Appliance Holidays

The Gingerbread Diaries

You saw the ads this weekend, right? I mean, we don’t even have cable anymore and the streaming services we use that do have commercials were playing that Home Depot commercial into the ground!

And it worked, too! We ended up browsing French door refrigerators online for a good 20 minutes between episodes of Elementary (we’re about halfway through the season, but it’s nice to have it to look forward to when there are so few other shows to watch in the summer slump; but I digress). Granted, we’re a few months away from purchasing a new fridge (maybe by Memorial Day, another one of the Appliance Holidays), but this time last year we were grateful for those patriotic savings opportunities…

Not Everything is as it Seems…

When we moved into the Dollhouse, it was our understanding that the dishwasher, while noisy and in need of a good cleaning, ultimately worked. We knew it would most likely be the first appliance we replaced, but figured we could put up with a bit of noise for the sake of convenience for a little while.

We were wrong.

Oh, sure, it made noise, but that’s about all it did. At first we thought it might be an issue with the water line, but there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with the water line. Instead, it appeared that the machine wasn’t pulling the water into the working bit, preferring just to grind its way along doing a whole lotta nuthin’. So, about a week after we moved in, I started researching our options. Since it was around the 4th of July, we were able to get a good price (about a third off) on a very pretty stainless steel, super-quiet number with lots of options on its hidden control panel.

One Tuesday I left this eyesore sitting in the kitchen…

Goodbye broke and busted!

Goodbye broke and busted!

And came back to this….

Hello, shiny!

Hello, shiny!

And when I say it’s quiet, I mean you can barely hear it running, just the gentlest woosh woosh of the water in the tank. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished: we reward the Dollhouse with a new appliance and, in the process of installing it, the pipes under the sink practically disintegrate.

Oops!

Oops!

Thank goodness Todd is handier than the average bear!

After a year of use, we’ve only run into two issues with our Whirlpool Gold 55-Decibel Built-In Dishwasher: the “dew” it left on dishes and the musty smell it’s started to develop. The first, we found, was easily fixed by feeding it a rinse agent–something that’s pretty much a necessity of all newer machines and an easy fix. (We also learned that you can dial up or down how much rinse aid is dispensed with each wash so you’re not wasting any of it, though a single bottle has lasted us quite a while.) The other problem is fixed by running a cleaning agent through an empty cycle, but I’m still on the hunt for one that doesn’t leave a noxious, overly-chemical after-smell in its wake. First world problems, indeed.

Not the Microwave!!!

After 9 years and not quite 2 months after its 3rd move, an old friend was DNR once day when we got home. At first we thought the power had just gone out and the panel needed resetting, but it turned out the microwave was just completely kaput. Sure, it’d been giving us signals that the end was near for a while: occasionally only certain buttons would work, that sort of thing. Considering more meals than not involve vegetables steamed in the microwave (using the amazing Tupperware 3-piece steamer–so worth sitting through the party spiel), this was bad news bears for us, and we immediately headed to Lowe’s before they closed that night to find a replacement.

We had a few important requirements: large capacity, stainless steel, and good options buttons. The GE microwave we ended up with (pickings were slim and it was not an Appliance Holiday) does a really good job of being annoying if you don’t rescue your food after the first ding, but it also has an amazing potato setting that really does produce fluffy “baked” potatoes in less than 10 minutes and without heating up the surrounding area!

At first we thought it was possessed, though, because we unboxed it, plugged it in, and it turned on. And I don’t mean its display lit up and asked for the clock to be set, no–its interior light turned on and the turntable started spinning and it would not respond to any of its buttons! Must of been a loose something or other, though, because we tried it on another outlet and it worked fine. So we put it back in the designated microwave spot and it bahaved like a stainless steel gentleman.

Go figure!

One Good Whirl Deserves Another

As we were gearing up for our first Halloween (and party) in the Dollhouse, another appliance was ready to give up the ghost!

Our washing machine, which I’d purchased, used, along with its dryer when we moved into the Thresher house back in the winter of 2010 for a whopping $411, was having trouble completing the spin cycle to our satisfaction. We limped it along by sticking to extra small loads and wringing the heavier garments out by hand before putting them in the dryer, but it was beyond Todd’s fix-it capabilities, requiring a new motor–a part more than the machine was worth, at this point.

Thankfully, right on the heels of Halloween came another Appliance Holiday: Veteran’s Day! And, once again, for a very good deal, I left home one day from this…

The part for this came in, too. Let's just hope it works!

Traitor!

And, thanks to the happiness that is Lowe’s free haul-away, I can home to this!

Though this is a much more recent picture, I believe Todd had the new washer going by the time I got home that day, too!

Though this is a much more recent picture, I believe Todd had the new washer going by the time I got home that day, too!

No, it’s not a shiny red front-loader like I thought I wanted when they first came out all those years ago, but I’ve heard so many problematic things about them that it wasn’t really an option when we went looking. The Whirlpool 3.6 cu ft Top-Load Washer has worked like a charm since it was delivered and even getting used to the lid locking during the cycle hasn’t been much of a hardship. (There’s a button to release it, it just takes getting used to.)

