Got new stove for $0

As far as landlords or real estate agents go I like to keep at arms length. Just pay the rent and let them leave me alone. Hence in the five and a half years I've been here I've made fuck all maintenance requests to the real estate agent who runs the property. I'd say must have been a very cheap 5 or so years for the landlord given the age of the place.

But however on this occasion I reluctantly had to contact the real estate agent about the gas stove. I didn't mind it being old if it worked properly, but in recent years there was one gas element at the front where just about all the top of the stove had rusted through. See picture.

I had pointed it out in the last two inspections and photos had been taken of it, but then nothing. Not wanting to talk to a real estate agent I decided to email them, along with the above photo. I soon heard back that "the electrician" would ring me about it, which he did. Turns out he's a bit of a jack of all trades. I said I didn't care if he was from Mars, as long as the gas stove works  :)

So the fixit guy comes around to have a look at the thing. I light the gas on the element and it also lights down below where the rusted gaps are, creating sort of a dirty and unpredictable flame (to say the least). At this point the fixit guy freaks out a bit, pointing out how much excess gas is being used and how dangerous it was. "In a fire the place would go up like a tinderbox". 

So he started measuring up for a replacement gas stove and oven, immediately running into problems. The biggest one being that it was a side by side model which was very hard to find second hand, so it would have to be a stand up oven instead. This meant that a carpenter would have to come and smash the cupboards out underneath. Where the gas outlet was for the stove, it was either that or a plumber to get involved too. This was starting to look like a major job as the $ mounted up (glad I wasn't gonna pay for it).

After a couple of weeks he arranged it all to be installed. I, expecting a team of tradesmen to turn up (oh baby....) had cleared out the underneath cupboards in anticipation of the impending destruction of them. But there was a surprise.

The one they'd sourced was a side by side model, brand spanking new, as it was actually cheaper to buy that than a team of tradesmen. It was delivered still all wrapped on a pallet. They also took away the old monstrosity which the bloke told me was at least 30 years old. I unwrapped it as the fixit guy got his tools.

There was still a problem. Underneath the stove had to have extra support for some reason, so the guy screwed in some boards on the top of the bottom cupboards. Rough as, but who cares? We were getting a brand spanking new gas stove! Here's what it looked like after the other one had been there for 30 years or more.

Long story short it was smooth sailing from there. The new one fit perfectly. Here it is, our brand spanking new gas stove. Made in Australia.

I couldn't believe it. In the end I was very proud of myself; I'd gotten us a brand new stove for nothing  :)  Think we need a new kettle now.