HOT PURSUIT
Baking and cooking with an oven are back again at my house, but not before two very long months of being without.
As you may recall, my oven went down in early December as I was attempting to do a little holiday baking. It was no go. The oven was as cold as the refrigerator with no signs of life. I thought I would have things back up and running within a week. When that didn’t happen, I was forced to do my holiday baking at my mom’s house.
I utilized my warranty company for appliances. It can be a tedious and frustrating process to get a claim processed. First of all, it took forever to get a technician out to look at the oven. Once they arrived, they initially thought the oven could be repaired and began an endless search to find the needed parts.
With the oven nearing the quarter century mark, it turned into a futile search. But convincing the warranty company of that is nearly impossible.
Six weeks after I made the initial claim, I got clearance for a replacement. It took another two weeks to hunt one down and get it scheduled for installation.
On Friday, 65 days since the old one went down, the technicians showed up with a new oven. I was doing cartwheels around the house and thought I had won the lottery. Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but you get the idea.
To celebrate the occasion, I decided to initiate the oven by whipping up a couple pickle pizzas from scratch on Friday night. The next night it was a meatball sub casserole. And I also couldn’t get through the weekend without a couple batches of homemade Chex Mix just in time for Valentine’s gifts for the kids. It definitely got a workout in its first weekend.
Since the oven went on the fritz, I have been dealing with a front screen door that needed repairs after coming off its hinges and bending the closers and a toilet that doesn’t stop leaking. The plumber ripped out the guts of the toilet and replaced them with all new parts. Guess what? I cleaned the toilet later the next day and water still flows… not only inside the toilet, but also onto the floor all around the bowl. It appears I’ll be getting a replacement for the toilet within the next week or two.
I guess all of those are the rewards I get from a house turning 25 years old. I now walk around the house wondering what’s going to happen next. Shhh… don’t mention the furnace that’s original and never gone down. Old faithful is still pumping out heat.
Who ever said owning a home can be a blast? It hasn’t been for me, at least over the past few months.
Being in hot pursuit of repairs all over the house is definitely not my idea of fun!