HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!! Do you have flowers and candy ready for your special love today? In our house we are always a day late and dollar short, so nothing yet. But the day is young! Still time to run out and nab a little something for my sweetheart! He has a fondness for dark chocolate with sea salt so I know just what to buy. Our real Valentine’s gifts? New appliances!
Ok. I know new appliances are not that romantic. Actually not at ALL. But, when you’ve been happily married for nearly 33 years, you don’t need flowers or candy (& definitely not the calories!). We’ve been talking about buying new kitchen appliances for quite a while. Our GE dishwasher has barely worked for the last 2 years. Sometimes I run it 2-3 times before the dishes come clean. (And that is after Lacey has pre-cleaned them.) So a new dishwasher is a must have!
About a year ago we started the replacement process with our refrigerator. The ice maker was broken and the repairman said the lines were so old on that model it was prone to leaking. Not good. All of our kitchen appliances were black and I didn’t want to replace all of them due to cost. So we replaced the plain black refrigerator with a new one to start.
We decided on a refrigerator by Whirlpool in shiny black called Black Ice with sleek stainless steel handles. This style has french doors on top and a pull out freezer drawers on the bottom. My tip? Measure not only the height and width but also the DEPTH. I left out that final measurement when I ordered the new fridge. I didn’t realize our old one was a counter depth and the new one was full size. Oops. Luckily the wall behind the fridge is an outer wall to the garage and a double wall. A contractor was able to cut into the wall and recess the fridge so it lined up with the cabinets. Whew! Now when you open the fridge it looks like a magic trick, it keeps going back despite the look on the outside. Crisis averted. (It took me a while to get over that one.)
So, this year we are finally replacing a few other appliances in order to update the kitchen and make it more functional. The striker on one of the gas cooktop burners is out too, so we are replacing the cooktop with a new one. We are taking advantage of a sale at Home Depot and buying three appliances at once and they offer free delivery! Yay! On the way is a new gas cooktop which is stainless steel with black grates. We also ordered a new dishwasher and microwave. (Both have the Black Ice finish and stainless steel handles.)
Home Depot offers installation of new appliances (for about $79 each) and removal of old appliances ($15 each). Since the microwave is still in working order we will donate it and have the other two hauled away since they are broken. I love the combined look of the shiny black and stainless steel. It’s a nice compromise to replacing everything with stainless. Our double wall ovens are the only thing left of the original kitchen appliances. At some point I guess those will need to be replaced but they still work great for now. (Maybe I should whip out some stainless steel colored paint and paint the handles? My husband thinks not.)
I’m excited about my new kitchen appliances! They arrive this Thursday which is right in between Valentine’s Day and our wedding anniversary. We will go out to dinner this weekend to celebrate properly but our new kitchen will be something we will enjoy everyday! I will share the before and after pictures of the new appliances when the are installed.
Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Hugs & kisses from Dell & Lacey! <3