A great age for a house, even, if you like vaulted ceilings, extra bathrooms, and closet space (and I do!!) I love a much older house, personally, but it's hard to argue with bathrooms and soaring ceilings!
Sixteen, however, is NOT a great age if you're an appliance original to the house.
Last summer, when the temperature reached about 100 degrees for a week or more, our air conditioner finally kicked the bucket with nary even a cough or sputter to let us know that the end was near. Just kaput. It was warranted for 15 years, and the best we can tell, it made it one month after its 15th birthday. Isn't that just like a teenager??
It's been an interesting succession since. Various plumbing fittings have given up the ghost in the backs of our toilets--as though they were synchronized swimmers or practicing for Dancing With the Stars....perfectly coordinated in their times of departure.
Then the roof leaked last month. Wanted: new roof in less than a year. They were 15-year shingles, you see. Ugh.
And the ceiling fan quit working.
On Election Day, it was the dishwasher. I set it for its usual (lackluster, willy-nilly, hit or miss) cycle, pushed the button, and....Old Faithful appeared. In our kitchen. WHOOSH!!!! I wonder if there's a record for how much water has ever hit a floor in 5 minutes or less? Remember the time the classroom across the hall from me burst its faucet? This rivaled that.
So, last week while Eric worked, I bought a dishwasher. Ha. It sounds so...uncomplicated...when I type the sentence that way. In fact, it looked more like the kids and I driving back and forth, from Lowe's to Home Depot to HHGregg to mom-and-pop appliance store out here, then (sadly), back again. Kaela about killed me in my indecision, and the second time back through the procession, I almost wore a Groucho Marx mustache to throw off all those helpful salespeople...AGAIN....
But...I hate to spend money. Hate it. Love to look, hate to commit.
Then I couldn't decide on the color. I know that our appliances are white now, but I also know that our stove locks and goes into auto-clean mode every time the temperature reaches 400 degrees. It is on its last legs, and the refrigerator is nearly as old as I am--it came from Neeny's basement when she moved in with us. SO....I couldn't exactly make the decision based on our current appliances. I have always wanted to get stainless, but didn't want to pay the difference....added to the fact that Eric's dad is a lifelong GE employee, and we have to be GE loyal (even though Consumer Reports rated Whirlpool higher AND they're less expensive...) Yeah, that's enough. It was agonizing, suffice it to say, and Eric was unavailable for consultation.
So....I bought the least expensive, highest-rated GE stainless dishwasher I could find. At Home Depot. But I bought the floor sample--$200 off. And I bought it when appliances were on sale (coincidentally) for 10% off. And when the salesman learned that I teach in the school next door to his daughter, he reduced the delivery charge. Did you know all of that was negotiable?? I didn't!! And saving that much money felt kind of euphoric! It looks like this:
I also have a plan for the stove. My birthday is coming up, and I am planning to use all my birthday money for the stove. AND sell ours on Craigslist. AND buy the floor sample. AND if I get the kind with coil burners (which I like better anyway), it really won't be too bad at all. Stainless.
Which is kind of fun!!
We need a new faucet, too, because ours leaks....but where it leaks, it is getting the drywall wet behind the sink. We don't have a backsplash. (Not because we haven't looked...check out these cute options!
Just because we don't know how to repair drywall, and need a few days off work to tackle that.) While I have always thought our kitchen is cute, it's definitely builder-grade, and not designed to hold up for more than, say, 16 years. :-) I AM a fan of the white laminate cabinets. They're cheap, but there are plenty of them, and they clean easily--an issue when there are grubby little fingers on them pretty much all the time....
So, if you see any good GE appliances on sale, let me know. I'm thinking year-end model clearance time. I have a friend who's a plumber who will help with the faucet. Our garbage disposal went out last year (of course) so it's been replaced and is in good shape. And I'm ecstatic because I have a home-improvement project going on that is a challenge--because it needs to be pretty, but done for next to nothing, or it won't get done. I'm trying not to think about the fact that IKEA's appliances are on sale right now....really. trying. hard. not. to. think. about. it........
So anyway, here are the rest of the "before" pictures. Most of the things I would change about this kitchen have to do with the layout....and that's just not even an option, even with a carpenter brother-in-law. It's closed in, but that doesn't mean it isn't perfectly functional. I AM wondering if a little sparkle in the backsplash would help balance the shine of the dishwasher. That's one thing I wasn't counting on. Probably reflecting all that bright color!
It may be a slow project, considering that our budget for kitchen work is in the negative numbers for now....but we'll see. I will have a mentoring check coming in April....
I HATE the wavy thing over the sink, and would like to put a plain strip of molding there to make the kitchen look more traditional. I LOVE the green, even though it's crazy bright. I figure we have plenty of time to live with neutrals, but we're only going to be this age once, and we may as well enjoy it. Of course, I'll probably still want colors when I'm old, too. My stark-white classroom makes me think of cell-block, mental-patient, sanitorium-esque design...but that's probably just me....
And yes, the refrigerator would look a lot better if we took all those photos down....but we're just not "live without photos on the fridge" kind of people. Those people mean more to us than the streamlined look of an uncluttered kitchen would.
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