The Stove Story

I've long wanted a double oven, but they are soooooo expensive. If you find one on a super-duper sale for anywhere under $1,000 you're doing really, really good. But that is sooooo much money! I just mentioned it to the Lord, but knew it wasn't important enough to really agonize over. ;-) We found one on Craigslist for $300--and it was even white. WOWZERS. When we went to look at it, it was in a storage unit so there was no way to test anything, but it looked to be in really good shape with only a few minor dings. The inside of the ovens looks practically brand new. Dude told us it was about 3 years old. I had already spoken with an appliance repair guy and he told me WORST CASE scenario to get it fixed if it had big, bad, ugly problems would be $450, putting our total at $750. Still a lot of money, but a good price for a double oven.

We bought it, in hopes that we wouldn't encounter worst case scenario. :-)

When we got it home and plugged it in it started speaking French and beeping continuously--wouldn't respond to any of the buttons at all. This was worst case scenario. :-/ The computer was just fried. No fixing it; it needed replaced. The piece alone cost $300+ dollars. ~sigh~

We called an appliance repair man who shall hereafter be referred to as Stove Guy simply because Dirty Rotten Crook doesn't sound very gracious. ;-) He came and looked at the stove, told us we needed a new touchpad and computer board (it's one piece), took $150 (half of the price of the part he needed to order)... and disappeared. About the day he had told us the parts would arrive is when he stopped calling us and stopped answering any of our phone calls--until I would call from a different phone number. THEN he'd answer and be full of excuses:

"Sorry I didn't come this morning like I said--I lost my keys and..."

"Yes, Ma'am--I should have called and told you--I stepped on a nail last night and spent a few hours in the Emergency Room..."

I was already thinking that this guy is either a liar, or he's got really, really bad luck. The clincher though:

"I can't come tonight because I've got to drive to Hunstville and pick up my fiance from the airport."

To which I replied, "Wait a minute... didn't you tell me you drove to Hunstville yesterday to pick her up???"

He then told me that the weather was really bad in Oregon and her flight had been cancelled the day before, so he was driving up again to get her when her new flight arrived... completely forgetting that he hadn't just told me he was going to pick her up, his actual words the previous day had been, "Yeah, I just picked her up and we're headed back to Birmingham now..." Hahahahahaha! It wasn't worth arguing with him--he was obviously a chronic liar.

It was THEN that we got wise and started trying to look up reviews on the Internet. You guessed it--there were SEVERAL of them, all saying the same thing. "The jerk took my money and ran--he won't answer or return my calls. I'm calling the cops!" Of course there were two posted that were just praising how honest and efficient the guy was... but of which had been posted that very week, obviously by Dirty Rotten Cr--I mean Stove Guy himself. ;-) I KNOW how he'd been treating his customers that week, so there's no doubt about the fact that it wasn't a true customer writing anything complimentary. ~sigh~ Live and learn. We obviously got burned.

I was going to call him and tell him that I was going to call the cops on him... but before I made the call I had a change of heart. I certainly wanted to have a working stove and I certainly did want my money back, but he has a SOUL and that is sooooo much more important than my stove or money. I finally decided that I was going to call and talk to him about his soul and how God loves him and wants to save him. I knew he wouldn't answer my call because I was out of new phone numbers to use (!), so I was all prepared to leave a message on his voice mail telling him everything I thought I should tell him about how to get saved and why he needed to.

I called him up... and got a message saying his voice mailbox was full. Hahahahahaha! OF COURSE it's full--of complaints, no doubt!!! So I took that as my answer from God to just let it go.

A few minutes later, Stove Guy CALLED ME BACK. Whoa!!! That hadn't happened in a couple of weeks! He called and told me that he was going to send my money back. I was SO unprepared for him to actually call me and it totally threw me off my game. I completely forgot about my little salvation speech, just stammered a "thank you" and managed to think to tell him that I was praying for him before he hung up.

I didn't actually believe that he'd send the money back, it it's always good to hope, right? :-)

He didn't.

It's been nearly two weeks since then. James and I decided that it was only right to call the police and report the dude. But I also felt it was only right that I inform the guy that I was going to have to do that. Talk about an awkward phone call! He didn't answer when I called this morning, of course, but he did call me back a few minutes later. He had some great excuses this time about an ex-girlfriend who's in a coma and whose kidneys are failing because she took too many children's Tylonol after having cancer, etc. I then thought how very sad it would be if it really was a true story. Sad because of the situation itself, but also sad because I had no reason to believe that such a person even exists and couldn't even muster a sincere prayer. How sad to be a liar and have everything you say doubted, even if you're telling the truth! ANYWAY, he insisted that he will put a check for $150 in the mail today and I told him that I would really like to believe that, but...! I told him I wouldn't call the police until after I'd checked the mail on Wednesday. I kept praying for God to give me wisdom and an opportunity to talk to the guy about his sould, but he rarely gives you a chance to say ANYTHING and I never did get to address the subject. I have prayed for him several times though, asking God to send somebody who can make him shush and listen (!) or somehow prick his heart and help him to search out the truth and find God.

ANYWAY...

In the meantime...

