Thursday, February 18, 2010

Purification

So the stove….

The ick factor of the stove Tuesday morning cannot be overstated.

I cleaned up the pee. Pulled out the burner pans & burners, scrubbed them with Lysol disinfectant & surface cleaner, scrubbed the stove top and the stove wells with disinfectant then wiped it all down with vinegar & water.

I still felt the ick though so I hit it all again with Clorox kitchen cleaner & another rinse of vinegar & water.

That lasted about 30 minutes before the ick got to me again

It had been cleaned & disinfected but I was thinking it needed more.

So I loaded the burner pans in the dishwasher & ran it on sanitize. Then I scrubbed the burners and the stove with bleach. Lots of bleach. And rinsed again with vinegar & water.

I need to buy more white vinegar

When the dishwasher cycle was completed I reassembled the stove and contemplated dinner.

But I could not bring myself to cook on the stove.

It had been cleaned, disinfected and sanitized but it needed more

Purification by fire was called for.

So I turned on the self cleaned cycle which reaches near 800 degrees and heats the stove well area so much the top of the stove is warm to the touch.

And I turned all the burners on high for 10 minutes just for good measure.

Twice.

While the oven was baking the last traces of pee off I priced new stoves online at Lowes.

The stove I really want with the ceramic cooktop and double ovens costs $1100, just slightly more than the flat screen tv we were going to buy with our tax refund.  Would DH accept it as a swap?  An acceptable stove with just the ceramic cooktop was $500. I am not buying another one with burners and wells.

I pitched the idea when DH came home. The stove was still so hot from the self cleaning cycle that the door was still locked & I couldn’t cook even if I wanted too.

He was as grossed out by the situation as I was but he thinks I have performed enough cleansing rituals so that the stove is no longer unclean.

So.

At this point I know it is purely a mental thing…but I’m not going to be using that back burner any time soon.

7 comments:

Melissa B. said...

Your experience HAS to be an unusual one! Poor Old Lady Cat, if she indeed is the culprit. Hope you got everything cleaned up to your satisfaction. What an ordeal! SITS sent me by, and I'm glad they did...

The Calm Before the Storm

Cheri said...

OMG - I FEEL your pain! As the proud owner of an induction cooktop (flat, no wells, super easy to clean with a little Windex) I can't say enough about making the switch.

The Four Week Vegan said...

Yep, purely mental now, but who could blame you. I would be leaving that burner alone too. We have to get a new stove and I am so dragging my feet, much rather spend that money elsewhere.

Melissa Haak said...

I would by a new stove! But I am also the one who ripped up fairly new carpet and now stair at 100 year old (beautiful) but haven't seen light or a finish in 30+ years wood stairs because my cat peed on it (I also promptly tricked my parents into taking said cat!)

I hope it never happens again, but what we learned form our cat/vet when she suddenly started peeing out of the box. They will continue to keep going back to that spot to pee, even if the reason they did it initially is gone (other cat, infection, messy box) if you do not get rid of the smell, which seems impossible!

Good luck! That is SO awful! And bizarre, I mean the stove? really? Cats are so weird!

Stopping by from SITS!

Lizzie said...

Yes... I think I would feel pretty much the same. It is strange really - you know, in your mind, that there can't possibly be any trace of cat pee left now - not after all that. But it still "feels wrong"!
Can't blame DH for thinking the problem should be solved, but I think I would also have a problem with cooking on that back burner. I am not an obsessively clean person (normally), but have been known to clean and re-clean something because it got covered in some really iccky substance.
There've been odd occasions when I could not bring myself to use something because of a similar situation. It takes a while to get over it, in spite of logic telling me it's fine!

Sympathy....XX

humel said...

Oh, babe - I understand xx I'd be exactly the same, and we would end up having to buy a new stove. I just couldn't get past that ick factor. You poor thing xx

SciFi Dad said...

Yes, purely mental. Not that I wouldn't be buying a new stove myself, but still purely mental.