When Dave and I moved into this house, I was on the look out for a nice upgrade to the counter microwave we had at the time.  On Craigslist I found a brand new (never used) over the range microwave.  It was $60…..what?!  That microwave was an amazing add to our kitchen.  See below:

A little bit ago – I noticed that there was something white dripping from the roof of the interior of the microwave.  I cleaned the inside and didn’t think anything of it…..until it happened again…..and then a HOLE appeared in the plastic looking through to the mechanics of the microwave.  ECK.

Decision made.  That thing is coming down.  I decided to take it down completely instead of replacing it, because it was really low.  There was not a lot of room for our larger pots on the back burners.  I liked the over the range convience of the microwave we had……but I am thinking of adding a built-in under our middle pass-thru.

I know I (Dave) could tie into the electricity in the back of the shelf on the left side of this picture with a new microwave…..but I am getting ahead of myself and giving Dave tons of work.  Dave and I already have a plan for re-doing the middle area of this kitchen.  We want to make this an island instead of keeping it as a pass thru.  That plan is at least 1 year away and at most 5 years.

For the time being I am keeping an older microwave on our counter.  It will do for now.

I am excited to pick out a new range hood.  Maybe this?  It will be very basic and something that mounts under our cabinets as I do not want to lose the cabinet space. One thing that annoys me to no end is the mis-matched levels on the cabinets on this side of the kitchen.  When we lifted the cabinets we left these alone….because if I would have moved those to the ceiling as well…..there would be no way to use the over the range microwave (too tall).  With the microwave down….eck.  Check back later to see if I can convince Dave to move these as well.

As I live with a smaller microwave on the other side of our kitchen…I am sure that I will be moving a few things around (the black toaster oven???!!!) to make the placement a bit more functional.