Sprucing Up …. The Microwave

What started as a routine sprucing up turned ugly this afternoon when, after degreasing the microwave range hood I decided to try to change the bulb that had burned out after 21 years. I removed the screw and found the bulb. My intention was to take it out, photograph it, put it back and purchase it on line to replace when it arrived. When twisted the bulb and removed it – – only the glass bulb came out with my hand. The metal base come off and was still in the microwave. I knew I couldn’t leave it that way so I did what I do when this happens to the Christmas light bulbs, I unplugged the microwaved and grabbed a needle nose pliers to pinch and unscrew the base. The only problem was that the base would not budge. I tried. Hubby tried. I tried again, lying on the counter with my head on the stove and my feet elevated onto the wall (to get a view of what we were tackling. Eventually it became apparent that we were never getting the bulb out and had only managed to chip the housing so that it was no longer safe at all. That was problem #1.

Problem #2 was that, as I mentioned the microwave was installed in 1999 and parts are no longer available. We now had to replace the microwave.

Problem #3 is that the newer microwave range hoods are larger then they were in 1999 and our cabinets were built for that one.

We did find a new model of a similar size from the same manufacturer and after a few hours of taping and drilling and sanding and hoping, the microwave is installed, we can actually see the read-out(the old one had become very, very dim) and the lights over the stove both work.