Trudi, If we have some outstanding tomatoes, which is likely I will send you some seeds. I will be show casing my new "Emily" tomatoe :-) I know about being busy. We have been just nuts lately. We had a new baby 8 weeks ago and that makes 5 kids. 8, 6, 4, 2 and 0. Also our newest one had a heart condition at birth and required surgery two days after her birth. The following week I was diagnosed with a hernia and Luanne's brother died. The week after that I had a camping vacation planned. I went with the kids and left mon home with the baby. She was glad to have the peace and quite. I am currently recuperating from my operation which really was a breeze but still and anoyance. All the while the tomato plant haved needed love and care. :-0 Oh boy! Anyway we will see you next year if conditions permit. Greg

THi Daisychain01, I can give you an update. Thanks for asking. The kitchen is not quite ready for a full reveal yet, but our counter is up and running, and has been for about 9 months now. We did go with Odie’s Oil. DH did 3 coats, if we’re remembering right. It’s holding up pretty well, but the hardest used areas look ready for a refresh already. There was some odor when we did it, more than I expected, honestly, but it was tolerable. I’ll put up some pictures so you can see what nine months of constant use looks like. Water still beads on the surface, but read on. We definitely need to attend to the area around the sink (btw, I am SO happy with our round prep sink in the corner!), but keep in mind, it’s almost always in use. The spot where the soap dispenser is looking worse for wear, as is the end grain edge under the faucet, just above the lip of the sink. The spots where we prep meals with cutting boards a scraped up some, too. We cut only on cutting boards, and we put hot pads down when setting hot stuff on the counter. Other than that, we don’t baby this counter. There is one spot where my kids did some stained glass painting with a kit from Dollar Tree, and some of the paint bled through the scrap paper they had put under their work. Of all things, that silly pink paint stained the finish. As time goes by, it‘s tend to the point it’s hardly noticeable. (Unless I pointed it out, you probably wouldn’t see it.) Since you’ve got some time before you do your cottage counters, maybe you could oil a piece of scrap wood with the Watco oil and keep it by your sink on a little platter. Get it wet frequently, and see how it holds up. I wish you the best!

@User @Anne Mulholland Cleaning is the one thing that I really dislike about the oven. But to be far I would hate cleaning any oven :) The top cooktop is extremely easy to clean. Most of the time I just use soap and water. Maybe once a week I will use Cerama Bryte to really polish the top and make it look new again. The grill is easy for the most part. The heavy metal rack and tray\basin can be just washed normally in the sink alone with the aluminum housing it sits on. The steal tray\bason that the rack sits in get discolored and nothing I have tried will remove it. The aluminum housing can also be removed and cleaned. What I dislike about the grill is there is no way that I can see to clean the top were the element is. If anyone has figured that out let me know. The actual ovens are about the same as every other oven that I've had that does not have the self cleaning feature. In my case, I removed the oven racks and the easy slider racks and bottom panel that @A Bowditch referred to. These can all be cleaned in the sink. Even though the manual has instructions on how to remove the vertical side rails that he racks lock on to, I could not remove them. (Cleaning would have been a lot easier once removed). I also removed the back plate that the fan sits behind. Then I used a oven cleaner that was recommended to me by a friend and let it sit overnight. I did not use anything like easy-off as i read that this could damage some ovens and I didn't want to risk it. Some hard to remove spots required the help of a razor blade to help remove. All in all I wish this oven had a self cleaning option, but without being able to remove the side rails i don't know if i would trust using it anyway. Hope that helps.

Ray, how many employee's would you pay to watch you work if you had employees? And how many Trucks would you buy so all these guys could drive over to watch you work? Oh, they needed parts? So why didn't one guy remove the bad component and prep for replacement while the other drove to the shop or wholesale supplier for the parts? Service call comes in, oh we're sorry all your technicians are on a call right now, we can squeeze you in next week. Sure hire the busy company. I couldn't have said it any better myself. What you describe is not uncommon as to what I see here. Mr Fudd. Trying unsuccessfully to back track now after what he said were things made up by me. When we are in a thread talking about the very reason I exist the very reason I do things the way I do. So Mr. Fudd you're going to call in another "busy" contractor to fix something done by another "busy" contractor? Most contractors worth anything would walk away from a new install job installed by someone else I've done it more times than I can count. They don't have a fritter to fry in such a scenario. Is there some HVAC company out there to help you out of a bad decision on your part? NO. Unless you get previous company to pull out equipment give money back. There is no warranty for improperly installed equipment. The manufacturer isn't going to help you either they will tell you to call a licensed contractor in your area. Why do you think it is harped over and over again by me as well as others the most important part to HVAC systems is not the brand... it's the installation and who is performing that function? Why do these rules even exist? primarily for more than one reason. You call in a 2nd or 3rd HVAC contractor to fix a new system. That contractor is likely to assume what when they look at the equipment serial number and see the unit is less than a year old. It would draw a flag if I looked at it being even 2 years old *IF* the house is an older house. (New construction is different) Why would something like that get flagged? Sales of equipment over the internet, hiring unlicensed contractors up to and including self installed or having an uncle or friend install it etc. So you wait 3 years then call another HVAC contractor? Maybe you fool some company doing that, but it's a fools errand. If you're in the Mr. Fudd camp, thinking I am just making stuff up to paint a picture? Truth is stranger than fiction. I fix air conditioners and furnaces. I don't fix people or their perceptions as to what it takes to actually do my job. You don't have to like it. Some people do, some people would rather learn the hard way. You know the imaginary made up kind of *trouble* like this thread. I service the Katy, Texas area.