This is the kind of stove I would need to replace the current one if I didn't want to make any changes to my kitchen. This is the only one of this type that I've been able to find new, I've had no luck finding them used so far:
http://www.sears.com/ge-27inch-drop-in-electric-range-white/p-02230392000P?prdNo=11&blockNo=11&blockType=G11
Oh christ. That's wretched and wretchedly expensive. My vote is for the cabinet hack. You just need to chop 3" off one of the cabinets beside the stove, and its associated countertop--the cabinet and counter on the other side, you don't need to touch.
What's your current countertop made of? Formica? What do you want to use in your future kitchen? My fave materials are butcher block (which you can get incredibly cheap at Ikea or many lumberyards, and waterproof yourself) and stainless steel (which can take all KINDS of abuse and still look great). YMMV but ideally you'll want to figure this out now, because unless your current countertop is a solid surface (such as Corian), you'll be exposing particle board to the elements by cutting 3" off it, and that will go south FAST. So assuming you don't have a solid surface, your best bet is to either replace the part of counter you cut (and everything it's connected to) with the kind of counter you want in the future, or replace it with butcher block (see "incredibly cheap" above) for now.
Like everything this is easier said than done, but assuming you have the normal one drawer/one cabinet door configuration on one of those cabinets beside the stove, here's what you do:
- Order a new drawer box, drawer front and cabinet door in the size you will need. (Obviously this will require you to do some planning and some math; alternately you could leave this step for last, after you've cut down the existing cabinet, but that will leave you without a drawer and door for a while). The best place I know of to do this is the Drawer Depot (
http://www.drawerbuilder.com/). We used them to re-face my mom's kitchen and they were fabulous, fast and cheap. And by "fabulous" I mean it all seemed good quality. Obviously your most economical move is to decide how you will want your kitchen to look when you do get around to remodeling it, and order the drawer front and door to go with your future kitchen rather than your existing kitchen.
- Find a skilled person (which may be yourself) to remove the stove, remove the countertop on the side you need to trim, remove the bit of cabinet that supports your stove from below, saw off about 3.5" on one of the side cabinets and rebuild/reinforce that side so that it can support a countertop and hold a drawer. You'll want to saw off a bit more than the bare minimum 3" you need for the stove, both to ensure it's not really hard to get the stove in or out, and to ensure that the new drawer will not rub against the stove when you open or close it. Sometimes stove doors are a hair wider than the stove body, so if the cabinet is tight and the drawer front comes all the way to the edge of it, there can be some rubbing.
- Make sure the setup behind your stove is as it needs to be for the new one. Electrical may need to be updated.
- Install new stove.
- Install countertop (shortened by 3"-3.25"--get the exact measurements on the stove and figure this out; usually countertops stick out a touch closer to the stove than the cabinets under them do).
- Install your new drawer and door.
Voila! Like I said, easier said than done, but totally doable. And if you change your mind about how you want the cabinets to look when you do your eventual remodel, all you have to do on this particular cabinet is swap out the drawer front and door front--that should cost less than $100, shipping included.
* Edited to add *: if you have a laminate countertop, you could conceivably just trim it down and then seal the end with some good adhesive and a strip of laminate--which of course doesn't need to match the counter at all, since it won't be visible.