Not sure why it HAD to be today

I day dream about redoing my kitchen... but reality says I need to finish the last bathroom first. And get an electrician to come before I start shoving appliances around. And money says I need to wait until next year to do it.

My new kitchen will have a new vinyl (looks like hardwood) floor that reaches all the way through the family room to the garage. Our previous house had this and I LOVED it. The sooner we get rid of the horrid white floor currently lying around in the kitchen, the better!!!

We had to get a new fridge last year when the old one died, so that's already taken care of. New counter tops, new (tile?) backsplash, stripped and refinished cabinets... and a new stove!

The stove we have now is about 40 years old. And it looks it. It functions pretty well, but the thermostat in the oven is starting to act up... the oven is always hotter than what you set it for, so when I cook something that's supposed to be in a 400 degree oven, I set it for 350. So far so good.

For some reason, today I decided to clean the oven. Perhaps it was because we couldn't turn it on without setting off the smoke detector... But it's been doing that for a while, so I can't say for sure that was the reason.

Anyway, I opened it and saw the baked on stuff in the bottom of the oven and decided it was time to get rid of it.

I hate corrosive cleaners. The fumes never seem to totally go away. And this is NOT a self-cleaning oven (I don't think they made those back then). So I got out the steamer, a bucket, a sponge, and a scraper and a piece of steel wool and started steaming and scrubbing.

I didn't think to take a "before" picture - it was a spur of the moment kind of decision. But it cleaned up very nicely! I took an SOS pad to the racks - they were solid black.

Then I took the steamer to the front and cleaned the control panel. Looks GREAT!

And it only took me five hours start to finish.... Can you say OCD?