Appliances and Leftovers

So we are getting closer and closer to victory. (Victory = all of our stuff in the house!) In case you missed the memo, we ended up replacing our gas stove with a flat-top electric stove, my wife's favorite. Her parents pitched in most of the cost, which we ended up getting quite a deal on. Here's the link:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=273658-83-JBS55DMWW

We used a price match + 10% from Best Buy, who had it on sale, plus an additional 10% coupon from USPS Address Change package, so it ended up being $326.

There are two caveats -- 1) The gas pipe behind the old stove is too high (11" from the ground) to clear the stove. So the stove is about 3 inches out from the wall. This is on my todo list, but I don't have time right now. 2) Our house is turning into a bit of an appliance warehouse. All together, we now have: 2 refrigerators (1 installed), 1 dishwasher, 3 ranges (1 installed), 2 washers (both "installed"), and 2 dryers (both installed, electric doesn't have power...yet). See the pictures.

Every old house usually comes with some leftovers from the previous owners. In our case, we let the previous owner leave anything/everything she wanted to, because we might gain some diamonds in the rough. We ended up getting quite a few "nice" things (a relatively new dehumidifier, for example) in the haul. Here are some pictures of my favorites -- a patio set, complete with hippy umbrella (the inside is a crazy floral pattern), and a cool little stool. I don't know why I like the stool so much, but I do.

Finally, my most recent project: fixing the stairs. As the house settled, the stairs leading to the basement had fallen off of their perch. Some wood had been nailed onto the backside of the stairs, and I had shim'd it when we moved in to make it level, but this was only a temporary fix. Tonight, I cut a 4x4 to fit the angle of the stairs (45°, of course), wedged the wood in place, and screwed in some 3 1/2" gold screws. I was going to use some Liquid Nails on the 4x4 as well, but it seemed like a bit of overkill and I've only got 1 cartridge left -- I've got other plans for him. Anyway, after I got the 4x4 in place, I put 2 additional screws into the support as a bit of belt & suspenders. Either way, those stairs aren't going anywhere. If you look carefully, you can see the freebie dehumidifier under the stairs.

I picked up my wife from work during the middle of this project. I had already cut the wood, but didn't have screws long enough to screw it into place. As such, I wedged the board into place (securely), picked up some screws while I was out, and told her on the way home not to use the stairs until I was done. Actually, I told her that I had jumped on the stairs just to make sure they were secure, but that I wasn't done fixing them. Apparently jumping on stairs that aren't fixed yet is one of those things you should keep to yourself.