The end of manual dishwashing is in sight...

Sight as in I can physically see the dishwasher I will be using...I just can't use it yet. Last Tuesday Lowe's delivered a slide-in range and dishwasher:

The new kitchen will have a peninsula, so we needed a slide-in. Initially I was concerned we'd have to keep using the old one and later pay to take it to the dump, but we learned slide-in ranges are self-supporting, so we can use it until we tear out and rebuild the kitchen. I was so happy to see the delivery guys take out the old stove--in pieces, actually. It was really old and when the guy pulled the oven door up, it just popped off!

The new oven is so great--it was a little nerve-wracking spending so much money on an appliance, but we love it so far. The smooth top is much easier to clean, we have a quick boil eye with optional sizes, a convection option and a warming spot. Andrew cracks me up because he'll turn on the oven light and just watch his food cook. The window is much larger and actually clean enough to see through!

I'm assuming the dishwasher is awesome, too. I'm tempted to load it where it sits and buy paper products...washing all the dishes by hand is definitely getting old. I realize everyone did this at one point in time, but dishwashers are one modern convenience I am in full support of. We cook A LOT and have people over a good bit so we produce tons of dishes. 

One note on researching and buying appliances: apparently no dishwasher has fabulous reviews. Seriously.  No dishwasher we looked at was given more than three stars. Most had fewer than that. 

We asked around some and looked in the store, then researched the ones we'd heard about or initially liked. My sister-in-law doesn't like hers, so we stayed away from that one. My mother-in-law loves hers, so we researched it. We ended up getting it, but the reviews were less than comforting. We were a little nervous about moving forward, but knowing that Andrew's mom falls in the "competent user" category (you have to wonder about some reviewers) and that no model was spectacular helped us make a decision.

Once we knew the dishwasher model, we decided to go with the same series for the range to have two matching appliances. We've looked at electric, gas, dual and induction--those are really sweet...and really pricey. Gas is better for cooking, electric for baking, but dual fuel is expensive, too.

We ended up choosing electric because we plan to install a hot water tap, which will make boiling water just as fast as a gas stove. There aren't as many options for slide-in ranges--at least on display in the store to physically open and such--but the one we were interested in happened to be there. For a few hundred more we could have upgraded to the newest model: basic difference being stainless steel knobs over the black plastic ones. We decided to save some green...and personally, I like the black ones better.

We also bought at a good time. Lowe's had great deals--15% off the dishwasher and 10% off the range. Plus they were doing a tax refund gift card, so we put the total amount of both appliances on the card, bought them with it and on March 18 we got 10% of that amount back on the card. Free hot water tap/other necessity, here we come!

Small Steps to a Better Landscape

I think I said somewhere along the way that we have an awesome friend and landscape designer, Kristin, who did this amazing plan for our yard. I so wish we had a trust fund somewhere that we could spend and do it all right now! But since we don't, we plan to do a little at a time. I started last fall by buying four plants to use this spring. I learned that fall is the time to buy plants--they go on sale at the end of the season, and though they look ugly, perennials will come back in their season and look great! With Kristin's help, I picked out four shrub-like plants to put in a bed near the mudroom entrance to our house. I planned to spend $50, and with everything basically 50% off, I stayed within my budget.

Once home, we dug holes and planted the shrubs in their pots. We packed dirt around them and "healed them in" with leaves. I can't wait to dig them up after the first frost! (Stay tuned for this...it won't happen until May up here in the frigid North!)

You obviously can't see them, but four plants lie under those snow mounds!

New England Sogginess

Last week, New England became a very soggy place as the temps rose, the rain fell and the snow melted. It's amazing how quickly five feet of snow and ice turns to mud. Unfortunately, along with the promise of spring and its *slightly* warmer weather came wet basements and icky situations all around. Our situation was nowhere near as dire as that of our friend Kurt (who may or may not be the same Kurt who wrote me an encouraging email) who endured several inches of silted oppression resulting in ruined carpets, comics, boiler and a damaged water heater. He is allegedly couch surfing a week later.

We have no room to complain (and really haven't) compared to others' basement ails, but since this is a blog about my house, I feel the need to tell our "flood" story. :)

The day the rains were the worst--last Tuesday I believe--I awoke at 5:30 a.m. on a non early morning workout day to a wet pillow. I initially thought I had knocked over a glass of water in my sleep, but when I turned the light on all glasses were in their full upright position. My rustling woke Andrew who was probably pretty confused to wake up to me asking the quiet house where the water was coming from. It was coming in through the bedroom window directly above our bed. Yay.

It came in a slender stream, so I'm assuming it had been happening for awhile based on the stream size to wet area ratio. I started panicking about replacing windows, etc etc since we were supposed to get rain for another 12 hours at least. My laidback husband pretty much rolled over and reminded me that we needed to replace it anyway as he tried to go back to sleep. I, however, could not go back to sleep immediately because my pillow was slightly moistened, and the sump pump running every nine seconds interrupted my returning to REM. (Truly nine seconds. I counted. Counting sump pump intervals is about as futile as counting sheep, by the way.)

When Andrew did get up to go to work, he checked the basement which did have some leaking water...on the downward sloping side of the house...not where it should have been. He moved the few items near the seepage and left. Later investigation showed that there may have just been too much water for our pump to handle with the rain and snow melt, so the trench around the basement wall backed up causing some water to flow in. The window was more than likely accidental. We're still planning to replace the window this spring/summer.

We've had more rain since--even as I write this--but so far so good.

Slightly Disgruntled Reader

Last week I received the following email that I'd like to share:

Dear Jennifer, 

Your blog called out to me today to let me know that it feels neglected.  It wants to share your home updates with the world, and its voice is being stifled.  It asks that you rectify this situation at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Kurt Galactica*, Esq.
Potential Legal Counsel for your Blog


*Name changed to protect the innocent.


