Renovation update #5

"Then we set out to destroy what we had built up..."


Our 1989 Microwave needed replacing. The duct tape holding the handle was our first clue. So we ordered a microwave from Home Depot that was meant to be delivered yesterday. Our one chore in preparation was to remove the relic currently hanging on the wall. A simple task; one we have done before in previous houses. A "simple" task that ended up consuming the majority of the day and Dad Gafford's sanity. I could go into great detail describing the difficulty of removing the old microwave, but I'm too tired for that. I'll skip to the point and tell you that the problem turned out to be that instead of installing the microwave "shell" as instructed, when the house was built, and there were only studs in the walls, they just screwed all the screws right into any stud they could find. The solution: Dad had to cut holes in the freshly spackled, sanded, primed, and painted dining room wall in order to use a hacksaw blade to cut off the screws that were impossible to access from the front. Wayne and Bev Whitney arrived just in time to reinforce the idea of brute force and gave us the courage to have at it with a saw.

Here is Dad investigating when the dining room holes were still small...Here's the old microwave after much banging and some disassembling...
Here's the dining room wall, with more spackle and ready to be sanded, primed, and painted all over again.

To add insult to injury, our Home Depot microwave scheduled to be delivered yesterday never arrived. Let's just say there was some "confusion" with our order and the microwave was not actually ordered but they never thought to call and inform us. Later in the evening after a different microwave was purchased at Menards, upon opening the box, a huge dent was discovered as a result of a forklift in the store. That item was returned, refund was issued. Like the old saying goes, "third time's the charm." The final microwave was purchased at Best Buy and looks beautiful... A special thanks to all who were involved in the microwave miracle of 2008. I'd add a picture of the new microwave, but I'm in bed right now and it's an awfully long way to the kitchen right now. Maybe another time:-)

We actually meant to blog these events last night, but were having problems accessing internet. So now we're a day behind. But this way we can give you a teaser about what you'll find in the next post. Tomorrow, come back to read about the cold-blooded creature that invaded the storage unit!