Last November my 20 year old Jenn Air cook top burst into flames - literally! The control panel wiring caught fire and blew the circuit breaker. Mind you, it's a rotten appliance - underpowered, hard to clean, the downdraft's been broken for the last six years and the ignitor's been hinky for at least four, but this was the obviously the last straw.

We'd been talking remodel since we moved in ten years ago, but it finally seemed like we should move ahead on it. So the last four months have been full of frantic planning, sketching and research - a lot of stress, as you all well know, especially on top of "real life" which never seems to let up or give you a convenient break ;-)

DH finally hit his rope limit this weekend after trying yet again to satisfy the city's never ending "oh, we forgot to tell you we need this, too," permit process. You know how it goes - he had a real, "What on earth are we doing/do we really need to be fooling with this right now/maybe we can just keep cooking on the grill for another ten years," kind of day. (I had conveniently gotten *my* meltdown out of the way the week before.)

I had just reassured him that everything was going to be okay when my wall oven caught fire.

Really - sparks started flying out from under the control panel and I had to send DH running downstairs to hit the circuit breaker to put out the electrical fire.

So my current kitchen consists of a broken built in microwave, a broken 27" inch wall oven, and a broken cook top with a broken downdraft. DH thinks all the times I've banged my head against the oven stack in frustration finally pushed it over the edge, but I know the truth - the house itself is rejecting that reject of an 80s kitchen and demanding a renovation!

DH is back to working on the permits again - I told him he'd better hurry up and get the next round in before I rip out the wall myself! Have faith, all ye renovators - there really does seem to be a limit to how long you can put off your renovation ;-)