As I told him in my reply, I will do my best to correct this matter immediately. I have at least four new posts that will be made in the coming week. 

Shutter Shift

When we bought our beloved, ugly ranch, it had red shutters. This wasn't a huge problem, except that a previous owner had used the wrong kind of paint. We noticed when we first looked at the house that red paint had run down onto one side of the house. We initially thought the shutters had just been put back up before drying, and rain had caused the red run-off.

Once I had time to really look at the shutters, I noticed that they stained my fingers with a chalky residue.

They were definitely painted with the wrong paint. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to paint them with anything that wouldn't run because they were vinyl shutters, not wooden.

Then I remembered a good friend: spray paint.

Spray paint is awesome and a quick fix for small projects. I decided to paint the shutters a sage green. They'll look really good with our new front door...if we ever get that installed!

pre-makeover

I used dish soap and water to scrub all the cobwebs and dirt off the shutters

up-close before

Progress! I did use more paint than I originally thought I would. It took 5 cans total for 14 shutters of varying sizes, but for less than $30, that was a great deal compared to buying new ones.

summer before with red shutters

winter after with green shutters

close-up of the green shutters

Fabulous Find

We totally lucked out last fall. There's this awesome store in S. Amherst called The Trading Post that has tons and tons of old furniture and odds and ends. We have a few pieces of furniture from there plus some other random things I've stumbled upon from time to time. We knew when we left our apartment/condo/quarter-of-a-house in Florence we would need a new dresser of some description. I gave my childhood dresser a facelift, and it now lives in our guest room. We used a monstrous wardrobe from IKEA at our old place since it didn't have a closet, but there was no way that thing was coming with us to our new home. Plus the fact it wouldn't fit or would've died on the drive over. (For more of my opinions of large IKEA furniture, leave a comment or email me. It's a good story.)

So we were without a dresser in our new bedroom, and kept clothes in two different closets and furniture in other rooms. Then I found the best dresser ever (see it in all its glory below). It was only $50 at The Trading Post--solid, heavy wood (good construction); 9 drawers and it didn't need to be refinished! All I needed to do was replace the pink zebra ribbon that substituted as drawer pulls with real ones.

We kept the dresser in our garage until we had finished painting and staining in the master...then December came and we were done and the beautiful piece is finally being used!! (forgive the run-on sentence...I was pretty excited!) There was a slight hang-up when we determined there was a puzzle to be solved with the drawers, but after several minutes of configuring by the engineer (Andrew) and the math whiz/Sudoku lover (Sarah) we were in business. All I needed to do was find economical yet stylish hardware. Now to the educational/how-to part of the post:

Need to spruce up your nightstand or chest of drawers? Why not give it a paint job and some new hardware? Both are easy ways to keep your furniture regardless of changing decor. For this particular dresser, the 6 exterior drawers measured 4.5 inches between holes, while the doors to the interior drawers measure 3 inches. Three inches is a pretty standard size for pulls, so you should be able to find multiple choices at varying price ranges at Lowes, Home Depot or even Wal-Mart. The occasional four and five inch pulls can also be located. Weird sizes, like 4.5 inches, are harder to come by. There is the option of special ordering, but those pieces of hardware will cost more than your furniture. We chose to use pulls for the doors and knobs for the drawers. This did mean buying more hardware, but we found knobs on clearance.

If you are set on having matching pulls across the board or want pulls without having to special order, you can always fill in the holes and drill new ones. This would have been a more viable option if I was planning to refinish the dresser. We also knew the holes for whatever original hardware used were slightly too large, and the screw might not hold. Simple fix: buy washers. In the pictures below you can see what I did to take the drawers from a hot pink zebra mess to a look my husband would appreciate.

before

washers that kept the screws from pulling out the front of the drawer

knobs

pulls

finished product!

the three drawers hidden behind the doors

No Longer a Halfway House...whatever that means

While visiting family in Alabama, a cousin of mine that shall remain nameless, commented that he would come visit, but he was waiting until our home no longer looked like a halfway house! I'm assuming he felt that way from the pictures seen here. Well no longer!! Our house actually resembles a home at the moment, and for that, I am very thankful! Here are a few pictures of the updates:

gray walls that have a touch of blue in them in certain light; hopefully I'll find a new bedspread and another bedside table soon

we still need crown molding, which we plan to recycle from the living room, closet doors and eventually we'll paint the bedroom door

Just after Thanksgiving, we moved back into the master bedroom! Hooray!! No more sleeping against a wall! And I will say, always use a bed frame. You may not think putting the box springs and mattress on the frame makes much of a difference, but let me tell you it does. It's also nice to be able to sit on the side of the bed and not have your feet touch the ground (or maybe touch a little if you're tall like me!) as opposed to being able to knee yourself in the face when getting up without a frame.

sort of blown out (sorry...weird lighting) but here we have a complete living room! 

We also put our living room back together...finally! The floors are 95% done in the house (we need to touch up the hallway and transitions...and if you were to count that we haven't done the carpeted areas I'm sure the percentage would drop...but let's not think about that!) so we can now live in the living room! We bought a rug at Lowe's on clearance and put the original furniture back in. Oh, and we got a nice deal on our first flat screen on Black Friday! What can I say, we're extremely late adopters when it comes to technology :) All those extra digital channels came in handy for the Iron Bowl when our local CBS station decided to show infomercials instead of the game...don't get me started on that blessed event--the fight with CBS, not the actual game--though we shouldn't talk about that either.

Anywho, all that to say, the bedrooms are done minus some minor changes and decorating so we can now focus on the next headache, er joyous improvement: the kitchen.