More new lights!

Yup. We changed our kitchen again. It was james' idea, not mine. I like it though.

Laminate Flooring is Down In Porch!

Yey to James for putting down the floor in the porch!  We wanted to wait until the moldings were up and the place was painted - but we had the time so we figured we'd just pump it out.

We inherited Squanto's bench!  I think it was motivation to get something done!

 James laying the plastic protection stuff (since the porch isn't heated or anything - it protects the floor from moisture.)

 The starting process!

Pretty much done!  He has to just pop in the last few pieces but it was getting late last night and he was tired.  I don't blame him.  I think it looks great so far!

More Porch Demo

The wood guy convinced us to rip off the vinyl that was around the windows and door and just have him build wood frames for them. Sure! Why not? So James demoed that today.

Since you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, here is the crap we pulled off the windows (and then some).

Porch Progress

Painted yet another coat of paint on the ceiling (4th coat - this wood is soaking it up!). Will do another coat today. I also sanded and prepped for another (and hopefully last) coat of joint compound. The wood guys are coming tonight for an estimate to finish it off and we might have it ready to paint next week.

The Front Porch

How incredibly shameful is it to admit that we got our front porch rebuild in May 2010 and it's still not done?

Yesterday, we threw another layer o joint compound on it and I'm hoping to pump out one more today. Then, it should be good. I think were going to bite the bullet and have our carpentry guys come and throw up the moldings. They did some random stuff for us last year and were really fast and good. I'll admit. I really only have one motivating factor to get this done: Christmas! I think I said that last year too though...

The Kitchen is DONE!

Our kitchen was finished a few months ago - and I never showed off James' great work!

And here....a quick 22 picture glimpse of how we got from "then" to "now"...Great work Jimmy!

Garden Crap 2011

My seedlings have been transplanted!  I'm just going to throw garden stuff on this blog.  I can't do anything in life without documenting it on the computer in some way, shape or form.

 Tomatoes!

 Jalapenos!

My dining room greenhouse.  Only about 4 more weeks of this!  I love watching the plants grow though.  I know, I'm weird.  

Front Porch Time

James has been putzing around the front porch.  Hard to work on it when it's cold, but the weather is sometimes promising.

James & Joint Compound

Someday we'll get it done.

Problems with my Whirlpool Stove

I'm really only writing about this in the hopes that others who have had issues with their Whirlpool ovens do a Google search and find this post.  So to help this post pop up on searches, here are a few phrases:  "My whirlpool oven sucks" "My Whirlpool oven is broken"  "F2 code on Whirlpool oven" "Whirlpool oven overheating" "Whirlpool logo melts off stove".  Okay.  Now here is the dramatic story of our craptastic oven:

We bought this stove in August of 2008.  We didn't buy any extended warranty or anything.  Why?  Most everything we own works fine.  Plus, as you can see, this isn't some super dooper fancy stove.  We weren't ready to install it until April of 2009.  It sat in our Dining Room for those 9 months (climate controlled - no damage or anything).  Here's a picture of it:

Upon being installed in April 2009, it worked fine.  I honestly didn't cook much back in those days.  Having two really young kids - I just wasn't really into baking stuff.  Then winter came.  Around December 2009, I started using the oven more and on occassion, the oven would "short out" and the code "F2" would appear on the electrical panel.  The only way to get it to shut off was to go to the basement and flip the breaker.  Apparently the "F2" code means the circuit board is malfunctioning and the repair guy said it's mostly do to overheating.  It does get VERY hot in the rear of the stove when the oven is on - but the internal temperature is always what it's suppose to be.  So we're obviously confused. 

We lived crossing our fingers that the F2 code wouldn't come on every time we turned on the oven.  There was a 1 in 4 chance back then it would come on.  Not that bad.  Summer came and again, I didn't do much baking because it was the summer.  Then Fall 2010, I started firing up the oven more often.  F2 was making it's appearance more and more.  We discovered that if we had the vent fan on from the microwave, it sometimes wouldn't "F2" us.  Then comes the December 2010/January 2011.  Everytime we turn this oven on, it would "F2" us - even with our vent fan on. 

