Day 89--Well, at least they LOOK good...

Our contractor finished the microwave trim for us today. Ken searched hard to find this of Bosch microwave / oven set and it was worth it. They don't look like the combo units, but they blend so nicely together.

Now if only we could actually USE the oven. The replacement glass won't be in until the 10th.

Day 88--Light them up!

The above and below lighting is done! This photo is a little blurry, but I wanted to leave the flash off so you can see how nice the lighting is.

Day 86--The microwave goes in

After the horrible disappointment of the oven, we decided to put the microwave in ourselves. It still needs the face of the trim kit, but we're going to let the contractor do that since there's clips to attach to the oven cabinet.

But I'm beginning to feel like I'm living in a real kitchen. I have a cooktop, dishwasher, garbage disposal and a microwave all in the same room.

Well, there's an oven in there too, but it's to too sad to think about.

Day 86--The oven goes in...kind of

We were very excited on Friday to come home to an installed oven. Finally! Charlie has been asking for homemade cookies and I could finally do it!

So to celebrate (and since the contractor left so late), we picked up a couple of take-n-back pizzas. Only one problem...

While the oven was heating, there was a LOUD POP!

All of the interior glass in the oven door had shattered!

Fortunately we bought the extended warranty--a rare thing--and Sears will be here Wednesday AM to check it out.

Day 81--2 out of 3 ain't bad...

The electrical contractor did show up on Sunday as scheduled, which was a big improvement over what had been happening. There were some concerns and frustrations, but in the end he and his assistant worked all day.

Now half of our upper and lower cabinet lights are working. But best of all, my disposal and dishwasher are working finally!

Day 79--Strike 2! for the Electrical Contractor

All week long I've been looking forward to having the electrical contractor out today (Friday) so that I could have a working cook top, disposal and oven. It was bumped a day to Saturday but I was OK with that.

Then...

On the way home I got a call. It wasn't even from the contractor, but from the electrical contractor. As soon as I heard his voice I knew it was bad news. He has to work his main job Saturday, so now it'll be Sunday.

The funny thing is that as I left work I was saying that I'd just be happy if I had the cook top, disposal and oven working by Monday. So maybe I jinxed it.

The good news is that the contractor was able to hook up the cook top, so it's Pasta for dinner!

Just in case we change our minds...

...about going back to the appliance store where we bought the washer/dryer, we've had a refresher.

Just a little background. We had to buy a washer unexpectedly in June so we went to the same store where we found the great deal on our cooktop. We got a GREAT deal on a Bosch washer so we got the dryer too. (I've compared them to the Lowe's models and we've saved 30% off what we would have paid there.) The delivery went off great the next day and they were so quiet and wonderful! After a few days I noticed a dent in the side of the washer that I hadn't seen at the store but decided to let it go since after all we did buy from a "scratch and dent" type place.

Then about a month later, the washer started to shake...really shake. We went to level out the feet, only to find that we only had 3 feet! Next to the washer we found a paint stick, carefully broken into 5 pieces. We finally figured out that the delivery guys had taken and used the paint stick in place of a foot. When I called the store, I pretty much got the shake off for what the delivery man that they had recommended did. They were "nice" enough to order another foot for us...but when we came to get it, they couldn't find it! The manager ended up bringing it directly to our house when they did.

Fast forward to time to install the cooktop that we bought from the same place. Ken and I are novices when it's comes to buying major appliances except fridges, so we didn't notice that the wires on the bottom didn't look right. Come to find out that the cooktop has been previously installed and the wires had been cut. Instead of 3 feet of metal conduit with the wires in it, there's about 7 inches of just wires.

The store was very agreeable to helping us on this one. We went out last night to pick up the missing part. When we got home, I looked it over.

There's no wires! Just the metal conduit!

I'm just shaking my head at this point. Our contractor believes that he can get the wires to fix this, but now I'm wondering if this will hurt our warranty.