New Kitchen!

And its courtesy of my pets. This is kind of a long story...

It was a Wednesday. About three weeks ago. I was woken up at 5:00am, by a sound that you never want to hear in your home, much less in the early morning hours when you had been soundly sleeping just before. I won't go in to detail, but suffice it to say I have a sick bulldog on my hands. Unfortunately I frightened him when I leaped out of bed and he ran through the house and onto the couch, taking his... sick... with him. Thank goodness I have a leather couch.

Anyway, we cleaned up and sent Mac outside. We had a Little Green Machine carpet spot cleaner, and Chris sprayed a bunch of cleaner on the carpet in the bedroom to clean up after Mac. It was then that we discovered that the carpet cleaner no longer had suction. Our carpet had become a sewer. Now, we had talked about tearing out the carpet in the bedroom quite a few times before and installing the same laminate flooring that we have in the living area, but its a good deal of work and we're inherently lazy. That laziness was cured!

On his lunch break Chris headed over to The Home Depot to pick up the flooring. That's when we found out it had been discontinued. Fortunately there were some packages of it still in the store, though they were nearly all opened and re-taped. The worker helping him told Chris he could have 15% off the opened packs, and the other worker who helped him get it all up to the register asked for 50% off, to which the cashier agreed. And then the cashier only rang up one pack, at 50% off, and completely ignored the other six or seven! Chris felt bad for a moment, but they would just throw out the opened discontinued packs anyway, so headed on out. Score!

That night we tore the carpet out of the bedroom. That's not quite as easy as it sounds, since we can't really remove the bed frame and the Bowflex, so we had to move pieces of furniture around and wrestle it all out. That completed, a few nights later we started the installation of the new flooring. I had to dismantle the closet organization system so we could run the flooring all the way across the room, but by the following evening we had it all completed. I still need to install the baseboards, but I really dislike miters so I'll get to it eventually.

How does this relate to my new kitchen? Well, my dishwasher died on the same day that Mac exploded and the carpet cleaner stopped sucking. It stopped draining and made horrible loud clicking sounds when I tried to run it. I have to admit, I was not disappointed since it was the loudest thing in the house. Seriously, I hated it. I would run it before bed or before leaving the house so I didn't have to listen to it. And Chris has been wanting a new fridge with an integrated ice maker so he didn't have to keep refilling ice trays. In fact, he's been talking about it forever, so we figured we'd buy a dishwasher and fridge. And hey, if we could toss in a range for a good price, why not?

After I played a concert that Saturday I headed over to Sears to check out their appliances. That was a mistake. They treated me like an idiot, I swear. And I can't even put my finger on what it was in particular, but I did not feel like a valued customer there. The guy "helping" me even gave me grief for wanting a specific height since we keep our microwave on top of the fridge. But we have limited counter space and are taller people, so it works just fine for us. I headed home defeated.

The next day we went together to Direct Appliance, where we had a much better experience. We decided on a floor model Frigidaire dishwasher for a great price, and ordered a matching range. They didn't have the fridge we wanted, so we headed on over to Lowe's where we found one that would match fairly well, though its not stainless steel like the other two but "silver mist" (easier cleaning!). A few days later the fridge was delivered and we installed it ourselves. Then I got a call from Direct Appliance that they have double-sold the dishwasher, so they would give us the next model up for the same price. Wow! Last week the range and dishwasher were delivered, and we installed those too.

I now have a new fridge that makes ice and has more room that my old one. I have a new dishwasher that is so quiet, its music to my ears whenever I run it. And I have a new flat-top stove/oven with two big burners rather than just one, and a window in the oven so I can check on what I'm cooking without opening it. And they're all energy-efficient. Its incredible! And the kitchen looks so nice now:

 

The new range

 
 

I made muffins, which I'll post in a day or two

The new, whisper-quiet dishwasher

 And the fridge!

This became our Valentine's Day and anniversary gift for each other. While Chris doesn't cook often, he does enjoy eating, so it works out for both of us. :)