Wednesday I had lunch with Sonya at Los Hermanos on Hugh Howell. After lunch, I proposed we go root around the Sears Outlet which is around the corner. Off the cuff, just for something to do. I always dream of finding the perfect stove there…
I stroll over to the stoves and what to my wondering eyes does appear but a screaming hot deal on a Jenn-Air downdraft stove w/ convection oven. It wasn’t $1100-1300, NO it was $923. The skies opened up and the angels sang: AAAAAHHHHHHH! I sent Nick a pic and we bought the $2640 stove for $923. BAM.
This may seem like an extravagant thing to do, but it’s actually something I’ve bitched about since we moved in: the shitty stove. We’ve put off getting a downdraft because they are rarely below $1200 at the outlet store. Also, we are trying to do as many upgrades as we can to this place so we can unload it and get the hell out of here “one of these days”. ::sigh:: In any case, it will make me VERY happy for the time we are trapped here and that alone is worth admission (Nick agrees wholeheartedly LOL).
The drama was that the sales folks at the Sears Outlet store have no clue what they are selling, they are just out for the commission. The girl I worked with was very sweet, but she sold me “installation” for $250 and after speaking with the installer dude, turns out that the $250 “installation” is really them hauling it into your kitchen and plugging it in. No ventilation, no nothing, which, um, kind of won’t work for a Jenn-Air that requires a honking HOLE in the floor for the venting. DUH. So I have this stove being delivered on Friday and my house is not ready (we also have to run an electrical outlet). I got ahold of Cathy Trulove, (The best damn HVAC in Atlanta, IMO!) and she squeezed me in for the following Monday.
Once that was handled, I had to go back to the Sears Outlet to get the $250 refunded and get the model/serial #s off the stove so I could call Jenn-Air for a few parts that were missing. I go back to the Sears store, bust some asses of their dumb employees, get my info, get my refund and come back to call Jenn-Air. What an AMAZING customer service department they have! WOW! They totally made up for the jackassery of Sears. They not only got me the parts by the next morning, but it was all free. Nice!
Nick took Friday off so we could have four days to get the kitchen ready for the install on Monday. The stove arrived on Friday and we stowed it in the carport. Then we proceeded to start installing new kitchen wiring.
We needed a dedicated circuit/outlet for the stove, so that was first. Then we added a new outlet and rewired all three of the counter outlets to a GCFI (ground fault) breaker, which means no ugly GCFI outlets! Yay! That job was a bear and took most of the rest of the weekend. We also took time to meet with a fellow comic artist on Sunday and then Kate drug us out to Marlow’s Tavern (in the DoubleTree @Northlake and NICE!) for a late dinner. Yesterday Nick slaved on the wiring from 9am until around 7pm.
The contractors finally arrived at 3pm and got my lovely Jenn-Air installed in a couple of hours (Charged me $250, btw, for a 100% up to code, pro install. SWEET!). It is the nicest stove I’ve ever had. So my kitchen now has no extension cords, proper outlets and a kick ass top of the line stove.
Misangela is a HAPPY GIRL!