After ‘A’ (our 3 year old boy) managed to destroy our microwave oven, rendering our house virtually uninhabitable for several days in the process, we thought we would try living without a microwave for a while. Two days later we headed to Lowe’s to shop for a replacement.
As is typically the case in our house, replacement turned into upgrade. After all, if we were going to spend money on something as mundane as a microwave oven, we might as well make it an investment of sorts. So, our simple countertop variety microwave was upgraded to an over-the-range version. Unfortunately, our range and cabinets were not designed for such an upgrade.
We went from contemplating replacement to investigating an upgrade to tackling a minor construction project – all in about a two to three day period.
Realizing that remounting a portion of our cabinets and working with some electrical wiring issues were outside of our very limited construction experience, we consulted an expert (neighbor who owns a construction business). His price quote of $150-200 seemed very reasonable. But, we thought we should first consult Mrs. P’s father, who is also a general contractor. After reaffirming the process explained to us by our neighbor, he told Mrs. P that $150-200 was very reasonable for a professional job.
Not wanting to spend money on a new microwave in the first place, and armed with YouTube videos, we decided to roll up our sleeves and do it ourself.
Here is the somewhat less than detailed step-by-step explanation of our little project (with pictures):
STEP ONE:
Detach the range hood and assess the available space for a microwave.
STEP TWO:
Use Photoshop to create a rough mockup to make sure the finished product is not going to look ridiculous.
STEP THREE:
Detach the cabinet and prepare it for remounting.
STEP FOUR:
Remount the cabinet high enough to allow for the upgraded microwave to mount below it.
STEP FIVE:
Mount an outlet box in the cabinet, run the electric wiring through a newly cut whole in the bottom of the cabinet, connect the electric wires in the dark (microwave is wired to the same circuit as the kitchen lights) and mount the upgraded microwave.
STEP SIX:
Remove the upgraded microwave mounted in the previous step after realizing that the microwave is 1/2 of an inch lower on the right than the left. Discover that the clunking sound we heard when attaching the front right mounting screw was defective mounting hardware falling into the innards of the microwave. Contemplate cracking open the case to see if we could locate the hardware and remount. Wise-up and return to Lowe’s for a replacement upgraded microwave.
STEP SEVEN:
Mount the replacement upgraded microwave.
