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| Our new microwave awaits. |
In April, we discussed how to approach our problem. When we had purchased the house, the previous
owners had paid contractors to remodel their kitchen. They had installed tile all along the bottom
of the cupboards and the microwave. As
our new microwave was taller, this meant we either had to chip away tiles and
set it lower, or find room up above.
Well, we had worked with wood before, but never with tile. The way the old tile had been cut, we knew we
would have to chip away a lot, then lay matching tile along the profile of the new
microwave. We weren’t sure that we wanted to
spend our first tiling project attempting to replicate someone else’s
work. What if we couldn’t find an exact
replacement tile? What if we ended up
needing to remove the cabinets anyway to remove or install tiles beneath
them? Soon May was upon us, and our
upcoming trip to England beckoned. We
would get to the project when we returned, we vowed.
Earlier this year, a family member had died. (See “Awake with Connie Willis and Amaryllis”). As the service was a full
day’s drive each way, we hadn’t been able to travel to her funeral. A “Life Celebration” was scheduled for early
July. So yes, you guessed it: after we
returned home from England…more traveling.
A few weeks after that, we pulled out the oven and
unhooked the gas line. We studied the wall template,
as well as the holes in the wall where the contractors had hung the previous
frame. We decided we would need to
remove the oak trim from the shelf above, as after we hooked the microwave onto the frame's lower support tabs, the trim would get in the way of swinging the microwave up. This involved using a square head drill bit,
which we had previously bought at Home Depot, enlarging the pocket-hole area
around the screw head with our Dremel rotary tool, and patience. Then, to our delight, a little tapping with a hammer was all it took.
The finishing nails that had held on the trim also emerged nice and straight,
so we could tap the trim back on later.
After drilling holes in the wall for the new frame, we
discovered that our stud-finder’s readings had been slightly off, and the left
hand side of the frame would not sit in front of a stud after all. This meant that we needed four toggle
bolts. The installation kit included three. We had a few smaller
ones at home, but wondered if they were strong enough. As it was approaching noon, we decided to add Home
Depot to our list of the day’s errands, and headed out. Our first stop: lunch at our favorite burger
joint.
It’s been several years since we attempted serious
Do-It-Yourself (DIY). Or, if you prefer,
Doing-Yourself-In (DYI). In that time we
had forgotten some basic skills. So that
afternoon we made the mistake of letting the toggle portion go all the way
through the wall before we tightened the bolts.
Thankfully, my wife figured out a slow way to rectify the problem. We also used the template for the shelf to
drill holes for the upper support bolts and the power cord. Then we headed into the living room for our new microwave.
We carried it into the kitchen, squeezed it between the two cabinets, set it on the bottom support tabs, and swung it up. The
new microwave cried foul: its top rear corner jammed into the shelf above before it could reach the wall. So, as we had feared, we would need to remove the
shelf and position it higher.
Hopefully, this wouldn’t involve relocating the cabinet doors.
By now, our energies were ebbing. We removed the vertical supports between the
ceiling and the shelf, but opted to remove the shelf tomorrow.
Pushing the oven back in place and hooking it back up seemed like too much work. So we went out and got a
double-pepperoni pizza for dinner. Life
is hard.
Still to be continued,
Dragon Dave
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