Range, Range on the Home

As if there isn’t enough going on here, today we took delivery of a shiny new range cooker to replace the one that has steadily been failing on us for the past few years. The old one was bought with the house and we don’t really know how old it is but well in excess of the thirteen years we have lived here.

We had gone to the additional expense of having it installed and the old one taken away (well why wouldn’t you) and we were told that an electrician would be on hand to do the installation. However, as soon as the “electrician” had a look at the cable feeding the power outlet, he refused to connect it on the grounds that the rating of the cable was not good enough. Now, I completely understand why he would not connect the cooker to the existing cable, as to do so would be dangerous and out of order on his part, but I don’t understand why I had to call in another electrician to rewire from the switch to the outlet point and eventually connect the new cooker.

I am promised a refund on that element of the connection charge but for now it is harsh to Rob for saving the day with minimal fuss and mess, and boo to the high street electrical retailer, who sound like they are selling spicy asian food.

In fairness, the guys had a really difficult job getting the old cooker out of the kitchen and the new one in. Obviously it was not so stressful to remove the old knackered one as a few dents and scratches wouldn’t matter but the new one could not be treated to such rough handling. As it happens, I only had to remove one door to get the cooker in and, unlike its predecessor, at least it had castors to assist with slotting it into position.

The other amusing thing today is that the guys who slogged in the rain last week to flatten the patio area dug out the footings for some retaining walls and filled the patio area with far more soil than they removed last week. It was quite funny but at least we can see some progress.