Over the long Labor Day weekend, laying low while Lulu and Mel recovered from surgery, I fell victim to the Sunday circular. With a little extra time on my hands, I was lured in by the colored newsprint advertising extreme discounts on kitchen appliances. You know, appliances we had NO intention of buying just days earlier as we planned out our "quick kitchen spruce up 2.0."

After two days of research and gently introducing the idea to Alex, we found ourselves getting into the car for a trip to h.h. gregg. We had debated the issue a bit over the weekend, and finally came to the conclusion that even though it's a luxury, our appliances' days were numbered and it might just be time to look at purchasing new ones. The range and dishwasher are about to celebrate their 30th birthdays, and the fridge, although much newer, was clearly an entry level bare bones model when it was purchased 15 or so years ago. 

The dishwasher wasn't doing much washing these days, and the stove cooked unevenly and had a bad habit of randomly shutting off. I was concerned that they might give out at any time -- likely planning their demise for a day when we were entertaining house guests or friends -- or even worse, the relics could even be considered a fire hazard (I may be grasping here, but let's go for it). 

With open minds, detailed notes on prices and product numbers, and a budget of $2500 or less, we started our quest. We knew we were limited to specific dimensions, especially for the refrigerator and dishwasher, to work with our existing cabinetry. We also knew that we needed to stick with an electric range, to avoid the time consuming and costly step of adding a gas line. After all, we have big plans down the line to relocate the kitchen to the room that we currently use as our family room, so we want to minimize the work and costs as much as possible. (That might be hard to believe, as this post focuses on the purchase of new appliances!) 

We did a little browsing on our own before a salesperson offered to help us. We then spent the next hour and a half reviewing all of our options, and decided upon the following:

  • GE 22.2 Cubic Foot Stainless Steel French Door Refrigerator: The fridge was the primary reason we had been lured into h.h. gregg that day. In my wildest dreams, I never thought we'd be able to purchase a stainless steel french door refrigerator for around a grand. This affordable model, coupled with a good sale, convinced me to rethink holding out on new appliances for several more years.  

  • Samsung 30" Stainless Steel Smoothtop Electric Range: Let's call a spade a spade here. Electric ranges just aren't as gorgeous, sleek, or sexy as their gas counterparts. Alex and I are both decidedly underwhelmed with the look of the range, but it sure beats what we have going on in the kitchen currently. And if it cooks evenly and doesn't go on strike mid-dinner, we'll call this a success. But at least we didn't end up with this hobbit stove...

  • Samsung 24" Stainless Steel Dishwasher: Unlike the range, we're really excited about the new dishwasher. I love the sleek stainless look, and we can't wait to try out a modern day dishwasher. Our current model sounds like a freight train full of circus animals and hobos is running through the house, and despite the big show, it still doesn't get our cutlery clean. Here's a photo of both the new dishwasher as well as the stove we ended up purchasing.

We opted not to purchase a new microwave, since this is the one kitchen appliance we replaced ourselves just a few years ago. (The old one may have caught on fire while I was cooking Christmas dinner for my inlaws. Don't ask how I managed that one.) Our existing microwave is black, and since there's so much black in the new range, coupled with the fact we like our microwave, we opted to save our $250.

We were feeling pretty good about our purchases until we encountered a small hiccup upon check out. It seems the refrigerator we had selected was discontinued. The floor model was available for purchase, but it featured a golf ball sized dent right in the middle of one of the doors. No go. With the entire appliance purchase now in limbo, the manager generously offered to discount a nicer LG french door sitting directly to the right of "our" refrigerator that was slightly smaller in size (20 cubic feet instead of 22.2). 

This LG refrigerator, originally priced at $1800, marked down to $1400 but offered to us for $1000, has a slightly better lower storage drawer and a very similar look to it. Knowing it would fit our space and actually give us two inches to play with, we gladly accepted and were on our way. 

Funny side story, as we were checking out Alex checked in on Instagram where several people had said "STAY AWAY FROM LG!" We were caught between a rock and a hard place, but we decided to go for it anyway, all because we still keep telling ourselves this purchase is "temporary." We'll see how it works out long term, and we might need to let several people give us a big "We told you so!"

So how did it all shake out? 

  • Fridge: $999.99 (was $1799.99)
  • Range: $600.00 (was $799.99)
  • Dishwasher: $500.00 (was $699.99)
  • Hook Up Kits and Tax: $142.80
  • Delivery and Haul Away: free with $79.99 rebate
  • Total Spent: $2242.79 (savings of $1199.98)

So now we wait a few days until the new appliances can be delivered, and I'll continue feeling like a kid trying to sleep on Christmas Eve. To ease the pains of installation, I'm putting off grocery shopping to try to put a dent in the items already in our fridge and freezer. I guess it's my own version of the television show "Chopped" -- trying to make delicious meals using strange and random items on hand. We'll see how that turns out. 

So there you have it -- yet another way this "temporary kitchen spruce up" has spun out of control. Never in my wildest dreams when I bought that rug on clearance from Home Goods did I ever imagine it would lead to new appliances down the line. But I'm not gonna lie. I'm super psyched at the idea of having a beautiful AND functional place to cook, bake, and entertain.

