Technically, we’ve always been cooking with gas. And technically we’re still not really able to cook anything in our kitchen. But…

We have a stove!

And a fridge!

In the kitchen!

Not in the garage!

Let’s just take a second to let out a collective WOO WOO!

(The stove isn’t blue, that’s just the packing tape that we’re leaving on until construction is done. Hmm, I do kind of like the blue, though!)

Ok, so, backing up. The last time I updated you, our microwave was our only appliance (but a very, very exciting appliance! Making lunch in the bathroom is totally weird). A few days later they installed our stove and fridge. Since we bought a new fridge and dishwasher not long after we bought our house three years ago, the only appliances we wanted to replace during this renovation are the stove and microwave/fan.

Initially, we (well, mostly Andy because he’s the cook) really, really, REALLY wanted a fancy commercial-style stove, like a Wolf with it’s pretty red knobs and all those burners, that are in the neighborhood of, oh, many thousands of dollars. Sigh. But, our kitchen is small. And our renovation is expensive. And after many days of agonizing over it, we finally decided that the fancy stove of our dreams will stay a dream for now and we’ll get a more reasonably priced stove that fits easily in the space we have — a standard 30″. Then we don’t need to worry about eliminating any much-needed counter space to put in a 36″ stove or adding the cost of installing a range hood instead of a microwave fan. I love the look of a range hood, but a microwave fan is much more practical for us right now.

I promised Andy that our next house will have a fancy stove!

Trixie approves.

We were able to get this really nice looking, kind of fancy Maytag stove and matching microwave from Sears at a huge discount during a friends and family event, months before construction even began or before we even had plans for the kitchen. It was a classic story of walking into Sears to “just look” and practically walking away with a new stove. Done and done.

Now if only we could actually cook something! We have to wait a few more weeks until we’re able to use the stove, but it sure looks good!