We made cookies.

Tonight D and I made cookies.  It might sound like a small achievement but what it actually represents is that our oven is finally fixed!

We bought the range used last spring, from a store in Auburn for a very good price.  It’s a beautiful, dual-fuel Viking with what turned out to be a defunct convection oven. 

In the store they hooked it up and demonstrated that it worked to me, but all I could really do was confirm that there was heat coming out.   Flash forward to September when we moved in.  We didn’t do much cooking during the busy time where we were unpacking, cleaning up construction messes and finding lost things in the house.  Then when we did try it, it took a while for us to realize that it wasn’t working right.  In mid-October we cooked a beautiful salmon for my dad’s birthday for over an hour instead of the 10 minutes called for by the recipe.  We managed to eat it but it was a red flag for the oven.   We finally bought a thermometer to properly test it.  It heated up fine but couldn’t maintain the temperature at all.

We contacted the store about the warranty in early November.  A technician came out and saw that the problem was some kind of melted connection that failed when it got hot.  He did a small fix on the spot but said that if that didn’t work, we’d need to have the store order a new control board.  That fix did not work, so we got in touch again.  The store ordered the part, but it was back ordered.  Thanksgiving came and went.  Many texts were sent.  Then in late December, the part finally arrived in a surprisingly big box.  The technician came over that same day.  Lo and behold the box contained a control panel with the stove burner dials on it, not a control board.  The new part was ordered and finally came at the end of January.  Now it is installed and everything works.  The $600 control panel it still sitting in our house awaiting shipping instructions.  If we don’t hear back in a few weeks, perhaps we’ll sell it on eBay.

In conclusion, we managed without an oven for five months, but eventually got it fixed without extra expenditure so it probably worked out for the best in the long run.  Now we are excited to bake, roast, broil and toast!