Lite my fire

Happy New Year!  I've been doing really un-bloggable things lately like unpack boxes, but things at the new house are progressing.  For one thing we got new appliances.  Now I'm a girl who likes old things--vintage, used, recycled, repurposed...I'm usually all over that.  But the appliances in this house just crossed some sort of line for me.  They weren't like old/vintage, they were just like old/nasty.  The stove in particular bothered me.  It's not all the old-style knobs and dials, which are rather fetching, nor the retro "futuristic" font.  It's the fact that in the late 1970s, the previous owner of this house installed a cutting-edge stove that included an early microwave oven right there in the oven cavity, and that I was concerned about accidentally radiating my family each time I turned it on.  Tucked in the folder of paperwork that came from this house was even a letter, dated 1980, from the range manufacturer informing the previous homeowners that their microwave oven was no longer up to code.  Apparently it lacked appropriate locking mechanisms.  Yikes.  So this old stove just had to go, although I did feel like it should have gone to some appliance museum instead of the inglorious end it met by being hauled away by the new appliance delivery guy

I was super-excited about the new stove, which I thought I chose with care. We had the plumber run a gas line to the kitchen so I could get a gas range, which is something I really missed in our last house.  My appliance dreams included a long, middle gas burner with a built-in griddle pan, which this new stove has.  As I got to know my new stove better, however, I realized it wasn't going to make all my kitchen dreams come true.  I do love the griddle, and the whoosh of flame that looks like "real" cooking in ways an electric burner never will.  But the stove is also some odd appliance equivalent of look-alike new construction housing developments (aka, not my cup of tea).  It says "lite" instead of "light," or "on" or "ignite," which seems needlessly stupid--couldn't they have made the font smaller or something?

But I was willing to forgive "lite" until I saw this.  My new range has a "chicken nuggets" feature.  WTF, you might ask?  I turned to my trusty appliance manual.  This feature apparently brings the oven to the correct temperature to heat "convenience-style" chicken nuggets, then keeps them warm for up to three hours.  I'm not sure at this point which is worse--an early microwave oven that may leach radiation, or a stove that has a special feature to "cook" frozen, breaded chicken bits without human interference.  Having never purchased "convenience-style" chicken nuggets myself, I'm starting to suspect this stove was not meant for me.  I'm going to suspend judgment, though.  There is still the griddle, and "lite" seems to ignite a healthy flame that I can use to cook my own less-convenient family favorites.

Finally, wallpaper demolition started today!  The main living rooms are feeling unpacked and comfortable enough now that I felt like we could take the move-in to a new level.  My own dear Mum started peeling paper in the living room, and I'm afraid it's going to be quite a task.  This is her wrestling with the liner.  Underneath all that liner, however, is a lovely plaster wall that should like quite nice once it is painted sage green.  At some point!