Drip, Drip! Kitchen Upgrades Under $25 Part 2

See part 1 here.

When I first started getting really serious about purchasing this condo, I immediately began researching new appliances. The current appliances are quite dated and consist of a mid size (apartment size) fridge in white, SMALL TEENSY TINY dishwasher in black, and a miniature stove in white. Through my thorough research I can tell you that replacing old apartment size appliances with nice, new apartment size appliances is expensive. Maybe because only the truly insane want them? Or maybe because they're designed and marketed toward extremely wealthy inhabitants of New York and Europe? I can't say for sure. This is the most affordable apartment-size range I could find ($900):

Summit Apartment Size Range $900

So my main problems with my current appliances is their small size and the fact that they don't match. And they aren't stainless steel. Although we did have a white gas stove in our old house, where I think stainless appliances would have just looked silly.

I've also consulted some neighbors about what they think the chances of fitting full size appliances in with a full redesign might be. They seem to think that is definitely not an option, and I would agree. Mostly because I already like the cabinets and cabinets are expensive. And a redesign would require new cabinets (I think).

So without further ado, here is my sad, yucky little stove:

So as a quick upgrade to the little white stove, I replaced the gross silver drip pans with brand new black drip pans from Home Depot (about $6 each for a total of $24). I figured the black color would help hide stains in the future. Of course I will clean them. Maybe.

8 in. Porcelain Drip Bowl for Non-GE and Non-Hotpoint Electric Ranges

If you look very carefully you might notice that the package reads, "Fits most brands EXCEPT GE and Hotpoint." And my stove just happens to be a Hotpoint stove. Ha ha. I think what it should read, "Fits most brands EXCEPT GE and Hotpoint and UNLESS you have a tiny, weird stove." This mis-labeling on the package required an extra trip to Home Depot.

Here's another picture of the stove before I put the new drip pans in:

In the picture above you can see that at this point I had already added a small kitchen timer from Anthropologie (sold out, but you can get it at Amazon), since my stove does not have any fancy schmancy digital clocks or thermometers.

Kikkerland Retro Kitchen Timer in mint green, although mine is light blue (approximately $10)

And finally, after the new drip pans went in:

A huge improvement! I also super glued a little piece of the black plastic trim that had broken off of the top of the stove and added a thermometer to the inside of the stove. And... I didn't bother taking any before and after pictures of those additions.