Last weekend J. held an IKEA building party and he and AfrindieDad along with Mr. StarryCharley built almost all the cabinets for our kitchen. No one is more appreciative than I am. It meant a lot that both would give up their Sundays to do such crap work.
In the course of building the cabinets, they discovered that our stainless steel sink was delivered with a corner bashed in. For some reason the IKEA doesn't show the sink we are getting on their site. It is an integrated sink so imagine a counter top with a sink integrated into it in one seamless piece. The front corner is flattened as if someone dropped it on that corner. No worries. We will get a replacement.
In other setback news, the place where we got our floors is located in Florida and suffered damage during the last hurricane. As of last week they still had no power to their warehouse which meant a delay of several weeks in shipping. However, their staff was extremely accomodating and found us some flooring in Seattle which they shipped to us at no charge. It arrived today and is sitting in our garage along with the rest of the kitchen. It is slightly lighter than our original choice, but it will do.
We've got the bulk of the appliances selected. The fridge was a tough choice because we knew we wanted stainless and preferred a freezer-on-bottom model. We covet the french door fridges but they are too rich for our budget. Most of the stainless fridges we looked at have black sides which I didn't like because it is free standing and I didn't want it ruining our aesthetic. I didn't want to walk into our stainless and light-wood kitchen and see a wall of black. Only two companies make an all stainless fridge. One of them is a side-by-side which I personally don't like because of the annoying lack of storage. The other is the one we chose. It's made by New Zealand company Fisher and Paykel (of the cool-but-still-too-over-priced-for-me fridge drawers) and it is a no-nonsense, quality fridge. Fridges should keep food cold. And this one does...and looks pretty snazzy too.
I rallied hard for an Asko dishwasher. I did my due diligence and these are consistently highly rated for cleaning ability, water and energy efficiency, and quietness. People just love the shit out of Asko. The only downside I could see if that they have a filter that needs emptying. Big deal. When it came time to purchase the appliances, J. ixnayed the Asko in favor of the better-looking Bosch stainless. (I don't love the towel bar aka Wallie's future jungle gym.)
His opinion is that no one has ever heard of Asko and when it comes time to sell the house, he wanted our appliances to help do the selling. He actually said something like, "It's the kitchen that sells the house to the woman." I wish I could call him out for being sexist, but he's kinda right. Statistically I venture to say he's spot-on. And he's so not. Sexist, that is. In an irrational moment I tried to convince J. to buy a house that blew off the top of our price range just because the kitchen was so beautiful. Thank goodness he talked me down. His thoughts are that the kitchen can make or break the deal and he wants ours to be as appealing as possible. I could argue that no one has ever heard of Fisher and Paykel or Bosch either, but...eh.
I have my own reasons for not wanting a Bosch dishwasher. I know people who have them (granted, different models) and hate the way they clean. And they do not get good marks from folks at the appliance store. Everyone sales person we talked to would pick Asko over Bosch (and they are comparable in price so it's not the up-selling). But Asko is not pretty enough for J. so hmph. We'll see who gets the last laugh.
The hardest decision for me was the range. I consider myself to be a culinary pro and wanted a range that could stand up to everything that I would throw its way. Unfortunately, we don't have a huge budget for a range nor do we have the space in our tiny kitchen for anything larger than 30 inches. So how does someone who considers cooking as an essential part of her happiness (and livelihood) pick a professional quality range on a limited budget? Well, it wasn't too hard since with our requirement, there isn't a whole lot of selection.
I knew that I wanted a dual fuel range—gas burners, electric/convection oven. In a recent issue of Consumer Reports, nine dual-fuel ranges were tested but only three were in our price range. The one they liked—the Kitchen Aid—was too pricey. The next one down—the GE Profile—was too ugly. The one that I decided to go with was the Frigidaire Professional Series range. I never think of Frigidaire when it comes to ranges, but I am satisfied with our selection. It has everything I wanted: 5-burners, a couple of high BTU burners, a convection oven, and a warming drawer. According to Consumer Reports, Frigidaire gas/dual fuel stoves report fewer repairs and serious problems that almost all other ranges in that category. (The worst offenders? Dacor, Jenn-Air, and Viking.)
Our kitchen is still gutted and we are dining out every night like our names are Mr. and Mrs. Howell. I just want to be able to cook again. And it looks like we are still a couple-three weeks away at least.
Still left to do is pick a range hood, the lighting and fan, and a paint color for the kitchen. (I'm thinking apple green. I know it sounds gross, but I fell in love with a modular Tuscan kitchen in the last issue of Saveur that sported apple green cabinets. I've almost got J. convinced, I think.)
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