If you don’t want the long story of me being super incompetent, here are my vegan, gluten-free less-refined-sugar apple cider baked donuts. Yeah that’s a lot. I’m on a strict diet for my health.
They look a little different because instead of cane sugar for the cinnamon sugar coating I used coconut sugar which is a bit easier on my body.
But what I’m most proud of is that I fixed my oven. I’ve never fixed an appliance before. So this is the story of how I, a novice, fixed my own oven and it only took me six+ hours!
I haven’t been able to use my oven for over five months! I really didn’t want to shell out several hundred dollars for someone to fix our oven and since it was summer in Minnesota and our house is old, we absolutely had no intention of using the oven unless absolutely necessary, so we waited… And waited… And used a toaster oven and air fryer instead… And then I decided to look up what might be wrong with my oven and it looked like it would be a pretty easy fix! The igniter needed to be replaced!
In the YouTube video the guy just took off the one panel on the bottom and then just switched it right out. Easy peasy. Nope. Not mine. There were two layers of panels and a metal bar to unscrew and one screw holding the metal bar in was completely stuck. As in I spent at least an hour trying to get it loose before giving up for the night. The next day I took off the oven door (which took another thirty minutes) to get better access and spent another thirty minutes of trying to loosen the screw with everything I had… and nothing. So I had to drill it out. Which took over two freaking hours. I recently had to give up on my freaking sewing machine for the same reason; a stuck screw. That was a whole other ordeal. (I found a free broken 70s sewing machine and fixed that with no issues and now my old one is sitting there staring at me but I’m afraid to throw it away)
So I drilled out the screw finally and had to reach under the oven to unplug the igniter. Then unscrew the igniter… Replace and screw it back in… And redo everything. Except I lost the screws for the various panels.
Thankfully, they don’t necessarily need the screws to work fine. I will have to get new screws… But for now we’re good. But then I couldn’t get the door on right… Which took another fruitless hour. Which meant I’d have to try the next day. The next day it went on just fine after some more jiggling and moving around. Turned it on and it took just five minutes to heat to 350!
But that’s why it took me three separate days of work and over six hours to finally fix my oven. My assumption is that I will get better at this. I do plan to learn more. This freaking project cost me blood sweat and tears.So many tears. As well as $12 for the igniter. I suppose I’ll have to add the price of the screws eventually… But let’s pretend none of that happened and I saved myself hundreds of dollars with minimal effort and my sanity in check.
Considering the various road blocks for women to fix their own appliances and household stuff, I did it and I’m proud and I’m going to do it again and NO ONE CAN STOP ME!!! Bwahahaha!
thank you. I feel like I climbed a good mile up the patriarchy mountain. As in you have to get over the mountain but you’re female and men want you to be helpless so you can’t get up the mountain… If that makes sense as an analogy.
Oh, I hear you. The day I replaced our kitchen sink and faucet by myself was a proud day. I ovaried up big time.
2 Likes
AIMR
(Linda -In the year 2025, I am happy to be alive! :us:)
5
Those donuts look so good!
A lot of fixes are not as hard as we think. I’ve kept every appliance manual and have used YouTube a lot! I stopped our shower door from leaking and saved hundreds of dollars. I find that even if I don’t do the work myself, I like to know the parts and what could be wrong so that I can ask questions and see if the contractor is maybe over thinking what is wrong. A lot of upgrading seems to be offered when a simple fix would do!
Great job. Now tomorrow, you have inspired me to figure out how to replace my refrigerator water filter. ha ha
I’m grateful to come from a family who has never held females back. We’ve all been able to be and do whatever we want to.
My great grandmother was in the army- NOT as a nurse, either! I can’t remember what she did, but she wasn’t the nursing type- not then and not ever!
My grandma raised livestock and helped my grandpa break horses! She and my grandpa did almost all their own home and vehicle repairs… and raised 7 kids!
My mom fixed computers, fixed cars, swung a hammer, laid concrete - right alongside my dad.
There’s a lot of satisfaction in self sufficiency, no matter your gender.
All that to say- you’re A ROCK STAR! Fixing your oven was a daunting task and you’re right- no one can stop you!! You killed it! The donuts look delicious and I agree- you should savor them and then make more awesome treats and enjoy those, too! (And send us pics so we can enjoy from afar.)
I agree that we overthink it! I felt better knowing about what is probably wrong with my dish washer and I was right about it. I am pretty sure I could have fixed it myself now. I thrifted a biiig diy book for home improvement and fixing electricity and stuff! I have to switch a lot of light fixtures out soon! It’s way waaay easier than you would think also.
I love that your grandma was in the army! I’m assuming in WW2? There were lots of unsung heroes out there that were women who did some crraaaazzyyy stuff!
Our WW2 veterans were the best and I miss the ones I knew.
My family does sort of encourage women but it’s kind of all over the place. My mom knows how to do a lot of stuff but there’s just a lot of mixed messages. And people like to tell me not to worry about stuff and they’ll eventually do it or something and it’s like, let me just do it!! Especially since then it never gets done.
I became good friends with the guys at my local Ace hardware and they helped me figure out how to fix some of my antique door locks and find solutions for a lot of other various little things I’ve tried to do. It’s nice!!
4 Likes
AIMR
(Linda -In the year 2025, I am happy to be alive! :us:)
9
I switched out all the outlets and even installed can lights for my husband’s studio. For the installation part, I made sure our electrician guy checked it to be sure it was safe. But the outlet stuff was easy once I got the right breakers turned off.
I love Ace. They really do help out and know the right tools and supplies you need. Sometimes all I lack is brute strength and maybe things like not being able to reach. Very few limitations however even at my age!
Nice!! I love ace too. They’re usually not actually run by corporate which is nice so they do stuff in a way that seems to not make their workers want to die. Lol. Which in turn makes them super helpful!
Congratulations on fixing that oven! It’s so satisfying to do these things and side step around capitalism a bit! You absolutely deserve donuts! Your oven job was not easy, but a lot of these kinds of jobs, like replacing electrical/plumbing fixtures, is pretty easy (and pretty quick) if there’s nothing squirrely “behind the scenes” and you pay attention to preparation/safety practices. A lot of times the hardest part if just the physical awkwardness of how to get at the actual area you’re working on or the size/shape of the thing (I’m thinking of replacing our hot water heater and chaging out the light in the stairwell).
Hah. We have a theory that house projects always take at least twice as long as you expect them to, which probably includes appliance repairs too. Congratulations on your victory (& donuts!)
I’m on a strict diet for my health.
I really didn’t want to shell out several hundred dollars for someone to fix our oven and since it was summer in Minnesota and our house is old, we absolutely had no intention of using the oven unless absolutely necessary, so we waited… And waited… And used a toaster oven and air fryer instead… And then I decided to look up what might be wrong with my oven and it looked like it would be a pretty easy fix! The igniter needed to be replaced!
The donuts look delicious and I agree- you should savor them and then make more awesome treats and enjoy those, too! (And send us pics so we can enjoy from afar.)