An Early Christmas!!!

Well the day finally arrived to take the plunge and buy appliances. Our fridge had been making weird sounds for months, and our stove had become almost non-usable. By the end of this summer I was down to one burner that actually functioned, and 3 that only 25% of the coil would head up. Yes, I probably could have bought new coils for the stove and got by, but I made a good case to Ben on why we should buy the appliances (okay, really a good case for myself because Ben just said okay when I said I wanted to get appliances).

We got a really good deal on the appliances from Lowes over labor day. I don't love ordering things from Lowes, their website is annoying and they are terrible at keeping you updated on the status of your order but price won out. In addition to their Labor Day sale, we had a 10% off coupon from Lowes that I was sure was not going to work on order but it did. So after a few days of research on the appliances, going to Lowes and seeing them in person, I ended up ordering them online (mainly because our stove was $100 cheaper online).

We were going to have to wait 3 weeks for appliances according to the website because they had to order our stove and dishwasher. Based on my experience in ordering things from Lowes in the past I was hoping to have appliances by Christmas. :) The appliances were supposed to be in on September 28, and someone from Lowes called me before that to confirm that everything should be in the September 28, and then they would schedule delivery. On September 29 I hadn't heard anything and being the patient person that I am I called them promptly at 8am to inquire. They super helpful (please sense my sarcasm here) informed me that the appliances had not arrived and were not scheduled to arrive for another week. I asked if they were planning on letting me know this, but as usual that question lead to an awkward silence. He did suggest calling later in the week to confirm things were still on track. Probably not bad advice, so a few days later, I decided to use my 4 minutes of free time at 3pm to call Lowes. The poor guy who answered the phone informed me that my appliances were in and they had called to schedule my delivery but since I hadn't called them back they pushed out my delivery another week (I later found out they had called me 15 minutes prior and just because I didn't answer they moved my delivery date by a week). Lets just say I wasn't super happy with the guy and I did get him to agree to move my delivery to the following Tuesday.

Remember the fridge problem when we put in the new floors? Well after much shopping around for a fridge that would fit under the cabinets, we determined that it was time to rip out the cabinet over the fridge. Ben and I spent many nights after work, fixing the wall where the cabinet used to go, painting the new end cap for the cabinets, painting the walls, installing new trim around our back door, etc. Our delayed appliance delivery left plenty of time to get everything done.

I scheduled delivery for a Tuesday afternoon when I could leave work early and Ben could also be home. I was freaking out that our floors would be scratched, the appliances wouldn't fit, they wouldn't be the ones we had ordered. I have to say that after all of my frustration with Lowes trying to get the appliance delivery scheduled, the actual delivery went pretty smooth. The new stove and fridge were plugged in and I immediately fell in love. The dishwasher was delivered to the middle of the kitchen because we still had to get the plumbing correct for the dishwasher. Ben spent the last two nights working on the plumbing and finally at 10:15 last night, we ran our first load of dishes in the dishwasher!!! WOO HOO! There were 2 things that were hilarious about this, 1. We actually argued on how to place the dishes in the dishwasher - mind you were only had like 2 plates and 4 glasses to wash. 2. We laid on the floor and monitored for leaks for the first 20 minutes of the cycle. Awesome couple bonding time. At this point in the night I went to sleep but Ben stayed up for the last 40 minutes of the cycle to make sure nothing went wrong.

We are down to replacing the counter tops and the kitchen sink and then we are done with the upstairs!

Here are a few pictures from the process:

The cabinet is gone!

Making progress....

All ready for new appliances!

Here they are!

I hate to pick favorites, but this is definitely an upgrade!!

I love these too. Fully functional appliances!

We hope to get counter tops and a new sink soon!! 

Cheers,

Ali 

Summer Update....

It has been a long time since I last posted but it was summer and Ben and I enjoyed every minute of it. It feels like it just began and it is already Fall. We spent summer just as it should be, at the cabin, visiting friends and family, and eating as many meals as we could outside. Not working weekends this summer made it extra special, I definitely enjoyed every minute of it.

The best part of this summer was that we took the majority of the summer off from house projects. It was much needed and well deserved (in my opinion). I can never totally stay away from house projects so we did some small projects outside. We tackled tearing down our shed, and redoing some landscaping in May. Also one Saturday this summer my Dad came over to help trim some trees. Well that project turned into Gary and Ben cut down 3 trees. There was a lot of screaming (by me) and only a small injury when Gary fell off a ladder. That was probably one of the scariest things I have watched happen. Luckily he was only 5 feet off the ground and managed to fall onto a bunch of vines that cushioned his fall. I of course instantly went into nurse mode and was ready to call 911, but he was fine. Of course 2 weeks later when we were at my parent's house, Ben and Gary started strategizing about cutting some huge trees down in the yard. My mom wasn't thrilled with that idea so she smartly hired some trained professionals for that project. :)

Labor Day weekend Ben and I didn't go to the cabin but instead decided to do some house projects. Really what I should say is that I decided I wanted to some more landscaping projects. Ben was just the lucky guy I chose to help me with them. We moved a bunch of rock from the back yard to our side yard, planted some new bushes and laid down mulch. On Sunday we finally decided to install our new window in the kitchen. It was the only window on the main floor that hadn't been replaced since Ben bought the house. Ben tore out the old window and then we realized we had purchased the wrong size window, back to Menards we went. We couldn't find a window that would fit exactly, the guy at Home Depot suggested special ordering a window. Thanks, sir, super helpful but I already have a hole in the side of my house. Instead we went to Menards and found a window that would be a tight fit but we thought we could make it work. Ben and I had a wonderful time installing the window (alright that was a complete lie). The important thing is that at the end of the day we had a new window that functioned properly.

Here are a few pictures of the window project, the landscaping you might have to wait to see until next Spring. :)

Out with the old and in with the new...

We still need to finish the inside trim around the window but we are going to wait to do that until we get our new counter tops.

That is all for this post, next post I will fill you in on one my favorite but most expensive purchases.

Cheers,

A