Crack!

A week or so ago, when the Ericsons were up visiting, we heard a loud "CRACK!" come from the kitchen. The source was not immediately apparent... no-one was in the kitchen at the time, no cats looked guilty, and the pasta was still simmering along merrily on the stove. The next morning when we were making breakfast we discovered that the glass cook-top of the kitchen stove had cracked. It ran all the way from the left front burner (which is where the pasta had been cooking) to the opening for the exhaust vent. Apparently, thermal shock occasionally proves to be too much for these cook tops, which surprised me. We called Mark & he called DeWaard & Bode (our local appliance dealer) and their guy came out right away, took a look, and ordered us a new stove top. It's so nice to still be under warranty.

Anyway, the new cook top is being installed today. The crack didn't really impede our cooking or use of the stove in any way, but it'll still be nice to have everything back in good condition.

I realize I've been slacking on the blogging lately, but I promise to do better! I guess there are just only so many blog entries a person can do about cutting grass & shovelling gravel. But... This weekend Dad is coming over and we'll be burning the big pile and starting on the grading of the lawn area, so look for some exciting (ok, maybe not that exciting...) pictures of that on sunday or monday.

Now we're cookin'

FIRE! Wheeeee! The stove is all hooked up and working - we could cook something, or else just look at the pretty blue flames for a while. Sooooo.... Pretty... Blue... Flames...
Ok, back to reality - stop wasting the propane!

The burner controls work very nicely. Each burner is a little different, designed for different types of cooking, and the knobs are set up a little differently for each one too. It'll take a little getting used to which one does what, but it is clearly a sweet setup. The burners light like magic, just a little 'click' and it's on. They also have a simmer setting which is something that will come in really handy - not like the old farm stove, where it seemed the burner was always either in danger of going out or of burning the rice.

I haven't tried the oven yet, but the controls look pretty straightforward for it. I guess I'll have to sit down and read through the documentation that came with the unit at some point, if for no other reason than to figure out how to set the clock. :)

The downdraft exhaust fan seems to work pretty well. Since we didn't come prepared to burn some food, Cary just held his hand over the opening. It draws a pretty good breeze.

More About Appliances

The rest of the appliances moved into (well, close to) their final positions yesterday. Here's the stove, ready to slide into place in the island: I think I mentioned before that it's a Jennair Downdraft gas range. Product Specs here. We had it converted to run on propane. You can see our wonderful new fridge there in the background, behind the stove. My ravings about how much I like it can be reveiwed in this post from last week, if you are interested in that kind of thing. Or, for you just-the-facts types, here's a link to the specs.

Here's the dishwasher. It's a pretty standard model, middle-of-the-road efficiency and expense. Product Specs here.

Here's the washer & the dryer, upstairs in the laundry room. I'm really looking forward to using that front load washer and gas (propane) dryer. Both are highly energy efficient - the tag on the washer says it will only cost $12/year to run! Specs on the washer are here and specs for the dryer are here.
Damn, but this is Fun!

!!!APPLIANCES!!!

Sorry about the shouting, but I'm pretty excited about the fact that all the major appliances have been delivered. The fridge is just magnificent. Here it is, just a few feet from its future home in the kitchen:
And here's the inside - so large & spacious! And those shelves are so sturdy. It was shocking, after years of rental fridges, to see a brand new one. There's no stains, no funny odors, no broken or flimsy shelves...
The freezer is on the bottom in a pull-out drawer. I've never had a fridge of this type before, but I'm very excited about it. Amana (the brand) is supposed to be very energy efficient. If nothing else, the design is obviously more efficient -keep the cold on the bottom (heat rises,cold falls). The drawer should make it much easier to find that last package of frozen peas. Plus, I'll never again drop a frozen roast on my foot.*
The rest of the appliances are still in their boxes, stacked up on the sunporch. I'm especially excited to see the stove, it's a pretty fancy one - for me at least. It's a Jennair gas (converted to run on propane) 4 burner range with a downdraft vent.
All this fun with the appliances is tempered by one disappointment: The carpet is not going to be installed this week after all. Robin thought she had our carpet but actually it was the almost-exact-same carpet for another house. Whoops! So our carpet is not here yet and probably won't be until the 20th. It's not that big of a disappointment for me (I have a new fridge! I have a new fridge!) but I guess the painters really busted ass to get the trim painted over last weekend so it'd be ready for the carpet to go down. D'oh!

Speaking of painting, yesterday it was warm and dry so they were able to primer the rest of the exterior trim. Most of the trim was pre-primered but the facia boards were un-primered cedar so it is great that they were able to get that covered. I wasn't able to see it because it gets dark at about 3:30 these days, but I'm sure it looks really nice.

Inside, Steve completely trimmed out the office and hung some more doors, including the pocket door to the pantry. It's really cool, slides very easily on its runners. Pocket doors are just awesome. I wish we'd been able to use more of them, but we just didn't have that kind of wall space. Kind of ironic, I guess, to have a house too small to use the most space-efficient type of door. :)

*Or if I do, it won't be the freezer's fault, just my own clumsiness.

Munchkin & Rinnai in the house

The Rinnai on-demand (aka tankless) hot water heater was intalled yesterday, as was the Munchkin boiler for the radiant floor. Both run on propane and are super efficient. It costs more up front to install these types of appliances, but the energy efficiency will be worth it in the long run. There is a little further hook-up still to be done, as you can see in this picture, the water hasn't been connected yet to the Rinnai:

Here's the Munchkin and its associates, various pressure gages, nozzles, valves, tanks and vents. I'm not sure what all the parts do yet, but at some point I'll get somebody from Barron Heating to go over the whole system with me, because not only am I curious but I figure as a homeowner I should know which valves to turn and other maintenence tidbits. There are still some wiring and other connections to make with this as well.
Here it is with the cover opened, so you can see all the "guts".
On the inside, the mudding and taping has begun, which looks like this:
Fortunatley the weather has continued warm, so the mudders aren't suffering any fall chilling while the heating system is being completed.