Deal-spotting for the Kitchen

Shopping for appliances is NO JOKE! I thought it was going to be so much fun to pick out fancy new goodies for our kitchen, turns out you need a full gas tank, patience, and a law degree to get the best deals.

I thought I hit the jackpot at Best Buy (read that post here), but after striking out there, I felt confident that I knew exactly what I wanted. I loved the sleek look of this Whirlpool range, the handle was pretty and I liked the stainless knobs. I love the large viewing window and it was convection, with a little extra space...

Sold! (almost)

 

With one store under my belt, I headed into Home Depot with all the knowledge one can possess on mid-range cooking appliances. The man working there, well he was one damned helpful dude! He recommended this beauty... all the wonderful features that I loved about the Whirlpool, but for less dough! He was totally speaking my language. This Maytag wonder made me so happy - not only did it have a lower price tag, it also had a 3rd rack for the oven, a great parts and labor warranty, and few other features that made me love it more, it was more visually appealing (to me anyways) with more stainless and less black.

Once I was hooked, there was only one thing left to do... convince my husband that he loved it too!

That took me 3 days!

When we went back to Home Depot to buy it, they were SOLD OUT!!! They couldn't even order it for me because of some kind of crazy logistics issues... but they were soooooo amazingly nice about it. They told me they would keep me on a call list for when they expected another shipment and that they would honor the sale price for me. (This is why I love HD!! They have THE BEST customer service)

Of course patience is NOT my virtue, so immediately, I started hounding the other stores that price match (ala- Best Buy, Lowes, Sears, etc) but much to my dismay, they were all sold out too :(

Then my sister recommended HH Gregg. Turns out, they are having a kitchen event this week (lucky me!) and they had the range and microwave we were looking for, in stock! We've my expert negotiator of a husband has wheeled and dealed with them over past purchases so we headed over there last night to see what they had to offer.

SCORE!

I'm usually terrible in this sort of situation where Jay dickers/haggles/negotiates and I think we're already getting a good deal so I feel bad asking for more... we got a significantly discounted price on both pieces, free delivery (usually $80) and the 5-year premium service plan for free, plus a rebate for $100 H.H. Gregg gift card (which we will hopefully use for the dishwasher, but I think Jay has his eye on some kind of surround sound system) The lesson here is - IT NEVER HURTS TO ASK!

 (secondary lesson, if you suck striking deals like I do, take someone like my husband)

Post-shopping victory beers at McKenzie Brew House

We had a "get the car" moment when we left and I had a giant shit-eatting grin plastered across my face. Now, I just can't wait til it is delivered on Saturday!

Dad installing the hardwood floor in the oven alcove

I'm so looking forward to being able to open and close my oven without fear that the door handle will fall off! I'm also really excited to be able to look at the oven and not see duct tape!

Kitchen Progress Continues

Remember when I started this kitchen makeover, (post here) I had dreams of a white and wood and stainless wonderland of a kitchen.

I've tackled painting the kitchen cabinets (no small feat!) and we've since scrapped that sheet vinyl flooring (which was a cost saver, but not our top choice) thanks to my Aunt Tracy and her generous donation of pretty hardwood to our cause :)

As you saw last week, I was having a serious dilemma with choosing appliances that are right for our kitchen but ultimately, price won the battle... first, I thought we were totally bringing these home from Best Buy. They were an amazing deal... but we all know what they say about things that are too good to be true... turns out, my cursory look on a lunch time fly by wasn't quite good enough... yea the price was right, but when we really looked at this oven, we noticed that there was a ring around one of the burners. Then we opened it up and there was very clearly spill marks baked into the bottom of the oven... not a great deal when this thing was so obviously used. Gross.

BUT...after some careful consideration, and some not-so-subtle comments from my loving husband about me being bat shit crazy how annoyed I would eventually get that the wine fridge didn't match the rest of the appliances, I'm still sold on stainless.


So this is what we've got so far...

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19

About a few missing links

3 - our curtains are Tahari (TJ Maxx - $24.99) similar here

5 - the wine fridge was a gift from my Bridesmaids (I have no idea where they got it but I think this is it)

18 - 6 boxes of our flooring were given to us by my aunt (who's brother gave it to her when he moved out of his old house) my dad ordered 2 more boxes for the last 40 sq ft of our kitchen and once I know what he got, I'll gladly let you know.. It's 4in planks, I think red oak - similar here

Other points of interest...

