Brand Spankin' New

We really love our house, but it came with mismatched kitchen appliances that have been unattractive since Day 1 and have steadily grown more and more unreliable ever since. Purchased over a six-month time frame in 1989-90, the dishwasher, stove, microwave oven, and refrigerator had already seen better days when we moved in, and they have tested Susan's patience these past two years. Here's a quick rundown:

The best of the bunch, this off-white fridge has served us pretty well. It's noisy, though, and the metal handle covers have broken off the drawers inside. And it's the lone appliance of its color in the kitchen.

This almond-and-black stove is less reliable--the front right burner requires jiggling in order to make a connection and start heating up (electrical hazard, anyone?); the oven doesn't register the right temperature (everything takes longer to bake in our oven than it's supposed to); and the light inside the oven no longer works.

This black microwave oven serves as an over-the-range hood with lights underneath to see the stove top better. The lights, however, are a dim, murky yellow; the loud exhaust fan rattles the windows in our house; and the microwave's door handle came into our possession with black electrician's tape lightly adhering it to the door. Perhaps needless to say, the tape did not hold, and the handle came off in our hands. Gorilla glue has kept the handle on ever since, but the visible drips of the butterscotch-colored permanent glue do not enhance this appliance's attractiveness (look at where the bottom of the handle attaches to the door).

This black dishwasher has been deteriorating slowly over the years, various plastic parts melting and breaking off with every third or fourth load, it seems. Tines of both the top and bottom trays have disappeared or have cracked and are on their way to snapping off, and the bottom tray is missing a wheel, making it quite a feat simply to push it back in after loading it with dishes. The odds of every dish in a load coming out clean are pretty low, too.

Still this is a kitchen in which Susan has successfully made wonderful meal after wonderful meal for two years, adjusting to the limitations of the appliances and still managing to keep us all healthy and well fed. She daydreamed about better equipment, but we put off making that kind of an investment until it was absolutely necessary.

And when the dishwasher stopped working altogether the week of September 15, it became absolutely necessary.

As luck would have it, Sears was having a sale that weekend that, in light of our appliance-related needs, was too good to pass up. So we spent that week researching our options, looking for models that had the features we wanted and that rated highly according to Consumer Reports, against which Susan checked each of our options. On September 19, we loaded up the girls, headed off to Sears with our list in hand, and bought a slug of new stuff.

It wasn't until yesterday, though, that (most of it) was delivered to our house. And it just had to be on one of the busiest days of the week for our household, too. I had to chauffeur Hillary to and fro piano lessons after school; Susan had to attend a meeting at church after work; and in the evening, Susan and I had a parent meeting to attend at the girls' elementary school; Suzanna and Abigail had musical rehearsal at the university; and Abigail and Hillary had gymnastics class at the public high school. And at the same time, two guys from Sears needed to move a truckload of used appliances out of our house and replace them with a truckload of new.

After dropping off Hillary, I enlisted Suzanna and Abigail's help to unload the refrigerator of its contents, the oven drawer of its contents (broiler pans and pot lids), the under-the-sink cabinet of its contents (to allow access to the plumbing for the dishwasher), and the countertops of their contents. I left the girls home to let the Sears delivery men in while I picked up Hillary, and once we returned, I was in it for the long haul. Susan did the rest of the running last night while I stayed home and helped with the appliances.

Refrigerator contents on the dining room table.

Under-the-sink contents on the kitchen counter.

Assorted cookware cleared out of the way from the kitchen into the living room.

The deliver-and-install men were keener to deliver than to install--and more qualified, too, in the former regard than in the latter. They were supposed to take out the old dishwasher but were mystified about how to begin. It should tell you something, Faithful Readers, that I had to step in and take over. While they puzzled over how to attach to the wall the mounting bracket for the microwave, I disconnected the plumbing and the wiring from the dishwasher and readied it for them to move out.

They did fine unplugging the old stove and plugging in the new one, and the fridge seemed like an easy switcheroo, too, what with the unplugging and the plugging in and the sliding into place . . . until I pointed out that the doors were set to open the wrong direction (one would have had to go out into the front foyer just to reach into the fridge). Moving the hinges to the other side of the doors (so they would open up for access from the kitchen instead) wasn't difficult, but again, I had to offer the gentlemen direction and monitor them throughout and re-do some of their work after they left. And how many kitchen appliances have I installed and/or serviced in my lifetime? Exactly.

They were nice, well meaning young men who thanked me for my patience when they left, so I oughtn't to complain. I won't even mention that their inexpert shenanigans under the kitchen sink left the water connection to the dishwasher jostled and the shut-off valve unable to be shut off. It wouldn't be polite for me to note that I had to make a just-before-closing run to the hardware store to buy parts to keep water from spraying until I was ready to hook up the dishwasher (which I wasn't at that point--by 10:00 P.M., I was just interested in finally sitting down to eat the supper that Susan had set out for me at 6:00 P.M.).

The next evening Susan's dad came over to help with the hookup of the dishwasher. It involved replacing the shut-off valve under the sink, hooking up the water intake and the drain tubing to the dishwasher, and direct-wiring the dishwasher into the house (and praying that I had shut off the correct breakers before we started twisting wires together).

When all was done, we found ourselves with brand spankin' new kitchen appliances that all match and that all work:

white Kenmore 30-inch freestanding electric range (link)
white Kenmore 30-inch microhood combination (link)

white Kenmore 18.5 cubic foot bottom-freezer refrigerator (link)

white Kenmore Elite 24-inch Elite built-in dishwasher with Ultra Wash filtration (link)

Oh, and did I forget to mention? We didn't think it fair for Susan alone to be getting so many fun, new toys, so we had them bring something for me, too:

Sony 46-inch class LCD full HD (1080p) television, BRAVIA (link)

Just over a decade ago, we (and our house at the time) experienced this, after which we bought a new TV that has since served us pretty well but whose picture quality has been deteriorating over the years to the point that any text scrolling along the bottom of the screen is blurry and difficult to read, and the color is hard to regulate, as well. We have those troubles no more with our new flat-screen that's as wide diagonally as Hillary is tall. Now Daddy's happy, too!

P.S. I wrote earlier that most of what we ordered in September was delivered yesterday. We had also ordered pedestals for our front-load clothes washer and dryer (to save Susan from weekly back stress), but the woman who rang up our order last month entered into the computer a code that indicated that we were taking the pedestals with us that day. But we didn't because they weren't in stock and needed to be ordered and delivered along with everything else. Susan has been assured that they have now been ordered and will arrive next week. Once they do, we will also be the proud owners of two white Kenmore Laundry Plus 15.5-inch pedestals with storage drawers (link).

We're doing our part to get the country's economy back on track.