I called Maytag about two weeks ago, when I finally gave up on Stove Guy ever showing up to fix my oven or give my money back. Upon doing some investigation we discovered that this stove is 10 years old, not 3 years old. I'm good at finding liars, it seems. ;-) I couldn't believe it--this stove looks soooooo nice and like the ovens have just barely been used at all. I was disappointed and a little embarrassed to fine out it was so old. But then I also found out that it had a recall on it. Good news? Bad news? We received the parts in the mail last week and opened the box to discover some pieces of venting that needed replaced AND the entire computer/touchpad that was shot! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!! The repair guy (a real one, not a crook) showed up the next day and fixed the oven for us--all free of charge--meaning all we had to do was hook it up to gas and we'd be rarin' to go. God is soooooo good and soooooo merciful!

Having never had a gas oven before and having never done anything with gas lines we were a little bit nervous, but didn't want to pay a plumber $100 to do a 15 minute job. We bought the kit, shut the gas off, hooked it all up, checked for leaks... but kept thinking we were smelling gas. James and the boys left for Cleveland immediately afterward (I had really pushed to get the stove hooked up so we could have a pizza party while they were gone--ha!), leaving him to worry if we'd all be gassed to death while he was away. :-/ Even worse, Katie had arranged for Katie Farr to spend the night, so we were putting her life in peril, too. (Not really--if I REALLY THOUGHT anyone was in peril I never would have brought another girl into the house; I just couldn't help but be NERVOUS about it, just in case, you know?!) When we picked Katie up I got to talking to the Ridlespurges about hooking the gas up to the stove... and after an hour or two they couldn't take it any longer and came over to see if they could detect any gas leaks. After all, their granddaughter's life was hanging in the balance. ;-) I didn't THINK I was smelling gas any more, but my smeller has never been the greatest and I did feel much better when they brought their noses over and assured us that they weren't smelling any gas at all either. So since we checked for leaks and didn't find any and we had several noses not detecting any smell, we decided we must be alright. That's when we headed to the office and took those great pictures of Brother Ridlespurge. :-)

And we cooked pizzas that night. And brownies. And have used the range to heat up soup and make some Ramen. Nothing actually homemade yet, but it's just soooooo great to actually be able to do stuff like that! It was so exciting to get a refrigerator, then twice as exciting to finally get a microwave. Now that we have a working stove we're just ecstatic!!! And it cost us $450. If Stove Crook sends our money back it will have cost only $300 and I wouldn't even know what to do with myself. :-)

So there you have it. I've thanked God soooooo many times for how he worked all of this out. I'm just so excited and so, so grateful. I have a double oven! And it WORKS! Oh, happy day!!!

In other news, the Katie & Katie party was fun. I played Quelf with them, then they wanted to watch Fiddler on the Roof... at 10:00 at night! Do you have any idea how long that movie is?! Crazy. They roller skated downstairs lots the next day, turning the whole basement into an obstacle course. They had to jump over some things, skate around others, then squat down real low and skate through a big box that was laying on it's side, open at both ends. FUN. Made me wish I had some skates!

The girls also helped me built my bed. I've been DYING to get it done all week, but it just never happened. Between the three of us, all three volumes of Upon This Rock and a History of the Old Testament book (!) we got it together pretty quickly and painlessly. And that meant I could unpack and decorate my bedroom. WA-HOO!!! I got all of that done and cleaned up Saturday afternoon. Keep in mind that we haven't yet installed the trim between the paint and wallpaper--that's still to come. But I figured my decorations wouldn't be in the way. Too much. :-)



It's strange... I like my house in person, but when I put pictures on the blog it just doesn't seem to look all that great. HA! Mostly I keep seeing all of the naked windows in need of curtains, I think. Oh well. Some day. :-)

Today I got all of James' grandmother's dishes put away. We brought them back from Pennsylvania at Thanksgiving time last year. She had servings for TWENTY-FOUR PEOPLE of blue and white Currier and Ives dishes. Can you imagine? 24 plates, 24 bowls, 24 dessert plates, 24 saucers, 24 coffee cups... Amazing. I built (I use the term "built" very loosely) two racks with hooks for the cups to hang from and got everything all put away and arranged in the hutch this morning. Unfortunately, that's about all of the house accomplishements for the day. I helped children with school quite a bit, then this evening we went to Hoover to do some running around. Picked up a dress for Katie and a suit for Joe at the thrift store, went to Christmas Tree Shops in search of something to put on the dining room walls (I've never had a dining room before and therefore have nothing to hang in there--and didn't have any luck in our search today) and accidentally found a few other things instead, stopped for pizza, then went to the library so I could pick up some girl movies in hopes that if I have something new (meaning I haven't seen them in years) to watch I'll make myself iron... and iron... and iron. I haven't gotten the ironing caught up since we moved out of the Powell's house. I'm really, really hoping this will be the week I make it happen. Of course, I think I've hoped that every week for the past two months. ;-) It's been a nice day, but we're missing Joe already. He's staying at Mom & Dad's house for the week. I'm so happy for him. He's soooooo excited and it sounds like he's having a terrific time. I'm still wondering if he'll enjoy it the whole way through, or start to get lonely for siblings to play (and fight) with after a few days. Time will tell. :-)