1 - If you haven't yet joined the Ikea Family - you are missing out, my friends! I get emails regularly letting me know what items in the store are on special... sometimes it's $2 off, sometimes it's $20+... not to mention, free coffee :) I can always get on board with that! Almost all the Ikea Items in our entire house (and even's Jay's office) were purchased this way... and the savings really adds up... quickly, when you're a shopoholic like me!

2 - the island cart, a hand-me-down from my brother and sister-in-law, is going to get a little make over

6+7 - I scored the island and stools from a couple on Craigslist for $200. It was less than a year old and in great shape! To buy new - it would have cost me $550, so pretty sweet deal! Although, I'm a bit leary of CL and the murder in Allentown the night before I went to get this stuff didn't help... Moral of the story - check out the listings, communicate with the seller via phone to arrange the deal... and NEVER EVER make pick ups with a stranger alone! 
9+13+17 -Maytag appliances - they have all the bells and whistles I want, for a fraction of the cost and May is "Maytag Month", so they have great sales and rebates right now!

15 - I first spotted these pretty knobs at Anthropologie, but they were priced out of my budget (at the time they were $12.50 each!) and that would have been fine if I only needed a handful but I needed 16! I found the same ones on Amazon and got free shipping (thank you prime!) for about $5.75 each

Desperate Times... kitchen crashing

We're officially onto the next project in our house... the kitchen floor... if you follow me on Instagram and Facebook, I'm sorry for the feed overload (I'm not really sorry). I've been posting progress photos almost every night because they make my mom and Grandmom happy (and lots of our friends seem to love them too, so again... I'm not really sorry).

With this overhaul, we have a HUGE decision to make: appliances. We have discussed, ad nauseam, which direction we'd like to head, only to NOT have an outcome...

Originally, we I was thinking these GE Artistry appliances would be awesome... they're super cool with the retro look and the price was right... we could get the entire line up (fridge, dishwasher, range, and microwave) for well under $2k... unfortunately, my husband's not a big fan... I spoke to our local appliance guy and he said that they look sharp and because they are not overloaded with all kinds of crazy features, they'll run forever. Ah... what features are they missing? A lot of the modern ones I'd like in brand new appliances (self-cleaning, delayed start baking, sensor cooking microwave, ice maker, and stainless interior on the dishwasher) So although, they fit the budget and are totally awesome looking... they just aren't right for us.

Next on my hit list was this bad boy...

Ahh, but I don't have $5 grand... and IF I was going to chose this crazy, awesome, amazingly wonderful appliance for my kitchen, I would bite the bullet and have a gas line run... so until our next home... I'll keep dreaming!

Enter Whirlpool... while searching for all things stainless and white... I came across these beauties...

 Words cannot express how I LOVE these white ice appliances... they are gorgeous! And full of AMAZING bells and whistles that just make my heart sing. I love. LOVE. LOVEEEE.

I really can't put it any better than Ali over at Gimme Some Oven (side bar - I want her kitchen!)

And then there's these stainless beauties... I can't. I just cannot! Stainless is just so classically perfect and lovely and sleek and ahhhh... I love this too!

There is not a talent I lack more than the ability to make decisions. Clearly, I have a style in mind but how, oh how!? am I supposed to chose between these two gorgeous looks!? They both are equally stunning in this sample kitchen, so that doesn't even help seal the deal...

A few things that sway my decision:

1) I love the look of the white appliances with white cabinets but I prefer stainless with wood cabinets

2) I HATE, loathe, abhor, absolutely CANNOT STAND when stainless gets all gunked up with streaky water marks and slimy fingerprints... there probably isn't a word to describe how much I despise this

3) I scrolled through my pins on my kitchen board and found that a lot of my favorite kitchens have stainless appliances... however, I also found that most people who have white appliances did NOT have these pretty new white ice goodies that I adore and stainless has reigned supreme for like 25 years... so of course it's going to dominate Pinterest for now.

4) Resale... I don't really care about this as much as the people who have brought it up to me... again that whole stainless = we have arrived business... I will say, after watching 8,935, 217 episodes of whatever house selling/renovation shows, it is impossible to deny that stainless appliances sell kitchens. On the flip-side, we're probably going to be in this house about 10 more years so the appliances really won't be "new" anymore so does it really matter?

5) Our wine fridge is stainless.... this is the only thing that I can come up with as a valid argument for stainless vs. white ice. Will it drive me bananas if this 1 appliance (which will be on the other side of the kitchen) doesn't match the rest? I love a good coordinating but mismatched fest, I just don't think I'm ready for it in my kitchen... we shall see...

