I just kept putting it off because I knew it would be a huge job, and I was right. My fingertips are just about worn down to the bone due to all the scrubbing that I had to do to get it clean.
While I had the top disassembled, I decided to take the oven door off as well and clean the grease that had found its way between the glass and the colored panel. I located many pretty (70's style) color panels when I took the door apart that I could switch around. I forewent the chocolate brown, avocado green, and mustard yellow panels and decided on the bright white to match the fridge. There were also an off-white, and the black panel that was originally displayed. The bright white lightens up the kitchen a little bit, so I think it's a good choice. I'll give it a few months, and see if I need to swap it out for the off-white, or something.
I just walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water and the stove/oven really stands out now. It's so shiny!
Tomorrow I'll clean the inside of the oven and scrub the kitchen and bathroom floors.
What I really want to do is to take down the ugly wallpaper in the kitchen. It has a brown and dark orange flower pattern on a dirty yellow background. I'm not sure what the original brightness of the yellow was, but after years of cigarette smoke coating the paper, it is now a dingy yellow, and I've tried to scrub the walls to see if I could improve on the color, but nothing seemed to help.