my campaign

Our kitchen is a large farmhouse kitchen, which is wonderful for group breakfast on shearing day, large family get-togethers, 4-H meetings, etc. It is not so great when you need to replace all the countertops, but that story has already been covered. One of the more unusual things about our kitchen is the fact that it has not one, but two cooktops, as illustrated in this photo:

The centrally-located cooktop, in a more traditional position near the fridge and sink, is electric. For some reason, our kitchen also has a gas cooktop, which is marooned on a little bump-out (is that the technical kitchen term?) near the desk. I have no idea why we have an electric and a gas cooktop. When we moved in, the house also had an oil furnace (for the downstairs) and a gas furnace (for the upstairs). It reminded me of my family's kitchen when we lived in London: the cooktop, circa mid-70s, had two electric burners and two gas burners so you could cook on it no matter who was on strike at the moment. I am not aware of such issues in central NJ in the late 80s, but who knows. We were stuck with the oddity for the last eight years, but I found two circumstances where six burners came in handy:

1. canning tomatoes; and
2. dyeing wool.

For the latter, the wool experiments could be conducted at a safe distance from where we usually do our cooking, on burners that were not needed on an ongoing basis. Apart from having to haul the cookpots up and down the stairs to my extra washer (another story!), it was a great set-up.

But like all good things, it is coming to an end.

I will be the first to admit that the extra burners are in a really awkward spot in the kitchen, and once we invest in new countertops, they, along with the Nutone built-in blender, should be history. Except... where will I do my dyeing? My BFF came up with a brilliant idea: I need my own range down in the basement. No need to haul pots up and down the stairs. No need to worry about the mess and smell of dyeing. My father further refined the thought: when they take out the electrical cord for the present everyday cooktop (because it will be converted to gas), don't have them cap it off. Drop it directly into the basement, in a spot conveniently below the current cooktop, and plug in a second-hand cheapy range there. It would be right next to the sink and washer: perfect!

Except my LSH is not yet convinced of the wisdom of this plan. And that's where my campaign comes in.