Greetings, Houzz Community.

My husband and I are about to start a kitchen renovation. We bought our first home, a 19-year-old townhouse, last fall and have replaced all of the appliances but the cheap, black, freestanding GE gas range out of necessity. I know it's the original range from looking at pictures of similar homes listed for sale online, and it matched the GE dishwasher that was included when we moved in. Now all of our other appliances are brand new and stainless steel. Although I hate that it doesn't match color-wise, the range is still functional and gas (this is the first time in our adult married life we've had a gas stove vs. electric), so we haven't replaced it, but I question its life expectancy, fuel efficiency, and general functionality. It's your basic, 30" 4-burner gas stovetop with the black enamel strip running down the middle and 2 grates in the oven. It does not have a convection feature or any other bell or whistle. Parts of the stove top have melted from previous owners/tenants' usage.

While I bake professionally, I really haven't put my oven through the gauntlet of baking tasks in the last year due to my work schedule and general lack of interest in cooking in my very cramped and inefficient kitchen (hence the renovation). I know it has hot spots and I wouldn't use more than one rack at a time for any sort of baking task.

We expect to live in this home for the next 5-7 years. My husband is stingy and doesn't think we need to replace it right now, though acknowledges we likely will need to change it out (assuming it hasn't died) before selling the home down the road. We are not at the point financially to upgrade to a Viking/Wolf/Thermador top-of-the-line stove and our neighborhood market doesn't warrant that for resale.

In short, I would appreciate any recommendations you have for a replacement gas range below $2,000. Unless I can convince my husband to purchase a new range in the next week, it will need to be the freestanding kind to work with our counters (which haven't been templated yet). And while I think induction is a great technology, most of my pots and pans are NOT induction-ready, so I would rather not switch to that functionality at the present time. Thank you so much for your suggestions.