Four months in the making... kitchen mod/upgrade

[Second Chance]

My wife, a world-class cook, has cooked on and in everything from modern electric cooktops and ovens in the US to gas stoves/ovens in Spain and Central America. We could never get consistent results with any of our RV gas ovens (including the Furrion that came in our Solitude) and she absolutely hated the Furrion gas cooktop (let me count the reasons...). So, in late March - the week before we were to leave on a 3,650 mile spring trip - I was ordered to remove and sell the Furrion cooktop and oven and re-birth the kitchen to the chef's liking. I said, "OK, what are you going to cook on in the meantime?" We already used the convection oven and an Instant Pot for a lot of things, anyway, so she said she would just use the portable induction cooktop we have until the kitchen makeover is completed.

The first step was to find an induction cooktop that would drop into the cutout for the Furrion. Laura said she would be happy with a single "burner" induction unit; I didn't want to be completely without the ability to heat something up if we were off-grid. The compromise was this:

https://www.rvupgradestore.com/True-...-p/TI-1-1B.htm (The price has gone up since I ordered ours... as has the price for most everything.)

The cooktop was ordered and shipped to the kids' house in Maryland to be waiting for us when we got here. In the meantime, I cut a piece of 3/8" cabinet ply and covered it with vinyl to cover the hole where the Furrion cooktop came out and to support the portable induction unit temporarily.

Fortunately, there was one double breaker space available on one leg of our main power panel, so the hard part was pulling 12-3 rubber jacketed SuperFlex through the basement, getting it out an existing hole in the street side frame rail, running it with the other bundles to the slide with extra protection, and bringing it up through the slide floor in the appropriate place. My back didn't forgive me for several days after that job. When that was done, it was just a matter of installing an outlet under the cooktop and securing everything.

The final step was to turn the space where the oven was into storage space. I put one shelf across closer to the top than the bottom (light stuff like Zip-Loc bags, a microwave steamer, etc., on top and some heavier stuff on the bottom). It took me a number of calls to find a true custom cabinet maker, but I finally found one about 45 minutes away up in PA who could make doors to match the others in the kitchen. (I know what you're thinking. No - not an Amish business but Mennonite.) I had found (someone else did the hard work) the best stain match several years ago, so it just took me a few minutes on each of three mornings to finish the doors. The cabinet shop had matched the hinges and had already milled the holes for them. I found matching handles on Amazon. Here are a couple of photos of the finished kitchen:



Rob

[FT4NOW]

Looks great! I've been wondering when this thread would pop up, I remember you talking about it when selling your old range. Did you have to get a new counter, it looks seamless?

[xrated]

Rob, you did good, that looks like a professional install....but the important thing is that she is happy. The old adage....SWMBO is strong on this project!

[Second Chance]

Looks great! I've been wondering when this thread would pop up, I remember you talking about it when selling your old range. Did you have to get a new counter, it looks seamless?

No - the new cooktop was plug-and-play (no pun intended). The only thing I had to do was glue up a little support strip to go across the back under the cooktop for support. That area had the exhaust vent with louvres for the Furrion oven. The stainless steel on the new cooktop just covers that area but needed some support underneath.

Rob

[WhittleBurner]

Awesome job, it looks great and confirms my dis-like for a furrion cooktop we never had

[Herve Mann]

Looks great, Rob. Congrats! I know what you mean by your back letting you know about it for a couple days.��

Herve

[MoonShadow_1911]

Nice job, Rob! You are on your way to truly making that coach your own!

[LMagelitz]

That’s impressive!

[Redapple63]

That looks awesome Rob!

Bill

[ajg617]

Nice job with a very professional look. One thing we miss very much in our house is gas stove - electric is just terrible so I'll be interested in how the induction works for you and yours.