The Microwave

The other day the microwave broke. It started to make weird noises and then I noticed that it did not heat up my food. I had that micro for about 14 years. It had a good life. I bought that when I moved up here and had my apartment. Now that we have a house with a tiny galley kitchen we thought it might be time to get a micro that goes above the range.

It seemed like a simple space saving idea. We would get rid of that old nasty hood and replace with with a micro that has a fan/light under it. Sounded really simple. I measured and noticed that the space that it would go in was about 30 by 12. This is smaller than our current micro, so I just thought that I would get a smaller micro.

I get to the store and most micros are all the same size 30 by 16. So that means the micro would hang down below the cabinets. Also you need a minimum of 30 inches from the range to the bottom so you don't melt the micro.

At this point I just want to forget this whole plan and just get the usual counter micro. DH is already sold on the idea of saving space by regaining counter space. We get home and he says that it is fine. I have a freak out that the micro will be so low that I will get claustrophobic.

He starts to play with moving the cabinet up. He removes the hood which is circa 1975 and original to the house. The wires were hard wired into the hood. I reminded him to watch out for live wires but he does not listen. He starts to pull the wires out from the hood and they hit the metal and make a loud popping sound and flames start shooting out.

At this point I am screaming bc I am worried that DH got electrocuted or burned. He was ok. That is when he listened to me about shutting off the power. He gets the hood off and realizes that he needs help. My friend's dh is going to come over later in the week to help swap cabinets. There is a shorter one over the fridge that would fit in that spot so the top of the cabinets will be flush.

I just wanted a microwave and now I have a hole in the wall where wires are sticking out. I have to wait for the electrician to make an outlet, a friend to move the cabinets, and then they will deliver and install the micro.

I am hopeful that this will all be worth it when I have more space. Right now I have my doubts bc it seems like this keeps getting more and more involved. My first interview is not for another 16 days. This better get fixed bc I cannot have a social worker come to my house with wires sticking out of the wall.