The Homeowner Begets

When one rents a home and an appliance breaks, the landlord will (one hopes) repair or replace the item. That’s it. When one owns a home and an appliance breaks, it can turn into a cascade of purchases I call the Homeowner Begets.

Two weeks ago our microwave oven/kitchen ventilation fan ceased to function. Because of its age, it was non-repairable. So we went to appliance stores looking for a replacement. As luck would have it, the microwave models were conveniently located above range models. We’d thought for years about getting a gas range, as gas is easier to control for cooking and Julian’s eyes can tell that the burner is on or off. However, our kitchen is a glorified galley. The refrigerator is less than two feet away from the range. The ventilation capacity of our home is doubtful. There is a ventilation pipe above the range, but we can’t figure out if/where it exhausts to the outside. Most of the vents on our roof are for plumbing. Induction ranges looked like a good option because they wouldn’t overheat the kitchen and would result in less carbon dioxide released by burning natural gas.

Wednesday afternoon Julian called me from an appliance store. “Should I pull the trigger on the microwave and induction range?” I swallowed hard and, in the immortal words of Kinky Friedman when he ran for Texas governor in 2010, “Why the hell not?”

So here we have our first Homeowner Begets:

The microwave/fan begets the purchase of the induction range;

The induction range only works with ferrous iron pots and pans, so the induction range will beget purchase of new kitchen ware;

The induction range is a drop-in (controls on the front), which will beget some molding/trim to block things from falling behind the range;

And while we’re at it, all of this will beget a backsplash behind the range that will be easier to clean than wallpaper.

Stay tuned for pictures and more Homeowner Begets.