So I call Whirlpool.  Now granted, I probably should have done this a year ago when it would happen occassionally, but it was just one of those things that wasn't "that bad" - until it started happening everytime the stove was on.  In January, the safety department at Whirlpool told me it was a safety issue and that they would send a repair man out and that we would have to pay for parts but they would cover the labor.  This oven was either $399 or $429 at Lowe's. 

The repair man came and without even turning on the oven told us that we needed to replace the electrical control panel.  That's $96.  He didn't have the part so he ordered it and it was delivered to us about 4 days later.  He was scheduled to come about 2 days after that, but we had a snow storm and cancelled (I cancelled it - there was like 2 1/2 feet of snow and I wasn't going to be able to shovel it all out before he got here).  I called and he came back about 10 days after.  No big deal.

He replaced this $96 part mid February (about 10 days ago).  He heated up the oven and about 9 minutes into the pre-heat cycle, it "F2"ed us.  So he replaced the sensor (an $80 part).  It worked. 

I didn't cook for two days in it and the Whirlpool lady called and I said "so far, everything is good."  Then I tried to use it.  It "F2"ed me.  Then we pulled it out from the wall and thought maybe it wasn't venting properly.  But nope.  It's just gotten worse and worse. 

A week since the two major "problems" got replaced, the thing won't even get through the pre-heating cycle without shorting out.  It used to short out at about the 9-11 minute mark of heating up.  Now, it shorts out at around the 3-4 minute mark - so the oven won't even hit the temperature (usually 350).  Every time it shorts out, the only way to turn it off is to hit the breaker. 

There is also weird things about our oven:

Underneath the electrical panel - there used to be a Whirlpool logo.  It MELTED OFF this past fall.  That isn't normal, right?

And see that "grime" under the vent?  That isn't grime.  We've tried and tried again to clean it and it's like burnt paint.  This stove has only been up and going for 1 year 10 months - and has been like this for the past 6 months.  I don't think stoves that are under 2 years old should have this much wear to them. 

Then this I just noticed two days ago - the metal Warning sticker inside the oven is starting to "burn off".  Again, I don't think this is normal.  

So I'm just here writing this because I'm waiting for a call back.  Whirlpool seems to be great once you get them on the phone - but actually getting them on the phone is a nightmare.  It took four attempts 3 weeks ago to actually get to talk to the person I needed to talk to.  I called today around 3 pm and was told someone would call me back "soon" - it's now past 6 pm and they go home at 6:45 pm EST.  

  If you are a friend or family member who is reading this - sorry.  You probably don't care about this stuff.  Again - I'm just wondering what is going on with ventilation of this stove and if it's going to burn our house down.  Just a note:  Once the oven is on, the internal temperature is fine.  It's just venting or something of that nature that seems to be the major issue. 

I've made 4 separate trips to Lowe's/Home Depot and have talked up the appliance salesmen that looked like they knew a thing or two about appliances.  All 4 of them said Whirlpool is the best and has the least complaints.  None of them ever heard of anything like our situation.  All of them apologized (not sure why - they weren't the dummies who waited a year to actually call and complain about this situation). 

Also - we've only ever bought Whirlpool appliances.  If we're told "sorry, you're out of luck with your crappy less-than-2-year-old stove and your recent purchase of parts that didn't do a darn thing" - then there is no way I'm buying another Whirlpool.  What's another good stove brand? 

This stove fiasco pretty much sucks.  The end.

***UPDATE!  4/19/2011***  After about 2 months of having reported the problem, about 1/2 dozen visits from the repair man and about $1500 in parts and service, our oven in fixed!  The man replaced virtually everything on the stove.  After that, he added some insulation - and voila - it works fine now!  My husband is mad we had to drop $96 on a part we really didn't need - but the fact that we only paid $96 out of $1500 isn't too shabby.  It also saves us $500+ on buying a new stove.  So if your Whirlpool stove F2s on you - save the time and aggrevation by just getting more insulation put in under the control panel.***

Kitchen, of course!

Today is Day 12 or 13 of our spur of the moment kitchen re-do.  The end seems near, but we said that on like Day 3 as well.  Along the way, we've just hit lots of glitches and bumps - as we do with most projects we attempt.  Let's highlight two of the "good ones". 

