and said "Uh oh". I repeated the "Uh oh." "Your circuit plate is dying," he said, in quite a jaunty tone, almost the same jaunty tone you would use if you were saying "You've just won a thousand dollars".... "Is a new circuit plate expensive?" I whispered. Indy, the wonder dog, and I stared at him, wide-eyed, waiting...
He guffawed. "You are not fixing this ma'am. That would be $800! That would be crazy! And this range could die at any moment!" All said in the same happy-go-lucky-manner. Of course, it wasn't HIS range that was dying...
So Barry and I started searching. This is not a good thing. He has his list, I have mine. He wanted a slide-in range (one where the knobs are on the front, not back behind the burners), I wanted a dual oven. We do not have access to natural gas out here in the woods, so that was not an option.
Here is what I REALLY decided I wanted...
A Bertazzoni:
Oh the heart wants what it wants...The pocket book screamed "NOOOO!!! YOU SHALL NOT HAVE A $10,000 STOVE!!! (and then whispered: "Well not yet anyway - why don't you become a bestselling author first?")
I also wouldn't mind having this stove:
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I don't know why it is that the Universe didn't think to make me rich this time around... Oh I know, I am doing fine, but that little Aga above would be the niftiest thing....And why do the European appliances make me feel all warm and fluttery inside????But never mind, and as I like to say: Don't Cry for me Argentina..
I found a new stove last night that we will go back and purchase:
There it is in the picture above that looks NOTHING like my kitchen...
It is a beauty - more bells and whistle than I currently have and the bottom "baking" drawer heats to 450 and can fit in quite a lot...
Best of all, it is on sale.
But it is never that simple in life, is it?
Because of course when we went to the shop, a lot of their appliances were on sale and some were on sale for amazing prices...
And one of those items is Barry's dream fridge...
We have a smaller version of this GE Profile fridge that is about 9 years old, with one bottom drawer and one door on top.
And this dream fridge is $1000 less in the store than it is in any other place. Sigh...
But it would require cutting into other cabinets. Messes. Money. And then I would want to change a light fixture and a countertop....
Hmm... Wonder what we will decide....
Remember what I said: something always breaks before Christmas (here you can insert the voice of an aged crone with a cackle...).
Have a great day and stay safe out there...
