A course in Applied Appliance Purchasing (no college credit available)

So, these days when you sell a house, it is appealing to buyers to have all of the appliances intact with the house. This means washer and dryer, fridge, stove and dishwasher. When we put the city house on the market we were ok with all of that since the stove didnt match the fridge and the fridge was not as functional as we thought it would be when Julianne bought it 4 years ago. The washer and dryer were freebies from a friend of Juliannes. So, it was cool to leave it all with hopes of upgrading to new/efficient models of everything! This picture shows our old kitchen.

So when we made an offer on the country house we learned that they planned to leave the black front dishwasher (that is a piece of junk!) and a really nice glass top electric stove with stainless steel front (I really hate cooking on the glass top! Ugh!) They were not planning to leave the washer and dryer (which ironically were older than the ones we had at the old house) and offered to sell their 15+year old small fridge to us for $100! We said "no thanks" to the fridge offer and took a trip downtown to the Sears Outlet on front street (not far from the Re-Store!) to look at what they had to offer. Several years ago I bought my KitchenAid Gas Range at the scratch-n-dent store and loved it, When it was time for Julianne to get her Fridge 4 years ago we went there to see what they had on the floor. If you get the service contract, you really can't go wrong! If it breaks or is broken at delivery, they fix it!

So we knew we needed a washer and dryer and a fridge and so we started by dreaming big! What did we want out of these new appliances? Well, we knew we wanted to upgrade to front loader washer and dryer! We also wanted to get a new fridge...stainless steel WITHOUT water and ice in the door (we just never used that function...and the new kitchen has a special filtered water tap at the sink). So we looked at what they had in the store and made some notes. Then we went to Lowe's and Home Depot and then took a longer trip out to Nebraska Furniture Mart (in Kansas City, Kansas...not Nebraska). We had purchased Julianne's dishwasher there years ago and knew they had a big selection of appliances.

So, after we collected all of this data, we determined to do our price comparisons from all of the different stores. A week later we went back to the Sears outlet and looked at the selection and it must have been fate or all of the stars were alligned...the washer we had been looking at at Lowe's was there AND 40% off! The matching dryer was also on sale (actually, it was the upgraded model and was only $5 more than the matching model dryer!) So we quickly put our name on them...you basically have to lick them to claim them because things move so quickly at that store. After reading and talking about washers and dryers we decided to get the Bosch brand pair of front loaders. They had been rated as the most efficient and eco-friendly washer and dryer available on the market today. The washer uses very little water and the dryer will shut off when the clothes are dry...even if there is still time on the timer. Since it was an outlet store, part of the deal was there was some damage to the machines. The clear front window on the washer has a scratch in it and the dryer has a little dent on one side (in a place we'll never see it!)


We decided to go ahead and look at the fridges again at Sears (eventhough we had not seen the model we wanted the last time). We decided against getting a side by side fridge and were looking mostly at what is called a Trio model. That means the freezer is a drawer at the bottom (my aunt Carolyn had the grandfather model of this fridge in Avacado Green when I was a kid! It was so cool to pull out that drawer on her fridge! I think she always had freezer pops in there! YUM!) Then there are two doors at the upper part that open out to reveal the full shelf and drawer storage areas! It seems more efficient this way. THe side by side freezer was never big enough or the storage was divided in weird ways. It was tough finding a model that didnt have the ice/water in the door for the price point we were wanting to pay. We had narrowed down to Kenmore Elite or GE Profile and finally ended up with the Kenmore...(the main difference was the freezer storage...the Kenmore seemed sturdier and had a better layout.) There was a black scratch mark on one of the moveable shelves on the inside and a scratch on the side near the bottom/back of the unit. We mentioned the shelf damage and the sales lady said they would switch that out with a new one before they delivered it (no charge)! Here is a picture on delivery day...we had not unpacked anything yet! The house was a wreck! It didnt take long to fill it up!





So, we were also fortunate to get special financing deal: 12 months with no payments and no interest and on top of all other discounts, 10% more off the lowest priced appliance for buying more than two pieces AND we ended up negotiating in free delivery and the dryer cord and some stainless steel polish (Julianne is good at those kinds of negotiations...not afraid to ask for the moon!) We also went for the 3 year service plans (they'll come out and do a full check up and cleaning of all appliances once a year...and if anything goes wrong...even human error...they fix it!) I think it was worth the extra $$ to have that peace of mind.

Delivery was a little touch and go for a while. We had it scheduled to all come on the 22nd of Dec. Well, we werent sure closing for the new house would happen by then, so we called to see about moving the delivery date to Wednesday the 23. Long story short (I keep saying that) the whole thing got messed up and the computer system at Sears won't let you undo things easily. So we never really knew when things would be coming! Finally we got word that the washer and dryer were coming on the 23 and the fridge would come the following week...We didnt like the sound of that since we had food in coolers by the back door (where it was cold). We finally got it worked out that the fridge would come Christmas Eve. But, it was all delivered at the same time on Wednesday anyway. So much stress and time on the phone and it all worked out just fine!


We bought a fridge that was bigger than the one that had been in the house before...so the tight little area that was dedicated to the fridge was not big enough. No matter...I had plans for that spot.

I had an old wooden shelf unit that I found on the side of the road in our old neighborhood. I painted it white and we hung it in the place where the little fridge had been. It's a temporary solution to the problem. I have bigger plans for the kitchen once we raise some funds for redoing it! (wait for the kitchen blog posting to be written up one day in the future!) The fridge would have to go on the west wall where it was obvious a fridge had been before since the outlet is half way up the wall AND the copper water line was coiled up on the floor. Once it was delivered, it was obvious to me what a mammoth of a machine we had purchased! The thing is nearly 3' square...sticking out from the wall three feet and three feet wide! It is massive! AND WONDERFUL!

The washer and dryer fit in the laundry room as planned (had to have Sears come back out to hook up the hose/vent again...it came undone) I could have fixed it, but that is what a service contract is for...right? And we had to have them come out twice to work on the fridge. The door seal on the upper doors didnt close right...you had to close the left side first when it shouldnt matter...AND a separate call to fix the freezer drawer...the installers just didnt tighten some screws enough so it wasnt sealing either...frost appeared! It is all working and functioning just fine now and we are really enjoying our new appliances! Now to budget for that dual fuel Wolf Range with the pretty red knobs and the bright blue enamel interior!

Like I mentioned before...I have plans for the kitchen which involve moving a lot of things around... moving the door and adding some cabinets/counter space, etc. So look out for that blog posting in the near future (maybe summer if we're lucky!)