Sunday, July 5, 2009

Welcome Home

With our new homeowner status, we've been scouring yard sales and Craigs List regularly for household items. With our budget for new items being right around zero, it's been tough for Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware catalogs to come in and for me to realize it's going to be a while before we can afford anything from those store. Bummer.
 
Our kitchen is definitely my least favorite part of the house. Isn't that so sad? It's never been updated and all the appliances and cabinets are pretty much horrible. Before we moved in, I completely scrubbed down the entire kitchen, which made it a little bit better, but not great. Almost every cabinet squeaks when you open them and most of the drawers come off the hinges constantly.  All the appliances work fine, they are just gross and old. 

However, our stove is the devil. It's possessed. It is definitely the original stove (circa 1984) and it has a lovely tilt to it, that we can't seem to fix. It makes cooking extremely interesting, since all the food goes to one side of the pan. It's also a coil cooktop, which I really think should be discontinued. Do they still make stoves like these? I honestly just want to throw it off our back deck. 

So while most of the kitchen upgrade is going to have to wait until this winter after we get our first time homebuyers credit, we decided we just can't wait for a new stove. With being so broke right now, a brand new stove isn't in the cards for us right now, BUT we found a 2 year old stainless steel Kenmore stove on Craigs List last week for the budget friendly price of $200!! Yes, it will soon find it's new home in our kitchen tonight! We went to look at it and it seriously is like brand new. I love it...nice flat cooktop and lovely stainless warming drawer underneath. 
Welcome Home beautiful stove!

(ps - my favorite part about getting this is that it now forces us to buy all stainless steel appliances when we re-do the kitchen...J likes black appliances better, but oh well!!)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure if this helps but black appliances show EVERYTHING.
Right after you clean them they are covered with small dust particles even in a spotless new house.
Stainless steel can be a pain if it's the real deal.
The real kind leaves smudge marks and you have to clean it with a special cream. The cream can only be rubbed one way also.

The easiest seems to be the lower costs stainless steel look.
Hope that helps for your remodel :D

Congrats on house and stove :D

Lis said...

Yay! Congrats on such a great find!! As well as the new home!! :)

Red and White Preppy said...

That is a ridiculous find :) I agree with TM about the appliances that "look like" stainless steel. My parents recently re-did their entire kitchen, and on the budget of two retired educators, they had to cut costs where they could while still getting what they wanted. The "stainless steel" appliances look great and don't show stains/smudge much at all! Just wanted to add my two cents!

KAC said...

Haha it sounds like we have the same oven because mine at school has the coils and totally slants too which makes for a really fun game of trying to balance the pan so everything cooks evenly haha....glad you found such a great new one!

SplendidlyImperfect said...

What an awesome score! I live in an apartment where management/maintenance does not understand the importance of a level stove. It is also an ancient coil burner model. BLAH!

Wila (aka Ali) said...

What a great find! I love it! Good luck on the continuing remodel of the kitchen, so fun. :-)

Shoshanah said...

We've been talking about buying a house lately, and it makes me a little said knowing I won't be able to decorate even close to the way I want to. I guess I'll have to become friends with Craigs List too

Lisa said...

Girl, I feel ya on the budget. Champagne taste on a beer budget!!

BUT, the good news is, it looks like you're getting the exact same stove I have and it's fantastic! (Just make sure to invest in a bottle of that cleaner for the smooth top stoves - they get dirty daily.) Good job on the steal of a deal!

PS - Home remodel on a budget tip, they sell sticky paper (if you will, not sure what the official term is) that is the same on the front as stainless appliances (can be wiped clean, etc.) in case you need a fake upgrade before then so your whole kitch will match ;-)

Jules said...

That is such a great deal that you got on the stove! We also have a flat cooktop stove and love it. I don't know how I ever cooked without one.

It sounds like you're being really smart about buying everything and taking your time.

Hailey HRH said...

the oven is soooo important! its hard to cook anything well when your appliance wont work with yoU!

looks great! hopefully you can find other great deals to make your kitchen a place that you LOVE.

 
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