Want to weigh in on our purchases? Feel free to let us have it if you have strong feelings either way. I know people can get pretty worked up about appliances, and rightfully so, since we all depend so heavily on them. 

Comments 15

Comments

9/12/2012 at 12:31 PM
We cooked on those hobbit stoves, though they were gas, in England! The oven on the one in the first rental I lived in barely worked and you could time a roast with the phases of the moon!
Alex
9/13/2012
That's hysterical. I saw that little stove sitting there and immediately thought to myself "I only thought Europeans used those things."
Debra Cripps
9/12/2012 at 12:50 PM
electric slide in ranges look good.
Alex
9/13/2012
Maybe not as good as gas (in our opinion), but surely way better than what was there before.
Karin K
9/12/2012 at 12:56 PM
Are you suuurrre you can't find a gas range you like? I cannot stand cooking on electric stoves, so I'm a bit biased here. I just checked Sears Outlet and they have a couple of stainless gas Kenmore models....there's one in Woodbridge, Centreville and one in Herndon. LOL - can you tell I love my gas stove?? Kenmore is far from my favorite brand, but you did say temporary... I got a pretty nice stainless gas cooktop at the Sears outlet and have not regretted it for a minute. OK, maybe a couple of minutes when I'm cleaning it....I should have paid more attention to design. But as far as cooking goes, I love it! Plus the outlets have scratch and dent discounts, and lots of times the scratches are either unnoticeable, or they're on the side or back. One more thing - is your fridge lacking a water and ice dispenser, or is it hidden inside the door? Can't wait to see it all installed.
Alex
9/13/2012
Oh, trust me, we can find plenty of gas ranges we like 100 times better than electric, but that's not the limiting factor. We have two issues here. The first is that we don't have an active gas line to that part of the house, and the second is the lack of a range hood for ventilation and the stove sits on an interior wall. As much as we'd love one, we'll have to wait until later to tackle that project.
Alex
9/15/2012
I forgot to respond to your last question. There is an ice maker in the freezer, but no water dispenser. We're actually okay with this, as even an ice maker is an upgrade. We find we prefer filtered water from a Brita or similar over the dispenser, so we didn't mind that the fridge doesn't have one.
Bea
9/12/2012 at 3:45 PM
Your appliances look beautiful! How exciting for you! Putting in a gas line is expensive. I would wait until I was sure it was a permanent location, too! Otherwise you would end up spending $1000.00 twice. That's what we were quoted by several tradesmen in Richmond for a 10 ft. run and connection :-(
bfish
9/12/2012 at 7:57 PM
I agree that doing two separate gas line installations isn't cost-effective and should be avoided. The question for Alex and Wendy is, is there gas service running to your house now? (Can't remember if you have gas heat.) We always had gas service (initially only for dryer! -- bizarre I know) but we switched to gas heat and water heater early on, when whatever minor connection cost was charged got wrapped up in the much bigger cost of a new heating system. The point is, (1) if you have gas running to your house already the gas company shouldn't gouge you and (2) we added a gas cooktop later and my husband added the gas line for that, with only the cost of materials. Alex is certainly more than handy enough to do that when you decide to go with a gas stove, again assuming that there is existing gas service to the residence.
Karin K
9/12/2012 at 8:48 PM
Yes - like bfish says.... we already had gas service to the house, for both the fireplace and the hot water heater. We paid a plumber a couple hundred bucks for running the line to the kitchen and swapping the broken electric cooktop for the new gas one. That second part wouldn't even apply to Alex and Wendy's kitchen since they're sliding in a range. Unless.....they want to buy another cabinet and more countertop and cut another hole....hahahah That would never fly, because then there'd be nowhere to bake the cupcakes.
Alex
9/13/2012
I think the biggest issue with adding a gas line to this point in the kitchen is actually the fact we can't access it from the basement. We'd need to somehow run the line from the gas manifold through a narrow crawlspace then through the original foundation wall and into the kitchen, which was build right on dirt. Most likely, this would be several thousand and a major PITA. I want a gas range, but we can wait until our "real" kitchen renovation for that.
9/13/2012 at 12:33 PM
Congrats, new appliances are life changing! We have that Samsung dishwasher and the matching double-door fridge, and we love them both :-) The dishwasher cycles seem to take a long time, but I don't know if it just seems that way to me because I haven't had a dishwasher in 3 years... It's very quiet tho! Any reason you didn't go with a matching Samsung fridge? I have a pet peeve about matching appliance handles, but it's your home so congrats on the great fridge deal!
Alex
9/15/2012
We would have loved to have gone with the matching appliances, but we were incredibly limited by the size of the fridge opening, and the Samsung that fit in the opening was $1500 more expensive than what we wanted to spend. We just couldn't justify the cost.

Anything is better than our current dishwasher, even if it takes 8 hours to run a cycle.
Melissa
9/17/2012 at 10:08 PM
My kitchen has the worst set up. No cabinetry around the fridge, but the stove JUST opens up to the side of it. I had to have the gas line removed and put in an electric stove, or I could have moved the frdge every time I cooked!
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