That Time We Impulsively Bought A Stove And Ripped Down A Wall
So there was this time…at Lowes…where we impulsively bought a new stove (kind of like the time we impulsively bought a $400 stainless steel refrigerator…I sense a trend) which naturally led to us ripping down a wall. It was the stove’s fault. The wall would have never suffered it’s ill fate if it wasn’t for the stove. It will all make sense in a moment, but let’s just take a second to oooh and aaaah over our new, stainless steel, Frigidaire Gallery stove.
Ooooooooooh…..ahhhhhhhhhh! We’ve been passively in the market for a new stove in the kitchen for the last year or so. We weren’t in a hurry for a new stove since our old one worked perfectly fine. It was a white Amana stove which I’m pretty sure was relatively new. It came with the house when we bought it and was by far the nicest appliance.
But the stove was the last appliance to complete the stainless steel appliance trifecta…dishwasher, refrigerator, stove. We even replaced our washer and dryer last summer using some of our wedding money. And boy does it feel good to have the final piece of the appliance puzzle cozying up with the dishwasher in our kitchen!
We bought the stove the week before Thanksgiving and it definitely wasn’t a premeditated purchase. It went kind of like this. On a random Tuesday, I had gone to our favorite bar in town, Miguel’s to grab some lunch sans Colby. Fun-employment (aka self-employment) has its perks! I know, I know…shameless move…going to your husband’s favorite bar in the middle of the day while he’s away. In my defense…I was actually just dropping off his football pool picks since he plays every week in the Miguel’s pool and couldn’t go over to drop them off since he was at hunting camp. #thegoodwife While waiting for my lunch, I was going through a couple hundred emails on my phone (the down side of self-employment) and came across one from Lowes for a pre Black Friday appliance sale.
And since we were passively searching for a new stove, I clicked through and checked the prices. I knew we wanted to pick up one of the stainless steel stoves in the Frigidaire Gallery series. We have a Gallery dishwasher but a Whirlpool Gold refrigerator but prefer the Gallery series since it’s way less prone to showing fingerprints than the Gold. In the series, I had two options. I originally thought we wanted the cheaper stove which was on sale for $549, originally $849. But after cruising through the reviews for that stove, along with the reviews for the upgraded stove, opted to upgrade and spend the extra $100 for far superior reviews. Besides…I liked the larger window in the stove too. Sold!
With Colby at hunting camp, I did send him a series of frantic texts about whether or not we should pull the trigger. We were hoping to start a kitchen remodel this spring but didn’t want to make any drastic kitchen changes until we had acquired all of our appliances. And in the past year of passively searching, this pre Black Friday appliance sale was the cheapest we’ve EVER seen the stove. We agreed it was time and ironically the location of the bar I was in was just around the corner from Lowes. I took it as a sign as the right thing to do. In the span of an hour I had received an email, did appliance research, talked it over with the husband, made the purchase, and set up a delivery date. A few days later…
We were in stove business…new, gorgeous, stainless steel, stove business. Come to mama!
We were a little nervous that the new stove would just be a tad deeper than the old stove which meant that the dishwasher wouldn’t open. But thankfully we could shove it right in there and the dishwasher door just sneaks right by.
We’ve used our stove to make many meals since its arrival and we couldn’t be happier! So far, no problems. It cooks like a dream, bakes exceptionally evenly, cleans up in a flash, and even has an extra “warming” burner that we didn’t have with our old stove. Speaking of the old stove, we do plan to Craigslist the guy but probably not until after Christmas and New Year’s Day. Until then, we have two stoves in our kitchen.
So what’s the deal with the wall coming down?! Glad you asked grass hoppah! Shortly after the stove’s arrival we started getting super excited about the prospect of a kitchen remodel. Which meant….planning time! Oh the possibilities! Ikea kitchen planners were downloaded, measurements were taken, and giddiness ensued. We plan on ripping pretty much everything out, going straight down to the studs, since we’re pretty sure we have a crazy electrical problem that we need to fix. Let’s just say, every time we open the microwave door, the outlet trips. Not good. Anyway, since everything is coming out, we started to punch into the sheetrock just a smidge, trying to determine which walls (entry wall, laundry room wall) are load-bearing and which aren’t. Which is when we discovered this:
That’s the old wood sheathing underneath the sheetrock in our kitchen. Isn’t it pretty?! Our home is a solid 100+ years old but the kitchen was an addition from the 70s. When they added on the kitchen, the remodelers just threw sheetrock on top of this old, exterior wall which Colby and I decided we needed to expose…now. So we have a fun little upgrade for that wall planned, including adding more storage and boxing in the refrigerator. We can’t wait! We’re pretty desperate for some better storage in the kitchen. But more about the new accent wall and storage plans tomorrow. Nothing like a little cliffhanger for you on this Tuesday evening.
Pssst…Totally random Angie thought for you. Have you guys seen the Xmas Jammies video on You Tube yet?! Oh…emmm…geeeee! This family Christmas card video puts my sad little Christmas cards to shame! Can I get adopted into that family?! Now I NEED my own Xmas jammies!
Omg the wood on that wall is gorgeous! I’d want to expose it too! Good luck with the kitchen remodel! And merry christmas
Eeee…thank you! And merry (belated) Christmas to you too!!