Big People Purchases

When we bought our house, we knew well in advance that the washing machine and dryer weren't staying. It was inconvienient, but we were also pretty pleased and excited because the machines were older, so we'd end up saving money in the long run by replacing them with newer models that wouldn't hike up our electric bill each month. We knew that we'd be looking for front-loading, energy efficient models, it was just a matter of picking out the ones we wanted.

Then, shortly after we closed on our home, we discovered that the fridge (which was also an older appliance) no longer worked. Sure, the light turned on when we plugged it in, and it was blowing air, but it never got cold. The fridge was easily 30 years old, so it was another energy-draining, bill-jacking appliance. We were already spending money on two appliances, so in the long run, what's one more?

Here's our fridge. It's nothing fancy or special. We were hoping for one that had a freezer on the bottom because they're slightly more efficient (thank goodness cold air sinks!), but because of the cabinets above the fridge, we couldn't go too high. All the bottom freezer models we saw were far too high for the space we have.

Color wasn't something that was important to us, so we could have ordered the black model and it would have come to us a few days later, or we could get the in-stock, white fridge the next day. Since we needed a fridge and white vs. black doesn't matter to my kitchen, we stuck with the white model. Our plan for the future (once we remodel my box o' tile kitchen) is to remove the cabinets above the fridge (I can't reach the damn things anyway), move this fridge to the basement, and replace this with a bottom freezer model.

Once we decided on a fridge (which, by the way, took entirely too long), it was time to pick out washing machines and dryers. I cannot tell you how excited I was for this. I hadn't used a decent washing machine since I moved out of my parents' home. I borrowed their machines and electricity during breaks in college, but the machines at Mac were just okay, and at least one was always broken or out for repairs. In our apartment, the machines were just "okay". Nothing special, and we were spending between $40 and $60 a year in quarters to do all our laundry. During the summer months we'd line dry our clothes and save a few dollars here and there, but it was still a big pain to haul our clothes downstairs, fumble with the machine, dig around for quarters, realize I'd forgotten them upstairs, mutter explatives all the way up and all the way back down, climb back up the stairs, set the timer for 18 minutes, go down to put in the fabric softener, go back up, wait 10-15 minutes, and finally scurry back down to retrieve our clothes before someone removed them from the machine and dumped them on the floor, college-style.

Here are our new, energy-efficient, eco-friendly, earth-massaging and loving clothes cleaning machines:

All three appliances were our second anniversary gift to one another. We weren't expecting the fridge, and it's our most expensive anniversary thus far, but these three gifts were well worth it! Sure, they've got fun settings and special settings for "delicate" clothes and "heavy duty" loads. Sure, the lint trap in the dryer is so clean and new I could serve dinner on it. Sure, they're eco-friendly with the front-loading options, etc. But, my favorite feature? No quarter slots. I can't tell you how gratifying it is to throw my dirty clothes in the wash and not have to fumble for 5 quarters. It's glorious! My friend Jess was probably more excited for this purchase than I was! We've talked for years about how wonderful it will be to do laundry for "free" in our own homes and not have to pay $1.25 per wash and per dry. And Jess, it's even more wonderful than we imagined. Wanna come visit and do laundry for free? I'll even let you press "start". :-)

New Furniture

Two years ago this month, Graham and I began the task of registering for our upcoming wedding. His godmother was throwing us an early shower, almost 6 months before our wedding, and invites were going out. We registered quickly at Bed, Bath, and Beyond just to cross something off our list. Our registry was essentially all kitchen and bath items because we were still apartment hunting and figured that even if we didn't find a place right away it'd be stocked with some essentials. We registered for china out of a book and when we saw it in person we didn't like it at all. Oh goody! Now we got to go to a store with china and pick out a pattern in person! Joy of joys.

I wrongly assumed that once we had to pick another china pattern that Graham would toss the gun to me and say, "Have fun! I'll be in the car." I was really taken back when Graham insisted on having a say in our china. It turned out that picking out china was one of the more time-consuming tasks; our tastes just weren't matching up. Some of my favorites were too floral for Graham and some of his favorites were too plain for me. Eventually we stumbled upon our china and found that it was a good compromise for us. It's not overly feminine and it's just decorative enough that it doesn't look and feel like fancier 'everyday' dishes.

We got plenty of china--more than we registered for, in fact! Not that we're complaining--the way I drop things and stumble around, having those extra place settings will certainly come in handy someday. When we got it, we were so happy, but we didn't have anywhere to put it all. Each piece stayed in the box it came in for over a year because we were afraid of it breaking. Eventually we got around to talking about actually getting a cabinet to store it all and last weekend we drove out to Darvin in Orland Park to look. We ended up really liking two different cabinets and decided to bite the bullet and purchase one. It arrived on Friday and naturally I had to take some pictures (I take photos of everything):

China cabinet shortly after arrival, empty.

China cabinet filled, cleaned, and ready to go.

Close up of glass detail and china.

I'm so excited to finally have it. It feels like we've got our first piece of 'grown up' furniture now. The glass detail is my favorite part. We're hoping that because of the color of the wood and the style of the hardware that when we're ready to purchase a dining room set that we won't have a hard time trying to match it. As long as we get pretty close, we're good! And, I'm glad that we finally have a place to store and display everything; we don't have to worry about a box crashing to the ground anymore!