We're Cookin' Now!

I put the finishing touches on the little stove last night! This was after several coats of black spray paint for the accessories and several white coats for the stove itself.

I really struggled to find little parts and pieces around here to make more realistic burners, knobs and digital panel. The ones that came with the kit were VERY '70's. Like clock dial and everything. I wanted something a little more 3D as opposed to some shiny stickers. I think I'll hold onto them for a future "retro" project...

I often take apart old cordless phones and any other neglected or broken electronic gadgets to harvest realistic looking mini "parts". I kind of struck out with that, but when I looked through my grandma's old sewing machine table drawers (all her wonderful sewing tools and gadgets are still in them) I found lock washers for snaps and snap heads. Those (plus washers from the hubbs) became the burners.

I have several picture hanging kits with all kinds of great parts when you look with your "mini eyes". The burner knobs are nails with fancy heads cut down to just allow them to pierce the wood on the stove panel.

The backsplash part of the stove was really whimpy since it was only about 1/16 thick. I beefed that up with a piece of beveled scrap wood and added a printie control panel I found Googling.

The instructions called for both the oven door and drawer to hinge open. That is silly! Everybody knows that the bottom door is a drawer! So I made a drawer and painted it black.

One thing I have to say about this kit is that you have to constantly measure, pre-fit parts and do a lot of punting. I don't know - maybe it's just me, but the instructions are lacking. For example, in the shelf and lower cabinet instructions when they tell you to punch out a part number, if there is more than one with the same number they tell you in parentheses. By the time you get to the stove you are baffled why there are 2 of each of 45 and 46. You never use them, and there's just no explanation. So, I have extra parts and that scares me!

When I went to fit the oven door after inserting the drawer, it didn't still fit! What the heck! It was all fine when I dry fit it all! Okay, punt again. Cut a bit off the bottom of the door, make hinge holes, insert pins. And now the oven door only opens half way. When I put so much extra effort into something and it does not work perfectly I get very disappointed. So, all I can do at this point is figure out what went wrong and learn from it. Sa la vie...