Since 2009, I (DeAnna) have been cooking on a short Ariston 20″ range.  This range has four gas burners on top with a 16″ oven that has one oven rack.  There have been some inconveniences about the range, but since it works – it’s a keeper.

Well after we returned in November, I don’t know it it was the moving or what that jarred the oven door but it wouldn’t open all the way or close all the way.  This created a situation where it’s necessary to use a hot pad to turn the burner knobs when the oven is in use.  Plus the front of the oven and sides near the oven door are extremely hot when the oven is in use.

We decided to look (just look) at ranges available here for style and price.  I secretly wanted to find an American style range, meaning wider with two oven racks.  The first store had several of the same European style ranges (narrow, short, one oven rack).  The second store had the same and so on.  I was getting a bit discouraged, but thought since our current range does work that maybe I was just being greedy wanting a larger, more efficient range.

At our last store, at first glance it looked like all the same as the other stores, until it seemed a tractor beam led me to a white range that stood taller than the other ranges and from a distance looked like an American style range.  Is this a mirage in the desert of ranges or am I just seeing things, I asked myself.  Upon further investigation it was a Hotpoint gas range with two oven racks, a bottom broiler, four burners and pilot light start (meaning no more matches needed to light the burner for each use) and it’s a whopping 24″ wide!  Woohoo!

The salesman walked up and told me the price, which was a better price than I anticipated and David reminded me we were “just looking.”  We left the store and went home.  I couldn’t get the range off my mind.  David and I discussed numbers and he went back to the store to negotiate (negotiation is expected and respected here).  He knew the owner of the store and was able to purchase it for less than we thought was possible.  A little more than a week later, David could pick it up and bring it to our home.  I’m so excited about this new range and can’t wait to cook something using both oven racks!

This post was originally written a month ago come back tomorrow to read why it took so long to get posted.