Feel the 'Wave!

Yesterday, I promised you a little breakdown of the steps Joey took to complete the installment of the shelves and microwave above the stove in our kitchen. So, I'm going to try and fulfill that promise to you today. Joey did this all pretty quickly on Monday night. So, I was trying to snap pictures as quickly as he was moving. Hopefully, it will make more sense to you then it does to me.

Below is a picture showing where we left off on Monday (click here for that post). As a reminder, last Friday Joey had removed the too-tall cabinet in the middle, put leftover beadboard on the back wall, screwed in 2 strips of wood where he would hang the shelves, and gave it 1 coat of paint.


Over the weekend, he actually got 2 more coats of paint on the beadboard that would be exposed. So, by Monday night, it was looking like this...


I didn't show you a picture previously of the shelves he built over the weekend, but here is one of them. He made them kind of beefy in front so that they wouldn't look wimpy in between the cabinets. The underneath back part of the shelf has a little lip on it where it will sit on the strip of wood on the wall. The top front has 2 holes drilled where Joey will screw the shelf and microwave together (and those screws won't show because the shelf is too high to see the top). Both shelves got 3 coats of the cabinet paint as well so that they will blend in with the surroundings.


Moving along...

The first thing Joey did on Monday was screw the metal plate seen below into the back wall where the bottom of the microwave will sit. The metal plate came with the microwave. You can also see 2 screws above it in the wall (one screw is sticking out) ... Confused, I asked Joey what they were for and he didn't really give an answer...


...later the 2 screws were removed. So, I'm assuming they were an "oops-not-really-needed" item, but the holes will be covered by the microwave anyway. You can also see below the first shelf installed...


Joey used the strip of wood on the back of the wall to help support the shelf, but also used cabinet hanger screws and screwed the shelf into the side of the cabinets. He screwed in both sides, but I only took a picture of one side. Trust me, they ain't movin'...


Next, Joey drilled a good sized hole into the cabinet (this made me cringe - the thought of a hole in our brand new cabinets) for the microwave plug to feed through to the new outlet he installed on Friday.


You can see all this drilling created quite a mess, but it worked. Nice, perfect little hole.


Next, Joey propped the microwave up, fed the cord through the new hole, and made sure everything fit nice and tight.


Then he screwed the shelf and microwave together so that both were secure.


We held our breath, plugged the microwave into the outlet, took a peek, and guess what? It worked! We had power. Wahoo!


Joey then had the pleasure of hanging the second shelf, which was tricky because it was a super tight fit with not much room to move. The shelf has a gap in middle (that you can kind of see on the side of the shelf below) that allows it to slip over that strip of wood on the back wall. Then Joey screwed it into the cabinets like the first shelf.


We promptly took the plastic covering off the front of the microwave and stood back and took in the sight...


It was lovely!

Then we had to fidget with the microwave - just to make sure we could kinda sorta use it. The buttons were all pretty self explanitory.


The vent and light underneath the microwave seemed to work well. The light has 2 different settings. I love having a light over my stove when I cook.


We finally got the time all set on the microwave (after about 4 tries by Joey)...


And just in case you were wondering, the microwave was made by Whirlpool. We bought it at Lowe's for $199. As you can see, we did commit to purchasing white appliances instead of stainless steel (remember this debate here?). We received our Whirlpool dishwasher for free last summer (someone was getting rid of it), and it is also white, and we didn't want to buy a new dishwasher just to get it in stainless steel. That's how us cheap-o's roll! Now we just need to get the new stove and fridge in white too.

As for the old microwave...


...it was quickly removed and relocated (to Joey's "man cave" in the basement). This freed up some counter space.


What's next on the kitchen-to-do list? Well, I will get to work decorating those 2 shelves above the stove, and Joey will now get to finish putting up the marble subway tile behind the stove and grouting the entire backsplash around the kitchen! I'm so excited!


We'll have results for you as soon as the job's done.

Anyone else bought new appliances recently? What kind? Did you like 'em?