Craigslist Kitcken Redo: Our New (kitchen) Baby! ...and Craigslist Shopping Tips!

Ok, I know its bad when EVERY time I try to log into blogger to post I forget my password...yes, its been THAT long. Way. Too. Long. I strive to do better and I feel like that's going to take a bit more diligence and carving out regular time, but I'll get there.

Moving on - yes, our NEW (kitchen) Baby:

That's right, Momma found her Viking range on Craigslist! I've heard stories, even seen magazine articles with kitchen re-dos that say they got nice, commercial appliances on Craigslist so I figured if I was patient - and persistent - enough, just maybe I'd find "the one" too. Let me tell you, it didn't happen overnight. Let me also add that its not without its flaws quirks, either. First, more "stove" candy:

I'm a tease, I know, I'll post a full frontal next (or you can scroll down to see it...the stove, not my kitchen, its a long ways from being done, baby steps though). First, let me explain my "Craigslist Secret Searching Method". Its really not that "Secret": keep looking. Look in as many areas around you that you can. I live in the middle of Wisconsin. As such, there aren't really any big cities too close...or, maybe I should say that all big cities are equal distance from us. Its kind of nice, but to expand my searching I had to change my Craigslist area a dozen times (so that I could search all the urban areas within decent driving distance).

Where did I find this beauty? Even more in the sticks. Its true! I couldn't believe it - in the "Northwoods". Now, it was still upwards of 90 minutes away (each way) from where I live, but its much closer than the Twin Cities or Milwaukee or other areas I was searching. They said it just didn't match their kitchen style (though they were keeping the Sub Zero refrig, can't blame them!). Good thing too, because it is HEAVY. No, really, crazy heavy (so, know that if you are also in search of a beautiful commercial range, they don't build them out of aluminum foil!).

Another handy tip that I've used to track down leads on my bar sink, range hood and cabinets is plugging my search into www.list-alert.com *. Really, its handy. Does it fill up your inbox if your search is A) too broad B) too busy? Yes - but its truly a good tool because (if you're anything like me, I'm not saying that you are, but..just in case...we're all human) I'm totally forgetful. I might search today for my list of goodies I need to find, then forget for a week or two and then wonder if my chance had come and gone. No need to worry this way, plus its kind of exciting to find new items listed, even if they're not exactly what you're looking for.

Ok, as promised:

 

Now, let me address the previously mentioned "Quirks" of this pretty gal:

• There are some scuffs in the stainless in places, not terrible, but they are there
• The black marks on the front that indicate on/off and are mostly decorative are mostly worn off (as you can see from the photos)
• The second to left burner switch is bad (if you notice in photo #2 the knob is missing, that's how it looks most of the time because there is no switch right now, the previous owner took it out) - as a result, the whole left side of the range top is not useable (for whatever reason)
• An inside layer of oven glass (in the door) is broken - definitely not obvious until we were doing "the clean down" that there were tiny pieces of glass there, when we called Viking they confirmed we were missing a layer of glass but that its ok to use - just don't use the self-clean cycle
• The glass cooktop has some marks where things must have boiled over, and some of the guidelines printed on the cooktop are worn off

This seems like a big list - its really not too bad. I figure some glass stove top cleaner and stainless cleaner will do wonders (I have just used regular dish soap for now). The glass in the door is a little disappointing. But the burner with a bad switch we knew about - however, the seller made it seem like the other burner on that side worked ok - which it does not. If it does turn on, its uncontrollable - you may or may not get it to turn off (once we had to just turn the range off at the breaker box and work on it later...). We are waiting for our electrician to come take a peek and see what he can do with the burners :) That being said, the ad was for $600 and we got it for half that due to the burner switch (and probably the problems we didn't know about...), and I'm still happy with that.


Yeah, I know, I have much bigger fish to fry. Next post: our "Labor Day Craigslist Tour" as we make one BIG loop to pick up more kitchen goodies that I found on Craiglist so we can get this re-do moving!

*I'm in no way affiliated with list-alert.com, its just a shout out. I'm not even saying you have to sign up there, its just what I used and I found it helpful and was glad I stumbled upon it, so I wanted to share :) Happy Craigslist Searching!