Monday, January 2, 2012

There's a Open Flame ....

DAY 80
...burning away in our home.


I can't remember if I've mentioned on here or not how much I HATE having gas appliances. If so sorry I just have to let it out again and if not well I absolutely do hate hate hate it. I grew up having electric appliances in every house we lived in. My Mamaws house has gas appliances so I have cooked on a gas range before but not for a daily use. Even at her house i hated using it but I sucked it up and pushed through. She recently got a new range (which I found out just went kaput) but before that one she had one that you had to light with a MATCH to light the burners or oven. Talk about a scary task when you are cooking in the kitchen. Years ago when I was a wee little one her house caught fire from the gas line. Also about a year & half ago my Uncle's house also ran on gas had a leak in the line and it blew up, destroying their entire home. Thankfully no one was seriously injured in either accident & both homes have been rebuild. They are both older homes so safety inspections hadn't been done on them in a really long time I'm sure. Still that doesn't make it ok for a gas line to blow, these things need to be check on to make sure everything is up to code and working properly.
So to say having gas appliances in our current home is a bit scary for me would be a understatement. Sure the burner heats up pretty fast so that's nice but its the open flame sitting right there under my pot or skillet that I do not like. In the oven you can see the open flame under the grates or when you turn the broiler on the flame is right on the top inside of the oven. So you better watch your hand when your putting dishes in or taking them out. Oh yea and don't drop your potholders in the oven because you don't want them to fall to the bottom. A few times food as made its way into the grates on top of the stove and I'm always worried its going to catch on fire. A couple nights ago I was cooking rice when the water bubbled up some causing flames to come up over the outside edges of the pot. Talk about scary and a major freak out "Hubbs hurry come here" moment. The smoke alarm in our home has gone off to many times to count because of the gas range. I'm really not a fan either of the way if cooks some of our dishes, but I'm hoping with time & practice I can change that.
On top of the oven issue which I so dearly love (insert sarcasm here) we also have a gas water heater. The first few weeks we were in our home the pilot light in the heater kept going out which mint we had no hot water. Thankfully the hubbs was home so he was able to relight it, with a lighter. Umm problem no way will I be relighting anything attached to a gas line. I wont even use a regular lighter to light candles, (they scare me) I have to use the long ones. There were a couple times that he couldn't get the pilot light relit so we had to call housing maintenance to come out & fix it. Thankfully they are always super nice and friendly their always here with in 24hrs of us calling to fix any problem we have. I have a feeling I might get to know them very well over the next two years. With the Hubbs being gone A LOT I'm sure I'll be calling them a time or two with regarding our awesome not so awesome gas appliances.

I've made it very clear to the hubbs that if the homes on post at our next duty station have gas appliances living off post is going to be a must. Although I'm not to sure how the living arrangements & post setup work were we are wanting to go next so we will have to see.

Whats your take on gas appliances do you love them or hate them ?!?!?!?!

6 comments:

whit | Black Little Button blog said...

THat is the reason why we picked the apartment we are in now. It had a gas stove and my husband was soled. I've never used one up until now, but it's alright.
-wHiT
www.blacklittlebutton.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I had gas appliances in my very first apartment. For a few days I kept on feeling sick like I had the flu so I ended up opening a window here and there througout the day. Come to find out it was carbon monoxide from the flame going out on the stove. A friend just so happened to be by and said oh it needs to be relit and did it.
If it wasn't for him I probably would have ended up getting really sick or worse. Since then I refuse to have gas appliances. My parents have a gas stove but my dad keeps constant eye on it. But for me I would just rather not. Even with electric appliances I still tend to go and open up windows and such throughout the week to air the place out.
Just make sure you have 1 maybe even 2 monoxide detectors and even open your windows here and there.

lilmoomoo said...

Girl, I don't blame you! Sounds like you've had some not so fun experiences with gas appliances.
I had a gas oven in one of the houses I lived in in college... And I lit at least 3 oven mitts on fire..
I don't like them either!

Brittany said...

Scary! We have gas appliances and they freak me out a little too. Open flame just seems dangerous!

lilmoomoo said...

Hey girl!
Thanks again for the Liebster blog award nomination :)
I featured you over on my bloggy today!

lovelovelove,
moo.

❈ Annie - Blonde Glambition ❈ said...

When we first moved to Italy I had to learn how to use a gas stove. I could never start it, but once I got the hang of it, I loved it! I now prefer a gas stove because it's easier for me and I like the way it cooks my food, however I've only used European ones so I'm not sure about the US ones.