The Ultimate Upgrade

"It must be an upgrade" is the theme of our new home. Mostly because the previous owners really tried to milk us based on the upgrades they had done. They did put in wood floors downstairs and granite countertops in the kitchen, but the spotty stain job and the bulk of caulk pouring out of every crevice of the kitchen left much to be desired.

Other noteworthy upgrades:

- 10 - 20 blue push pins in the dry wall in every room
- sponge paint ... pink, to boot
- the hardware had all been switched to what I like to call gold lame'. There are those who love it (Charlie's Angels, Liberace), I don't hold it against them, it's just not us.
- imaginary lines drawn where they wanted to change paint colors mid-wall
- the "drawers" in the refrigerator were converted to immovable cubbies with no front door
- the blinds alternate cream/white/cream on several windows
- a large steel hook sturdy enough to hoist a small family was screwed into the frame between the kitchen and living room.

There are more, but why bore you with them all at once? The upgrade that was the single greatest source of pride from this family was the oven that they had installed. This oven (less than two years old, knobs already broken off) has the ability to create a downdraft so that the cooking odors are taken down and out of the home. This is important if you cook a lot of Indian food, less important to someone that roasts a lot of veggies in the oven.

This oven has been a great source of stress, the control panel on it is complicated and difficult to work with. Ashley came over the other day and was finally able to turn off a timer that I had not been able to clear for TWO DAYS. This morning, my mother and I successfully tackled the clock and got it out of military time. However, as we flipped through the setup options of the oven, we came across this screen:


No words.