The Ovens are going Back

After a very irritating visit by a stressed out (and way late) repairman, it has been determined that the ovens must go back. First he questioned whether they had been installed correctly, ie, was I sure that a live wire hadn't been put together with the ground. Hmm let's see, it turns on, but one digital control doesn't work, so yes I think it is not short circuiting...

Then he questioned whether it really was a Whirlpool oven because he didn't recognise the doors, which are uniquely designed for Ikea. I had to show him the install guide. Then he fiddled around and showed that he could heat both ovens up as long as he set the left oven to be identical to an already set right oven and then said, "Well really all you have is a blank space where you should have a number or letter." Hmmmm, yes and it is a brand new $1500 set of ovens (no we didn't pay that much, but that is the going retail price).

Then he said he couldn't really check anything without someone else to help him take the ovens out the of cabinet. So I pointed out that Jon would have been here if he hadn't been 4 hours late for his arranged, 4 hour long, arrival window.

Final conclusion, we would have to wait 7-10 days until he could get back out with someone else to fix it. So we are not having him fix it, we will get Ikea to replace it with another one.

In the meantime no pictures, because nothing has changed on the outside. I am just putting things away so working hard every day, but nothing to see really. The rest of the flooring should arrive on Weds. We should be mostly unpacked back into the kitchen by Monday, so we really are looking at the end soon. And I must say that I love my cooktop and having a working sink and dishwasher is a very very nice state of being.

Good News, Bad News

First the good news. The Electrician was here today! We can now turn on the kitchen lights from the hallway. Yay!

He also put in a low profile switch by the broom closet and, with that and the new doorknob, the door could open all the way and it all worked! It took some maneuvering to figure out how best to fit the vacuum cleaner into it's new home, but I got there in the end. Can't wait to get some hooks to hang the broom and mop on.




Soon there will be a place to hang the iron above the vacuum slider thingie and the ironing board will go in the back and everything will be hidden away so beautifully.....
















And now the bad news. The left oven control panel doesn't work.

We installed the ovens and the electrician hooked everything up, but when we turned on the power we noticed something peculiar. On the left side, the oven control panel had a P, while on the right it showed a PF.

Then I tried to set the clocks. The instructions said to hold down the enter button until the clock flashed 12:00. Well after 45 seconds of pushing the left enter button I gave up and tried the right, which worked fine. Setting either clock will automatically set both so we looked over to the left and it said: 1: 4. Hmmmmm

So I had a more thorough read of the manual and it turns out that both sides should have read PF when we turned on the power. The left side should also have been able to set the clock and, after having set the clock on the right side and hitting enter, should not have allowed us at that point to change the time when we turned the dial on the left, but it did.

Major bummer. We called out to Whirlpool, who manufactures these ovens for Ikea, and manage the warranty, and they are sending someone out to fix it on Friday. If they have to cut into anything in order to fix it, they will have a major fight on their hands because I will expect them to replace it at that point, since we have never done anything other than turn it on. I refuse to have a brand new oven with replacement parts jerry rigged in it, before I even get to see if the thing preheats. In the meantime it looks pretty, if you ignore the P/PF mismatch, and we will be moving on to the dishwasher install when Jon finishes work for the day.

Starting the Finishing Details

We put on all the doors we had in the garage. We are still waiting for the doors for the cabinet over fridge. It was part of the big Ikea snafu way back in April. They are taking very good care of us, but we have a little bit of time to go before all the backordered stuff arrives at our house.


You might notice that we have handles on the doors now as well. We discovered that it is very hard to open these doors when there are no handles on them.








We also cut the surround for the ovens and put that up.


In the corner by the door there is a tall cabinet that is the new broom/vacuum cupboard. Unfortunately to have the door open in the sensible manner meant that it would foul on the doorknob to the garage. We could have changed the door so it opened on the other side, but that would have been a huge pain.

So I went online and searched for low profile door handles and found this lovely thing. It doesn't even stick out as far as the door frame and opens very easily when you pull it or push it, depending on which way you are opening the door. It fits into the existing doorknob cutout and arrived today. Exciting! Please ignore the sawdust all over it.

It starting to look like an actual Kitchen!

It's starting to look more like a kitchen. We have actually cooked and washed dishes inside the last two nights. Today I even got to put the silverware away in a silverware drawer as soon as it was dried!

For those not in the know, our old kitchen had no drawer that really worked as a silverware drawer so all the forks etc... were in cups hanging off the side of the countertops over by the table.

We got all the slide out shelves into the pantries tonight. I have even started migrating food over from the dining and living rooms back into the kitchen. You can see the tea up in the corner with all of my Christmas cookie tins. There is so much room now!

The electrician should be coming on Tuesday and so by that night we should have our ovens, dishwasher and under cabinet lighting all working. And we will be able to turn the kitchen lights on and off from the hall!! Currently you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the lights, so this will be a big improvement.

I am hoping to have unpacked back into the kitchen pretty much completely by Sunday. We won't be done yet because we are still waiting for some back ordered door front and cover panels from Ikea and for the back corner of flooring that I had to order when we ran out.

While we are waiting for that we can start looking at and deciding on tile for the backsplash and for the wall by the table.

Too tired to write

But here are some photos especially for people with new sinks who have never posted a single photo of them, but complain a lot about other people being too slow to post pictures of their new sinks.

Are you tired?

Getting there slowly, but surely

I haven't updated for a while because we got bogged down in regular life and the kitchen (sob) had to be put aside for almost a week.

First, we had the cub scout family camp last weekend, our first with Jon as Cubmaster. Then after we had all come home exhausted, Jon had to go out of town on Monday for work and didn't get back until late Tuesday night.

Yesterday was tense, but the counters are now in. They have been oiled and sanded twice. They need to be done again every other day for a week and then every third day for a month or two, until they don't soak up any more oil. But all of that is irrelevant. What matters is that the sink and cooktop can now go in. We might even be able to cook dinner on the cooktop tonight and then wash dishes in the kitchen sink instead of the bathroom sink!

Jon built the oven cabinet (and adjacent broom closet and pantry) already. They need feet and to be attached to the wall. Then, as soon as the electrician can get here, we will have ovens and a working dishwasher. He can't come fast enough. If we are very very lucky, he will come tomorrow, but I don't think we are that lucky. In the, meantime this weekend, we will be able to finish the U; put in all the drawers and dividers and maybe even start unpacking the boxes in the living room back into the kitchen. One can always dream.......

A little bit at a time.

The peninsula is in, with spacers to make room for some sockets on the back (kitchen table) side.
And some pictures of the U so you can all get a sense of the space. The stacked boxes of drawer inserts are where the dishwasher will go.

And yes, we will have a single bowl sink now. I am very excited about it. It is far bigger than either of our old sink bowls and I have never found much use for two bowls that a colander couldn't fix. Hopefully now we will be less likely to leave stacked clean dishes in the sink!