"All is Flair in love and war" or "One thing leads to another"

"You know the Nazi's had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear"...

I may like fancy, but I am not a big fan of flair. I am especially not a big fan of The Flair in my kitchen. Yes, folks, that's right. As of August I am the not-so-proud owner of a Frigidaire Flair Electric Range. While the Flair was a marvel in 1960's its not so much our style today. I'm sure the double ovens with DeLorean style doors and space saving built-into-the-wall style range has its benefits. It is just hard to see them when it burns the bottoms of all your cookies and you have a beautiful, new, stainless steel, gas stove just hanging out in your basement begging to be used.

Husband and I have a habit of doing/buying things out of the conventional order. Example: We got Gus {our adorable yet crazed doggie} two weeks before we were married and off to Mexico for a week on our honeymoon. Because, you know, that time in your life is not stressful and crazy enough, we thought we would throw a puppy into the mix. Well, the purchase of the new stove was a lot like Gus, completely unplanned for. I'm sorry, practicality, but just like you cannot sit back when someone says "free puppy", you cannot sit back when there is a sale that good. It was only after we bought the stove that we thought, hey we should probably figure out how we are going to install the gas line to run the thing. This is were we ran into a bit of a snag.

On my birthday of all days, a grumpy old man from the gas company came out to do an estimate of how we would route the gas line from its current location to its new home, connected to my lovely new range. Mr. Cynical informed us that hooking up the line would involve Steve doing most of the work only after he had managed to crawl through this tiny little hole into a small pit of despair filled with cobwebs, and who knows what else. Oh, and did I mention that it would cost $500? Of course we would never think to figure this out before the window of returning the stove was still open, that's just not our style. Yeah. No happy campers in the Haus that day.

"Well that's just like...your opinion, man" we said to Mr. Cynical and called in our reinforcement in the form of Green who luckily has a plumber as a friend. Thankfully, it looks like we'll be able to do the work ourselves without paying $500 to some old man to watch us do his job. The downside to Green taking a look is that we found out we need new plumbing too.

Apparently we have galvanized pipes {not a good thing} that have most likely rusted on the inside {a really not good thing} resulting in a lack of water pressure in the kitchen {it takes 5 min. to get hot water}. These could eventually burst, costing us and our insurer a lot of money and lead to a basement redo before we are ready so... they must be replaced. The only plus to the matter is we will be able to install a much needed shut off valve so that while we are remodeling we will still be able to take showers and brush our teeth saving our neighbors and coworkers from the real pain of remodeling.

All I can say is this remodel keeps getting more and more expensive and it hasn't even started yet. The lesson we are learning pretty quick about our 90 year old Haus is that its sneaky and has tricks up its sleeves. The ride never starts how you think it should or ends where you think it will. But we're game. So, Haus, bring it on! I will have my new kitchen one way or another because as much as I like kitsch, I can't stand to look at that Flair anymore.

Samantha with her Flair in Bewitched

Wayne's Flair

My Flair, Husband, and Gus