After two weeks straight of complete insanity at work with a broken foot thrown in for half time, I'm happy to announce that today we were able to finish operation gas range! Chuck and Jim from Hearth and Stove (who did my gas fireplaces and lined my wood burning chimney) came to run the gas lines for me and hooked up my stove as well.
When I bought this house, it had an electric stove and a refrigerator - both of which were close to being on their way out. I really prefer a gas range, but I wasn't sure it was going to be possible. When my house was built, the house ended on the threshold of the kitchen and bathrooms. That entire back part was added on later, presumably when running water was added to the house, and is over a slab instead of the basement.
About 3 weeks ago, my refrigerator officially died, so I replaced that. Then around the same time, my stove started to intermittently not work. It would take 2 hours to bake a sweet potato at 475 degrees and other such nonsense. I mapped out a plan for the gas lines that had them coming upstairs in the dining room and running along the baseboard. It wasn't attractive or ideal, and I didn't prefer it, but it would make my gas range possible.
I called Dan from Hearth and Stove to come check things out and give me an estimate. He and Jeff came and were able to come up with an even better plan... if they ran the gas lines through the basement and out into my breeze way area, they could then come back into the kitchen from the outside. This had the added benefit of providing me with a natural gas line T outside where I could hook up a natural gas grill in the future.
Today the work was scheduled. Chuck and Jim came, worked expertly through the hurdles, and were even able to install the range shut off valve in such a way that I could access it by just pulling out the drawer and shutting it off rather than lose the drawer as was the original plan.
I'm looking forward to experimenting with different cooking techniques with my CSA and garden vegetables. It should be a fun summer!
I messed up on my grill selection, though. I bought a propane grill, thinking that it would work with natural gas as well. Not so, and although some brands of grills have conversion kits, I couldn't find one anywhere for the Cuisinart one I bought (CGG-200). I can always plan for a natural gas grill when this one wears out and when I clean up that back area more with pavers and other things to make it pretty... probably a few years from now.
Here are a few pictures of the work and the end results. Now I just need to get a propane tank before Father's Day!
Pictures of Project
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