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Introducing, my microwave!
On one hand it seems a little silly to be dedicating an entire blog post to my microwave, but it’s one of the aspects of our renovation that receives the most Ooohs and Aaahhhhs when I show visitors around our new house, so I thought it might interest some Used readers too.
When we were designing our new kitchen we took out a couple of walls in order to open it up to the rest of the house. Guess what happens when you take out walls? You also remove potential storage space along with it. Suddenly we found ourselves without a place to put our microwave. There was no obvious nook on the counter, or a place we could set one on top on a cart like we had before. I remembered a reno I’d written about for Our Homes Ottawa some time ago. The owner of the house had the same issue, and her research lead her to something called a drawer microwave, something that was totally news to me. I will say this, I certainly Ooohed and Ahhhed when I saw it.
So that’s how we found ourselves buying one too. And here’s where we decided to put it, right in our kitchen island:
The placement is perfect. It’s right across from the fridge. When I’m about to heat a cup of milk for example, I grab a mug (which is in a cabinet a step away), open the fridge, pour the milk, turn around, and just open the drawer. That’s it!
The carpeted area you see in the picture above is where our dining area starts, so I’m a mere step or two away from that side of things too.
The drawer microwave is more expensive than a regular counter-top microwave, but it was money well-spent in my opinion. I like how it blends into the cabinetry a bit, and is out of the way AND out of plain view. I was worried about how smooth the drawer mechanism was going to be (we bought it sight unseen!) but needn’t have worried. As long as we don’t fill our mugs all the way to the brim we are fine.
I took a quick video in case you want to see how it works.
I think it’s pretty cool.
Do you think someone might invent a dishwasher that unloads itself, because I’d pay big bucks for that!
Andrea Tomkins
Mother of two imps and wife of one. Writer, photographer, pro blogger, adventure-seeker, Ottawaholic, social media evangelist and lover of STUFF. Also known as @missfish on Twitter.
Charmian
A friend of ours has a similar microwave and set up. It makes sense in many ways. However, her microwave was too shallow to take a tall mug/milk frother. That would have killed the deal for me. (But I use my microwave mainly for heating latte milk.)
Love the look of your new kitchen, by the way!
Andrea Tomkins
You make a good point Charmian! Interior height is something we should have checked before buying. We were lucky to discover that everything we need to fit in here, fits!
A bit about my microwave! >> a peek inside the fishbowl
[…] gadgets you may find it interesting. You can read it over on the Used Everywhere blog right here. THERE IS VIDEO TOO. I’m not EVEN KIDDING. I’ve turned into an appliance […]
Chantal
ooohhhh aaahhhhh 😉 when you find that dishwasher that unloads itself you call me first!
beachgurl
Too low, I mounted it on the wall at arm level…
Andrea Tomkins
I was worried that it’d be too low too, but it really isn’t. Consider that you bend slightly at the waist (once) to put something in, set a timer, and come and get it (a second time) when it’s hot. No biggie! 🙂