So, while we aren’t looking to take advantage of the current sales *knock on wood*, we do appreciate the opportunity to window shop (lawnmower, I’m looking at you, shape up–we have no time for your shenanigans and the grass is getting tall out back!). And I wish each and every one of you, out there, that you may only need to make those big purchases during the Appliance Holidays in the future!

Doings Around the Dollhouse

The Gingerbread Diaries

If you think we’re completely unpacked yet, you really haven’t met us, have you?

But we’re getting a lot closer, and each room we manage to clear of empty boxes and packing paper reminds me of just how much space we’ve given ourselves to stretch out in! I was watching the movie Tiny the other night (via Netflix) and thinking about how here’s this movement of people downsizing their lives into 200 square feet or less and we just moved into a house that is almost 3000 square feet. Way to go, bucking the trend, right? And while I admire their simplified lifestyles, I know me well enough to know how much I love my stuff. It doesn’t define me, but it’s awfully nice to have around!

Bye-Bye Blinds!

Bye-Bye Blinds!

One war we’ve been waging, lately, is against the window coverings in this house. Have I mentioned how much I despise mini-blinds? If not, let me be clear: I cannot stand the things! They clatter when the wind hits them, they collect dust like whoa!, are a pain to clean, they get bent out of shape/break easily and they are just plain ugly to look out. I’d almost go so far as to say I hate them, but I’m trying to reserve that word for the really bad things. Like Triple Sec.

But I digress.

It started with the guest room–that was the only room in the Dollhouse that had no window treatments whatsoever and the sun was coming in strong through the rear window, not helping the second floor keep anything close to cool. Thankfully, we had some drapes we used in our last bedroom and were able to toss those up as a stop-gap if nothing else.

We try not to remind our curtains of their shortcomings.

We try not to remind our curtains of their shortcomings.

This also pointed out to me just how freaking expensive proper drapes are going to be for this house! The curtains we hung barely covered the window itself and certainly don’t come anywhere near the floor. We have some long, tall drink of water windows in this place. But for now, at least this room isn’t acting quite like a sauna anymore.

Oh, hello Halloween decorations! (and curtains)

Oh, hello Halloween decorations! (and curtains)

Once those were in, we started to assess which rooms needed the most help as we unpacked more boxes and came across more draperies from rooms past. The library and dining room both get more than their fare share of sun, so the next two sets of panels (just as comically short on our walls) went to each, respectively, and then we found a trio that would work for the living room bay.

Our sofas are still destined for  recover, but at least the lamps match the drapes. (That sounds wrong, somehow.)

Our sofas are still destined for recovering, but at least the lamps match the drapes. (That sounds wrong, somehow.)

Now, these are not necessarily indicative of the direction we’re going in each room, just a process of settling in. We’ve been using the super cheap ($0.97) basic curtain rods just to get them up there and mounting them to the wide wooden window frames (some holes were already there, bonus!) to avoid having to drill through or anchor anything in the plaster just yet. Eventually there will combinations of pull-shades and custom (by moi) draperies in each room as we decide the colors and theme as we go along.

Another big sign of progress? The shower converter for the upstairs clawfoot tub has been ordered!!!

Ordered and arrived!

Ordered and arrived!

From a quick search of clawfoot tub fixtures you’d think finding what we wanted would be a relatively simple thing. Would you believe we’ve been searching pretty much since we closed on the Dollhouse?

I’m afraid I was at least partially to blame for the delay. You see, I really wanted a handheld shower head option in addition to the fixed shower head. I’ve lived with and without them and really prefer the convenience. But since we’re dealing with a (potentially) gorgeous antique tub, I didn’t want some clunky plastic modern thing messing up the look. Todd didn’t think my request was all that out-there, but as we searched it became difficult to find a set that a) mounts to the front of the tub and not on the rim or side, b) had the right spacing for our narrow fittings, and c) wasn’t $1000 or more.

A glimpse of the beuaty withing that big ol' box! I'm in love!

A glimpse of the beuaty withing that big ol’ box! I’m in love!

Bathroom fixtures (and kitchen, for that matter) always seem incredibly expensive for how little space they take up, but the sticker shock from early online shopping (no one seems to have them in stock, even the basic ones that the local hardware stores do carry) had me rethinking my position on the handheld shower head. Was it really that important?

No. And I suggested that maybe we could get a “normal” shower converter and add a handheld option later, even if it wouldn’t be as pretty or “princess phone” style (that’s what they’re called). But enough searching really does yield results and he was able to find one that met our material requirements while being under $600. Which is a good thing, since that’s more or less what we had “budgeted” for this piece of the puzzle based on the amount of the security deposit we got back from the rental.

I’m definitely looking forward to showering upstairs in the non-cave bathroom very, very soon. It means I can move my getting ready gear (underclothes, jewelry, and basic makeup) upstairs where it belongs instead of in my office where I get dressed for work each morning, currently, and I won’t have to cart my clothes downstairs each morning.

The part for this came in, too. Let's just hope it works!

The part for this came in, too. Let’s just hope it works!

Of course, because the Universe likes to keep things in balance, the day after Todd ordered the shower fixture the washing machine stopped spinning at top speed and needs a new clutch assembly (we think). Will we be wishing we’d saved that $600 for a new washer? More will be revealed…