17.12.2024 [2] Yo-oh heave ho!

  ~o~

The last post was getting foolishly long. So I split it at the arrival of the oven and washing machine.

12.45 The oven and washing machine were delivered a day early but not carried indoors. I can get the oven up the outside steps into the hall. It weighs 30kg. Less than half that of the washing machine at 80kg. I think I had better ring the dealer before I hurt myself! 

 Nope. No help at all! Their driver has already gone home. Installing costs £100-150 extra but can't be done until I have had the plumbers in. They wont send their installer out without payment. It's going to rain. So I'll just have to struggle up the steps myself using my sack truck.

 13.15 Job done. Both items are in the kitchen. The usual problem of twisting at the top of the steps to get through the narrow door. The oven was easy. A little breathless with the washing machine and an extra nose bleed.  I used a couple of 8' lengths of scrap plywood as a ramp. With assorted lumps of timber off-cuts underneath to avoid local sagging. It's a good job I am so resourceful! 😇 Time for lunch! 

 13.45 I am hoping to unwrap the oven and lift it onto the recycling cupboard. Perhaps with the help of the plumber. The delivery driver lifted it without any problem. 

 14.15 So could I. With rather more effort and a worsening nose bleed. The oven projects 57cm from the wall. So I had to pull the cupboard forwards a couple of centimeters. I think I should be looking for something more substantial than the pine cupboard. Or I could reinforce it internally with battens. Unfortunately the oven dominates the food preparation space in that position.

 Would a modern cupboard look out of place in this hovel? Can ovens stand at 45º in a corner? Without looking very silly. Or at 90º. Sunk into the airing cupboard on the right? Or sunk into the back wall? To project into the living room under the stairs? Over the washing machine in the alcove? Raised higher but beside the washing machine? Hanging from the ceiling? 🙄

 I have a solution! Stacked on top of the fridge. Or rather a new fridge/freezer. Which I was looking for anyway. The present one is a compact model. 57cm wide but 60cm deep. 125cm high. The perfect height but getting old. Like me. With rust spots and lifting enamel. A 60cm x 60cm fridge would look much better. Relieve the pine cupboard of the weight and offset the oven from the preparation area. First find your new fridge/freezer. 

 Not so easy. Lower fridge freezers tend to be narrower. An alternative would be to sandwich the fridge sides between deep boards. Then support the oven on top. On a matching crosspiece. Something like 60cm deep worktop material would look right. Inbuilt fridges might work better than freestanding. There might be ready made casings. Not!

 I decided to stay with the present fridge for the moment. To get a feeling for how high the oven wants to be. The oven looked far too close when on top of the pine cupboard. Moving it on top of the fridge seemed less dominating. 

 However, the larder wall shelves blocked the oven from moving back to the wall. Lots of work removing all my "preppers" reserve stock. Then unscrewing eight shelf brackets. Finally I could lift the oven onto a temporary shelf. Which was the width of the oven.

 Now the oven's miserably short cable wouldn't reach the wall socket. So I had to move the cupboard and fridge+oven stack 15cm to the right. 

 If I fix two white boards. From the oven top down to the floor. The stack will look more like a unit. The sides of the oven are narrower than the front. So the boards will disappear at oven level. While enclosing the fridge lower down. 

 The oven rests on runners. Which are about as wide as the fridge. Though I wouldn't risk this without containment against lateral wander. So I am using an old white cupboard door as a shelf. Primarily for safety reasons. 

 I think the oven is slightly too high on top of the fridge. Though it is easy to see inside through the glass door. It feels like a stretch to open the door but isn't really. The oven presently rocks forward against its door closing springs due to a lack of constraint. If I return it to the cupboard top I could use an IKEA built-in enclosure with a drawer. The height of the drawer would lift it quite a bit less than up to fridge height.    

 17.50 The plumber didn't turn up. Nor ring to say why. The working surface is filled to the brim with the contents of my larder. I can't even reach the toaster. Dinner beckons. I'll have to find a storage tub. Or a recycled drawer. I needed two deep drawers + a 25L storage tub. 

 The oven is far too high on top of the fridge. I'll bring it back onto the cupboard and try packing it up to find the optimum height. 

 I had beans on toast for dinner. I couldn't do anything else. The kitchen is chaotic.

 That's better! I pulled the cupboard out more. Now the oven doesn't look as if it is overhanging and about to topple. The top edge of the oven control panel is at eye level now. It feels much more natural. I'll have to see about an enclosure.

 

  ~o~