Oven-Ready

My kitchen became work shop yesterday, as my wondrous Hubby worked tirelessly to craft the oven cabinet for Oven Number 7.  

But before we get to the current photos, let's review the cabinet appearance over the last 5 years....






2008, Oven #1.  Fisher & Paykel. :

2009, Oven #2.  Fisher & Paykel.  The same size as #1, so no change needed:

Later 2009, Oven #3.  GE Monogram.  Taller than the F&P ovens, so we reduced the size of the drawer underneath, for easiest adjustment's sake.  But didn't quite get a new drawer made, so it had an open space underneath, where we kept racks and broiler pans:









2010 to present for Ovens #4, #5, and #6.  Wolf.  A little shorter in height than the Monogram.  Rather than rebuild and regain my nice, deeper drawer, we just built up in between the drawer space and the oven cavity.  And since we were certain this would be the oven to stay, we added a shallower drawer, but the front never was finished.:

Now for Oven #7.  

This oven is about 14" (!!!) taller than the Wolf.  There was no way to fit it into the same spot with only minor adjustments. 

Even if the cabinet hadn't been adjusted so much already, this is such a major size change, that it meant redesigning the whole unit.  We wanted to re-use as much of the cabinet as possible, especially doors and drawer fronts, so that figured into my design calculations.





We'll regain the deeper bottom drawer, but lose the cabinet just above the oven, that had the lift-up door.  That 'door' will be repurposed and become the drawer front underneath the oven.  (I'm pretty certain I have the original drawer front somewhere, but it seems to be invisible at the moment!)

With the oven, the existing upper doors and door/drawer front, we had just under 3" extra.  I hate to waste usable space, but it wasn't worth the expense of new doors and the required painting and installation work.  For now it's open space above the oven where I might store an extra rack or the pizza stone.  I have major doubts that anything will fit, or if it does, we won't be able to reach in to access it.  In that case, we'll just trim over it instead.