Silly Excuses: The Range

Today we had our first visit from a professional technician (a.k.a. the oven guy). We called the cavalry after we tried using our oven and smelled something between gas and burning insulation mixed with cleaner - something wicked this way wafts. The smell was noxious - bad enough to make your eyes burn and wonder how fast you could run. Our home came with a "warranty" purchased by the sellers to cover things like appliances over the first year of owning the home. So we called.

He turned on the oven, smelled the same smell, and proceeded to tell us that the oven flames were burning off the paint and primer fumes in the house, it being winter here in Wisconsin and the windows were all closed.

Right.

The full extent of our painting consists of: three 2ft square swatches of paint on the kitchen walls for colors we're trying out, one bathroom cabinet painted with the exhaust fan running (it's on the same circuit as the light, so running is not an option for the moment), and two cabinet doors. We're using water based primer, and we've only gone through less than half the quart purchased. These have been painted over the last two weeks during which time we've been holding the doors open for extended periods while moving in our stuff.

Paint fumes indeed.

What little I can glean from searching for answers online is that it might be an ignitor going bad. At any rate, the oven itself is rusting out through the bottom (!) and is probably not worth the estimated $200 for a new ignitor.

It would be time, though, for a new range. Definitely more exciting, but more importantly, much safer.

Then we can paint all we want.

And so it begins.....

My husband and I recently bought a house - very recently, like holiday gift week "good things also come in REALLY big boxes" recently. The process was relatively painless until the very end when someone in Idaho decided our small plot of home was in a floodplain...

True, there is a storm drain behind the property, one of those dry "creeks" that run between the backyards through the neighborhood and fill with water after a good rain. What our friend in Idaho could not know is that we're 23 feet up from the storm drain. From our backyard, we look down at the neighbors, not for any personal reasons since we don't even know them, but because their yard is almost at creek level. The whole north side of town would have to be under water for our yard to flood, and if that were to happen we'd have more pressing issues. Nevertheless, modern lending being what it is, no money would be granted until flood protection was dutifully provided. So we bought flood insurance to get the loan even though the house doesn't need it.

Good things also come to those who wait. Our initial closing date was delayed by four days waiting for FEMA to approve the flood designation so the insurance company would be allowed to take our money and sell us insurance. But in the end, we closed, and now we have The House in which to make our new home.