6) Bottom line... we're working on a shit ton of projects in this old house so at the end of the day, price will probably sway the decision one way or the other. Let's be honest... we're pinching pennies as it is... so even if the difference is minimal, we'll end up going with whatever deal is best.

 

Good-Bye Linoleum!!

I mentioned in the most recent progress (here & here) reports that we are in need of a new kitchen floor... I maybe did not mention HOW DESPERATELY we need a new kitchen floor.

Our linoleum has seen way better days so have our kitchen counters.

Apparently, It's in such bad shape that I subconsciously avoid it in all pictures... these were the only ones where you can actually see it and I had to go back to last summer's archives to even catch a glimpse of this heinous floor.

You can kind of see here what I'm dealing with - that is if you can get past Blitz's adorable face - it's super dingy, peeling up around the back door and under the dishwasher, there may or may not be cigarette burns in it by the back door (not from us!) and it's now peeling up across the back wall because we never put the baseboard back after we finished painting... this is passive aggressive at it's finest, folks... we've had the base boards laying across sawhorses in our living/dining room this whole time because we knew we wanted a new floor first... let's just let it get totally unbearable before we get around to fixing it (I am my own worst enemy).

Enter: World's Most Amazing Family

My aunt (World's Greatest Uncle's wife) gave, that's right I said GAVE, us 5 boxes of flooring that she wasn't using because she knew that we were trying to renovate our house to make it more "us" and updated. It is beautiful 4-in plank blonde oak and will blend nicely with the gun stock oak that is throughout the rest of our downstairs. 

We were short, maybe 2-3 boxes to complete our kitchen so my parents' bought us the additional flooring for Christmas and my dad is installing it for us! How generous is that!?! We seriously have the greatest families ever of all time.

  

Of course, that means we had to wait for the opportune time for my dad to actually put it in for us and evidently, that time is today :)

I cannot wait to see the finished product! Good bye yucky old linoleum!! (we won't miss you at all!)

Lights, camera, action!!

Ok, so no camera, but still!

We are in major kitchen over-haul mode. Slightly exaggerating, maybe a little. Here's what we're working with though:

I can't, in good conscience, show you the BEFORE before pictures. They're terribly frightening and you might not sleep for days. The top picture is after I cleaned up. A LOT. The bottom picture is when I finished cleaning and was able to re-arrange things to give us more space to work with.

What you can't see in these pictures are these:

This is what 1979 looks like in lighting. They've had their day in the sun and now it's time for them to go.

Fortunately, these lights are actually spaced properly in the room (the only original ones in the whole house that are!) So changing them out won't be terribly difficult. Good bye faux oak and dingy antiqued brass!!

Eventually, we'd like to put recessed lighting in here, but for my sanity the time being, we will be switching them up with more appealing and functional light fixtures. The top picture is the fan that is centered over the kitchen table. It's getting replaced with this:

I love the industrial look of this light. I love the proportion to our kitchen table and I love that it's brushed steel so it matches all the pretty hardware I bought to add to the cabinets (and the soon-to-be stainless appliances). I also thoroughly enjoy the price tag: $29.99!!!! BOOM!!! I <3 Ikea!

I knew I wanted that light from the minute I saw it. I had been up in the air on nickle or oil rubbed bronze finishes for the kitchen and when I came across this pendant, the deal was sealed! Easy-peasy.

So I should have known that choosing the other light for the kitchen would be far less simple! I wanted some sort of track lighting system for that area so that I could get as much light out of 1 fixture as possible. After scouring Home Depot and Lowes and extensive online research, I narrowed it down to these:

1 , 2 , 3 , 4

1 was hands down my favorite but all of these fixtures were great. After comparing the prices and bang for the buck, 1 and 4 were knocked out. Even though they weren't terribly expensive, the Ikea fixtures were almost 1/2 the price and had an extra lamp. In a townhouse kitchen, that 1 bulb will make a difference. After some serious online comparison shopping on Ikea.com, I still couldn't decide, so off to the store I went. Not remembering how many people were off today for Easter/Spring break. Place was PACKED.

I snapped a few phone pics and consulted with my bff and 20 minutes later I was heading to the car with Ottava and Barometer (#2) in tow. Again, the Ikea prices are hard to beat. I got both lights for the grand total of $84.78, almost 2 lights for the price of 1.... For the WIN!