How I know It's Almost Thanksgiving and why I Probably Won't Ever Buy An Appliance That Starts with a V again

How long do you think a gas stove should last that cost around $7,000? Five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20? I think it should pretty much last for flippin' ever, but the reality is this.

We moved into this house seven years ago. We love the house, we love the look of the kitchen. We've replaced the fridge and that's when we discovered that the entire kitchen had been built by a high-end W. Hollywood kitchen design firm located in The Pacific Design Center. When the fridge was shimmied out of its snug, we found the designer's label stuck on the side of the cupboard. They did a good job with this kitchen and I'm sure listened to the client and did what she wanted. Apparently, she wanted her whole kitchen built around a white Amana refrigerator that was already about 20 years old. Don't ask. So, a year ago we replaced that fridge. We knew we were limited in what we could do because the cupboards had been built around this ancient appliance. I'm still shaking my head about that. Anyway...old fridge out, new fridge in...but no, it was about 5/8" too wide. I blogged about this so I won't go into the details except to say I had to empty ALL the cupboards that abut the fridge while the Pacific Design Center hotshots came in and reconfigured the cupboards. Okay, so now I have a stainless fridge...nothing fancy...still an Amana because that's all that fits, even with the fancy design team adjustments.

Then there's a stainless dishwasher. Asko or something. It works fine. The racks could be better, but I'm not complaining and I'm also knocking on wood.

And now on to the V appliances...seems I'm not alone. The stoves: one electric and one gas. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when we moved here. I had a stainless steel, gas, restaurant quality V range with a great extraction system. AND, I had a V electric convection oven, full-size and mounted under the counter. Two full-sized ovens. Two full-sized ovens that have had the V repairman here at least four times in the past seven years. Each visit by Vlad, the smooth-talking Russian repairman, is progressively more expensive.




And today, since the gas stove wouldn't start and it's almost Thanksgiving, he came back. Vlad is here right now and he just gave me the estimate. $597.00. One hour's work to make Thanksgiving possible.

And what are my options? Replacement isn't an option right now, but when it happens, I guarantee that the applicance will start with the next letter of the alphabet. I'm going for a Wolf.

Oh, and guess what Vlad just told me. Her heard my fridge make a weird noise and he turned around and said, "Oh, Amana. Das iss med by Viking."