It was time for the kitchen to get an update. While I haven't been able to accomplish all the updates we want in the kitchen just yet, we have made tons of progress the last few months. We started with new appliances in December, which has now spilled over into March. We have Lowes to thank for that. We do a lot of shopping at Lowes, and I haven't had any issues with them in the past. They installed our floors in the basement last summer without issue. However, our appliance purchase was less than smooth.
We ordered our appliances on Black Friday. Yes, we are those people who take advantage of the discounts on large ticket items. Yes, I would have stood in line to do it. I went in knowing exactly what I wanted; I had done my research. We ordered a new refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, stove, washing machine, dryer, and chest freezer for the basement. Now, I know that sounds like a lot of appliances, and it is. However, all of the stated appliances were approximately ten years old. The refrigerator downstairs in the basement was the exception at twenty years old. Thank you Mid American Energy for the rebate and recycling programs. People, Mid American paid us $50 to come and get that old thing out of the basement. We did nothing other than fill out the request online for them to come get it. We also received rebates from Mid American for the new refrigerator as well as the washing machine! Rather than waiting for all of the old appliances to totally clunk out on us leaving with only what was left in stock at the store to pick from, we opted to be ahead of things so we could pick what we wanted.
The week of our scheduled delivery, I received a phone call that or refrigerator had been delayed from Whirlpool and wouldn't be delivered until one week after everything else. I was fine with that. It was the holidays, and these things happen. The night before our scheduled delivery, I received a phone call from an associate at Lowes who was loading our order on the truck. Someone apparently got the bright idea to remove the sold sticker off our microwave and sell it to someone else. Now, that microwave was in stock the day we purchased everything. So, had I been wise, we would have taken it with us that day. Lesson learned here, folks. The two men in the appliances department that Saturday night were trying to explain all the options I had for a different microwave. I had three microwaves to pick from in black that were in stock; I didn't like any of the options. Some of you might be wondering why black appliances and not stainless steel? I despise stainless steel appliances. They show fingerprints and never look clean. After having the associate try to explain my options over the phone, I finally agreed to drive to the store to view the options in person. I had something very specific I was looking for, and I needed to be able to see the microwaves and push the buttons on them to know if they were what I wanted.
My biggest desire with a new microwave was to not have the express cook options that most microwaves have. If you are wondering what on earth I'm talking about, I'm talking about pushing the 1 button and having the microwave kick on for one minute. I wanted a microwave I could push the time in and push start. I didn't want to push cook time then the time then start. There is only one brand I found that had that feature, and it is Samsung. Yes, I'm picky. But, this was the first time I got to pick all the appliances I wanted, so I was getting what I wanted. Of course, all black Samsung microwaves were out of stock and wouldn't be in until after the first of the year as they were coming from the manufacturer in Korea. Luckily, they had a scratch and dent black Samsung microwave that they were going to sell me for $85. The original price on it was $200, so I was pretty excited about the idea of getting a totally awesome deal. They said the only issue with it was that it had a dent on the top, but that was going to be hidden by the cabinet. They took it down off the shelf and plugged it in so we could verify it was running. It ran, and had the features on it I wanted; I was sold.
The next day was appliance delivery day. Of course Andrew was out of the state for work. Thank God for friends, I had an awesome helper that day who probably kept me from blowing a gasket more than once. When the delivery truck arrived and they ran down the list of everything they were delivering that day, I discovered we were missing the chest freezer on the truck. I called the store and spoke with a manager. Turns out, the associate who put our order in marked down that we took the chest freezer with us rather than marking it for delivery. Now, riddle me this... why would we have every other appliance delivered, except that one? Yeah, didn't make sense to me either. While I was on the phone with the store manager, they wheeled in the stove we purchased.... except it wasn't. It was the correct model, but it was in stainless steel and not black. At this point, our old stove was already loaded on the truck for haul away. Before anything else came into the house, I went out to the truck to make sure everything else was correct. While I was sorting out the issues with the stove and freezer, they brought in the washer and dryer as well as the dishwasher.
Eventually, we ended up with the offer of the floor model chest freezer, which they could deliver the following day. The only problem with that plan was that we had a freezer full of beef down in the basement and that fridge was getting hauled away the following day. I needed a freezer that day to get running so I had some place to put the beef so it would stay frozen. Needless to say, I had two Lowes trucks in my driveway at one point. We ended up keeping the floor model freezer for a 20% discount. It only had a small dent right above the handle, and I could live with that. As for the stove issue, they were transferring the stove from another store in the correct color. Luckily, the store across town had the stove we wanted, or we would have had to wait six to eight weeks for a new shipment to come in from the Samsung manufacturer in Korea.
Once everyone left, my helper for the day and I got the microwave put up. Of course we had to drill new holes for it! When everything was hung up, I opened the door to the microwave and realized there was a huge dent in the back, almost as if someone had kicked in the back. The paint was chipped, which was enough for me to draw the line. I wasn't going to settle on a microwave that was going to have the paint all chipped off on the inside in a couple of years. This was Lowes mistake, and they were going to fix it. I drove to the store because I was sick of dealing with people on the phone. I spoke with yet another manager who said he would give us one of the ones that was already on order. He warned me that it was probably going to be four to six weeks because they were coming from Korea. In the meantime, I could keep the dented one.
That was mid December, and the microwaves still haven't arrived at the store. Needless to say, I'm getting impatient. I'm also concerned that the measurements on the one they ordered aren't right. The cabinet above our stove isn't raised up, so if the microwave is too tall, it cuts into our cooking space. I haven't
mustered up the energy to call Lowes and ask which microwave they have ordered for us. To be frank, I'm about done with the whole thing. When all is said and done with this whole mess, we will have received 20% off what we paid for the chest freezer because it is the floor model, and we will have a microwave that we got for about half what we originally paid.
I will let you all take whatever lessons from this mess you would like. Next time we have an appliance purchase to make, I will be thinking twice about who we spend our money with.
Stayed tuned for the second half of this post, which I promise will be a lot less crabby. I will be sharing photos of the kitchen transformation!
The refrigerator above is from our old house. We liked it so much, we bought it in black for this house!
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