Cleaning the oven. Eggshells?

I've noticed how this blog is often more about having moved somewhere than about renovation and whatnot ... sorry about that! But this is what's actually going on, as opposed to whats meant to be.

I'm certainly not particularly houseproud, though I'd like to be, and I'm also often quite slow to do things - like, starting to cook again after moving. Which has meant I didn't realise quite how *filthy* the oven was. And I'll confess now, which I haven't before, that I was storing egg shells in there to dry, to put them out around plants. So not only is there filth, *old* filth, there's starting to be mould. And it all got a bit much over the last few days, with the heat - so, in spite of the kitchen having the living room emptied into it because of the new flooring I'm having fitted (more in a while ...) I have to have a spring clean of the oven.

Started the normal way, just doing the door for now - I soaked it in stardrops. No reaction. Started scraping the crap off with a spoon - very slow. Then I realised I had some wire wool somewhere :) result! The stuff just fell off, in some parts, it was on so thick.

I can start to see through the door again, and this is good! Though in the long term, I may have knackered the door, because I can see crud thats got in between the two panes of glass or whatever its made from, though realistically that may be very old.

The egg shells can come out today into the garden, no problem, because a friend just gave me some comfrey cuttings, and they've rooted but in the last few days their pots have been in an overgrown bit of the garden (ha!) and their leaves have been chomped by something. So I can actually use the egg shells for what I was saving them for :)

Forgot to say, I'm using the elbow grease now because a few years ago I used oven cleaner in my previous house - and I scared myself stupid with the warnings and the smell and the look of the chemical reaction that seemed to be taking place. My green credentials were under threat, thats for sure, but I'm certainly re-converted after that experience.