Scrubbing Bubbles....

As most of you know, we are renting a house from my Grandpa that was built by his father. It has been quite an adventure as the previous renters really did a number on it, or maybe they didn't, since it was a huge mess when we got here. Thankfully, after we did as much as we knew how to, some of my family has come to do a lot of work on the house--twice. The house's interior is looking MUCH better, there are still some places that need some love, but it isn't scary to touch anything :) I decided that since I wasn't going to be in school this summer, I was going to work on some of the bigger projects that we haven't had time to take care of since the last visit. Today I was working in the kitchen, getting the dishes done and thought that it was about time to clean the fridge, and the stove...two of my favorite jobs... (not!) I finished the fridge pretty quickly and then moved onto the stove. Now you have to understand something about this stove. It is the original stove's replacement. If you have watched the cooking show on Food Network called 30 Minute Meals, it is the stove Rachel uses to broil stuff--however I can gaurantee that mine is older. Anyway, the broiler on this stove is on the stove top, with a griddle on the top...I hope you get the picture. The broiler doesn't work, so when the oven had its first cleaning from my Grandpa, it didn't get cleaned, and neither did the griddle. I will be honest, I have been avoiding the job of cleaning them. They are caked with grease, and who knows what else. But today was going to be the day that I finally tackled the project. I started with cleanser, but that didn't even make a dent...not even on the grease. The pieces are made from aluminum, so I couldn't use oven cleaner on them. Luckily for me, I had worked on getting some other grime off of things with my Dad, so I decided to go for broke and try Goof Off. Between the 100 degree temperatures and the natural tendencies of Goof Off to flash off quickly my test pour didn't last long enough to do anything, so I tried again with a more vigourous amount. I scrubbed for all I was worth, and it seemed that all I got for my attempt was a hole in my latex glove where the Goof Off had eaten through. I was thoroughly discouraged. I rinsed off the griddle, and too my surprise gunk just started to run off! I renewed my efforts to get it clean! It took a lot longer to get done than I thought, but clean it is! Unfortunatly, I didn't think to take a picture before I started, but I did take one after the first application of the Goof Off. I figured that at least those who had seen it before would be impressed with my skills. So, hope that you enjoy the before and after pictures and I am going to take some IB Profin as arthritis has taken a hold of a few of my scrubbing fingers :)

The before picture...it was worse than this, I promise!