-  We rented a tile saw from Home Depot.  We had everything cut.  James went and returned the saw.  He returned home and all the tiles were layed out where they were suppose to go.  He picked most of them up to start sanding the backerboard - but left the ones down that weren't near his sanding area at the time - and crash.  A tile fell to the floor.  Luckily, we had some extras and there is a small tile shop up the street that cut a replacement tile.  That took up about 3 hours though of swearing, measuring a new tile, calling the tile shop, actually going to the tile shop and coming back. 

-  When we measured the hole for the stove originally, we left 30 1/4" for the stove ("ideal" for most stoves).  30" is the normal stove width.  After taking off the laminate, we laid plywood, then cement board, and then tile.  We didn't have the tile when started - so James figured the tile width to be 1/4" - but it was 3/8".  Before starting to attach the tile, we realized that our stove would not be fitting in the hole if we chose to continue.  So we modified it a bit and sanded down the cement board on both sides.  Here's hoping it was enough.  This took a good portion of one day. 

So where are we at this morning?  All of the backsplash is attached to the wall.  All except for about 8 pieces of the sides of the countertop are attached.  James will throw on the last 8 this morning and we will be able to grout tomorrow.  Here's some pictures. 

For the most part, it looks pretty good for "do-it-youselfers" - but I guess with it taking 2 weeks, it better look good! 

The 30" came out pretty good.  I'll let you in with a couple of our secrets to make this backsplash work.  On newer houses - it would be easy to throw up this stuff because things are more "accurate" and "not settled" - when your house is 90 years old - things just aren't the way they used to be. 

Happily - this 30" area was pretty level and pretty straight - but upon putting up the tiles, we needed about 1/8" - 1/4" more space on top (we started at the bottom to install them).  Now if we were "professionals", we would have put the whole height up first and just moved the tiles some to make them work - but then we wouldn't be sure of an even grout line (and if you know James, you know this wouldn't fly).  So we put up all but the top row.  Now we never worked with glass tile before.  We had two options - cut the tiles or sand the cabinets.  We have a handheld tile nipper - but it really doesn't give us great results.  We tried a Rotozip tip - which provided worse results than the nippers.  So James took out his Dremel and started sanding the bottom of the top cabinet.  It worked great and provided just enough room to fit that last row of tiles in.  Thank goodness.  By the way, you can barely see the top row - unless you are bending over and actually looking for it - a whole lot of time spent on something that will barely get seen.  That's a lot of what we do.

My job in this whole backsplash thing was to cut the tile sheets (they came 12 X 12) and have them line up as good as possible. I started from all the noticable ends and figured we'd work the corner the best we could.  When doing it though, when it came to the end of the window, I had about 1/2" above the ledge there (the individual tiles are just under an inch).  And that little inlet of the window was just over 2 1/2 inches.  So we hand cut the tiles for the corner there (which came out pretty good - but it was only 10 tiles that needed to be cut).  For the edge, we weren't sure what we were going to do since we knew if we cut the tiles, one edge would be jagged.  Easy to hide in corners - but not for exposed areas.  A quick trip to Lowe's solved this dilemma.  We found 1/2" wide, 6" long pieces that matched our tile.  We picked up a few of them and ended the tile here with that.  That was a blessing.

This long stretch of backsplash also provided some challenges for us.  When we installed the cabinets, we made sure they were level.  So when we put up all but the top row of tiles on this side, we had about 3/4" left on the portion near the door.  But it gradually increased to about 1 1/4" by the time we got to the corner.  So full tiles would fit a little past the stove, but we weren't sure how to do the smaller section.  The part under the microwave was easy because we didn't have cabinets in our way.  James made a trip to the basement and found leftover wood from our cabinet install that was exactly 3/4" wide.  So we cut pieces that would fit under two cabinets that filled the gap great.  Once those two cabinet areas were filled with wood - the tiles would fit the rest of the way as whole tiles.  Great solution! 

Here's another picture of our "quick" fix.  It's barely noticable and ties in really great.  As far as the corner, I was lucky enough to have a whole tile go to the corner on window side wall.  Unfortually, for the stove side, we needed about half a tile.  Again, we just nipped the 18 tiles needed and put the jagged edge in the corner.  The grout should cover up any weird looking cuts - but we cut a bunch of them and picked the best ones.  Unless you're actually leaning into our countertops and studing the backsplash, I don't think it will be too noticable. 

We spent pretty much a whole day trying to solve these little dilemmas.  Maybe that's why this is taking so long.  It's fun though.  Kind of.