Created by Bunk Beds.net
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Living in the house Mickey Mouse built.
Rewind to January 2008. Green tag sale at Home Depot, over the range microwave with all the bells and whistles for way cheap. Look it over, in good shape plus I realize it is also a convection oven, SCORE!
I check finances and I can make the purchase easily. I head up to the Pro-Desk and ask the guys what all is involved in installing this. Everyone says it will be very simple and give me the brief lowdown on it, toss a frame that comes with it on the wall, put microwave up and then install two screws through cabient.
I make the purchase and take it home. Anjie and I are both estatic with this, we can't believe we're going to regain some much coveted counter space. I remove the awesome avacodo exhaust hood from the cabinet and fish out the frame for the microwave. I put it up on the wall and start looking it it. It is nothing like the microwave we have in our kitchen. I test fit and it doesn't fit. I check all of the goodies that came with this open box purchase and there is nothing.
Then next day when I get to work I head back to appliances and talk with one of the guys that helped talk me into the purchase. He said he'd make sure I got all of the stuff needed to get it installed and if needed get someone out to help install it. Nothing ever came of this, no matter how much I asked him about it, it always seemed to have been brushed to the side.
I started looking at the cabinets and how everything would install and came to the realization that the weight of the microwave would probably rip our shoddy press board cabinets off the wall. Couple that with the fact our cabinet over the stove is 18" and not 12" as you need with a microwave. Also our vent went straight out, the microwave is an upward exhaust.
Between the purcahse and now the microwave has been sitting on one end in our kitchen, being used as an end table. We had our countertop microwave... Then it stopped shutting off when done. One night I was nuking a corn dog for Aleister. I popped it in and then came and sat down in the living room for a sec while I waited for it to cook and then cool a little before serving it. Next thing I know I'm smelling smoke and can't figure out from where it is coming. I sniff around and realize it is in the kitchen, next thing I know there is a billowing cloud of smoke pouring from there. I realize the microwave is still going! This is easily a good 5 minutes past the initial 90 seconds I set it.
I scrubbed the microwave as best I could, but the acrid smell of smoke was stuck in it. Within a week while I was melting some butter in it it started flashing making horrible sounds and then just stopped.
As soon as I started my welding class I had hoped we'd have "free play" that we could use our metal to weld whatever our hearts desired so that I could make a frame to mount the microwave. This never really happened until 2 weeks ago or so. Our teacher was out for the night and had the teacher from the other class subbing. So I grabbed some pieces of metal and welded up a frame. Everyone in class decided they needed to tell me how to weld it, despite none of them having any idea what I was doing.
The frames turned out pretty well, but not what I needed, they were a good start for sure. I measured everything on the microwave and the area it was going. It was then I saw there was going to be a problem keeping the 18" cabinet and the microwave, I'd have next to no clearance over the stove. Not a problem, we can scrap the cabinet, cut it down or move it up.
The next class Darrin brought in some angle iron for me, we cut it up and made the frame off measurements and not eyeballed guesses from memory like the first frame. Once completed it sat in the kitchen along with the microwave. I had zero ambition to put it up.
This weekend after eating our Thanksgiving dinner and wanting some reheated leftovers I decided it was time to get the micro wave up and in use before the 1 year mark rolled around. I climbed up and tore down the cabinet over the counter and the one to the right of it, realizing that since the frame is larger then the microwave it would have to be bumped down an inch or so.
Once the cabinets were down I grabbed the frame and drilled mounting holes, then ran to Home Depot and picked up a handful of toggle bolts, a 3/4" masonry bit and other odds and ends I'd need. instead of starting off with a 3/4" hole into the block wall I decided to start with a much tamer hole and go from there. That is when I found out our outside walls are not block, but just sheet rock. The wall studs are 16" apart, my frame is 30" wide. There was no way to get it installed on the studs and I wasn't going to use the toggle bolts on the sheet rock.
I grabbed some old 1X4 and cut it 30 1/2" and secured it to the studs then popped the toggle bolts through the 1Xs. Frame went up without a hitch, microwave up shortly after that... Mostly without a problem. Turns out it wasn't totally plum. A couple quick shims and it is fine. Managed to get the cabinets back up too.
Almost a year later we now have our over the range microwave and convection oven and I am in love! I made cinnmon rolls in my bread maker and cooked them in the convection oven. Damn fine, damn fine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
