After moving five times over the last eight years, my wife and I often debate about what ‘home’ means to us. We’ve jumped from one single family home rental to another – chasing our occupational dreams in markets that support our experience.
We’ve spent many holidays away from our ‘house’, visiting family in either Atlanta or Philadelphia. Is there a difference between a house and a home?
Part of the reason that we haven’t established hard holiday traditions in our house is because, in my wife’s eyes, it’s exactly that. It’s just a house. We didn’t own it and knew that we would eventually be leaving it behind. My argument has always been that home is where the heart is. It’s where we’re all together, under the same roof – rental or not.
Luckily, we’ll never have this debate again. If you follow me on social media, you’ve probably seen that we’ve decided to take the home ownership plunge. This month, we moved from coastal Virginia to Nashville, Tennessee.
As part of that, my last post for Char-Broil found me having to say goodbye to my old Commercial Series TRU-Infrared gas grill.
It was a delicate subject, taking pictures of my old Char-Broil grill and posting them to Facebook Marketplace. I logged MANY hours on this grill, feeding the masses. We built a relationship with one another. For those of you laughing – I’m here to tell you that it’s real. I cared for this grill like I would care for a child. Washing and wiping it down after a hard day of play, keeping it fed with propane, protecting it from the elements and knowing exactly how to hug those temperature knobs so that they delivered the appropriate amount of heat to whatever we were cooking.
Because of the sheer amount of “stuff” we had, I was forced to leave it behind. It just wouldn’t fit on the truck. But, nothing made me happier than to see this member of the family get passed along to someone that cared. As I watched (helped) this older gentleman strap our grill to the back of his truck, he shook my hand, looked into my eye and said, “I’ll take good care of her.” He knew the deal.
I survived knowing the comfort I would feel when we arrived at our new home in Nashville. There, on the back patio, was a brand new Char-Broil Commercial Series TRU-Infrared gas grill, waiting for me to assemble in order to start our next journey together.
Since I was finishing up our drive to Nashville and unpacking a trailer on Father’s Day, there wasn’t much time to celebrate. This new stainless steel behemoth would be a present to myself. It would also be a great way to celebrate that first day of summer…
They’ve made some slight changes and improvements to this model since I last put together a new one two years ago.
For one, I’m assuming they’ve either got someone on staff that has a degree in design and packaging OR a Masters in Tetris. Every component was packed perfectly with little wasted space.
The only tool that I needed was a screwdriver; however, I opted for a set of channel locks to make it that much easier.
The heavy-duty castor wheels allow me to push this grill wherever I need it on the back patio.
The four burners controls connected, and what’s this? The right side has a flat-top griddle or you can pull that off and use the side-burner to boil water, steam vegetables, crabs or shrimp…
The heating elements were packed in styrofoam to avoid damage and were as easy as plugging into a main control box located near the ignitor.
Drop in the basin which is connected to the top and you’re ready for the rest–the magic inside Char-Broil TRU-Infrared grills
Located just above the stainless steel burners lies Char-Broil’s special emitter plate, which actually retains the heat from the burners and directs that heat it into whatever you’re grilling. It is this TRU-Infrared cooking technology that prevents flare-ups, eliminates hot and cold spots and delivers juicer, more flavorful food.
Before too long, all that was left with were the front bottom doors to hide the propane tank and the cast-iron grates that not only retain heat, but have a porcelain coating that makes them rust-resistant and easy to clean.
And just like that, my grillfriend was back in action.
Not only did we leave a ‘house’, but we finally found our ‘home’. And with this new addition to our back patio – we can forget about the debate and start focusing on a backyard tradition that will last for years to come.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This was a sponsored post on behalf of Char-Broil, however, the relationship was all mine. For more information on Char-Broil, check them out HERE, on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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