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House Renovation Update #2 (+ Requesting Appliance Advice)

in Home, Interior Design

Renovation Update #1 here.

Good news! Demo is officially finished. Bad news. It doesn’t make for a super exciting update #2. Lots of decision-making this week, and not so much doing.

So, we took out the kitchen and opened up the walls, and continued with ripping out all the window casing, the floor base, and crown molding this week. Electrical and plumbing are almost finished as of this morning. However, things look relatively the same as last week.

Oh, and how could I forget – we demolished and removed pretty much the entire backyard (deck, jacuzzi, so on and so forth). Right about now, if you walk out of the sliding doors, you’ll break an ankle from falling into a ravine of dirt and gravel. Here, I illustrated a highly scientific visual for you.

The backyard wasn’t really a project I wanted to take on during this first stage, but hey! What’s done is done.

Right now, we are making a lot of seemingly boring decisions about the house. Like, we decided to take out part of the wood floor in the kitchen and dining room. I mentioned last week that part of the floor was laminate, but surprise! It’s not. It’s real oak. However, D is very, very happy to rip that part out because this?

This is the kind of situation that makes me say, “Yep, not really optimal, but let’s talk about the kitchen backsplash!” On the flip side, this is something D loses sleep over. “We can’t possibly have that ridge. Absolutely not. Not only are the planks running in opposite directions, the floors are two different heights. No. I can’t bear to look at it for one more second. WE’RE REDOING THE FLOORS.” Remember, we are talking about a man who has degrees in both interior design and architecture…that breeds a very special of kind of picky. Persnickety, perhaps? (However, the dude is ALWAYS spot on. Always.)

So, although not originally in the budget, we are ripping out the newer oak and re-framing so the floors will be even. After that, we will sand all the floors and refinish the color. Think more grey-brown, less yellow-gold. Can’t wait – I think it will be so pretty.

Upcoming to-dos:

Drywall (Fun!)
Replace floor base and window casing (Titillating.)
Replace doors and door jams (zzzzzzzzz)
Floors – sanding and refinishing the wood, replace bathroom floor
Paint – prepping and painting (Can’t wait! No, really, that means we’re really, really close.)
Install kitchen cabinetry, island and appliances

Basically, loads of non-pretty renovation stuff in the upcoming weeks. But the pretty will come later, I promise. (Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself. One daayyyyy…)

To be honest, most of our time this past week has been spent deciding on kitchen appliances. Because you see, if we don’t know what appliances we want, we don’t have the exact measurements of the appliances, which means we can’t complete the kitchen drawings, which means the cabinet maker can’t start making the kitchen cabinets, which means the toe-kicks can’t be installed, which means the floors can’t go down in the kitchen. It’s called a snowball effect, and I would surely like to get the snowball rolling.

All in all, I could write 50,000 words on the subject of kitchen appliances and why we chose the ones we did, but I will keep that kitchen manifesto to myself for fear of losing you to a deep, deep slumber. (But! I have seen/researched every refrigerator known to man. I could be a refrigerator saleswoman starting tomorrow, for reals. In fact, if I have to discuss ONE MORE refrigerator or hood range or dishwasher, for the matter, I will weep.)

We are going with Viking for the refrigerator since it truly was the only one that fit our size, aesthetic and price criteria, and thinking Bosch for the cooktop, oven, and dishwasher. But! Here’s where you come in, oh wise ones. Who out there uses a Bosch dishwasher? Are they truly as good as everyone says? (J.D. Power #1 in Customer Satisfaction! Best value out there!) I’m going between Bosch and KitchenAid – does anyone have something to say about these brands? Speak now or forever hold your peace! We’ve just hit that point, you know, where we’ve become so bogged down with research, review-reading, and talking to appliance experts that we’re going loco. (No matter what, I’m sure whatever we end up with will be amazing compared to the stuff we use at our rental now.)

So, yeah. Let me know about that. In return, I’m giving you the gift of video. 46 seconds of utter destruction to the tune of Moon River. Enjoy.

(Yes, that was a ginormous corkboard wall in one of the bedrooms.) Until next week!

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58 comments

  1. Shawna

    September 21, 2012 at 6:45 am

    Go Bosch. You will not be disappointed.

  2. Lindsey

    September 21, 2012 at 6:57 am

    Yes yes yes, Bosch dishwasher allllllllll the way.

  3. Carolin

    September 21, 2012 at 6:59 am

    Also a vote for Bosch. We got ours about 3 months ago. It cleans everything, no presoak or rinsing required.

  4. Kelly

    September 21, 2012 at 7:06 am

    I absolutely adore my Bosch d/w. It is so quiet I literally can not tell when it’s running. It cleans everything super well. And (knock on wood) we haven’t had a single problem with it in the five years we’ve lived here.

  5. suburbanmom2

    September 21, 2012 at 7:09 am

    Go Bosch. Have had mine for 12 years. It cleans very well, you do not have to prerinse your dishes so well that you are practically washing them. The best part is how quiet they are. Virtually silent- so much so that my kids have opened it mid cycle once or twice because they did not realize it was running(although if they had looked at the led dislay window they were have clearly seen that it was!). We have a large eat in kitchen that eveyone hangs out it so quiet was an important factor for me. I did not want to talk louder than the dishwasher.

  6. Gabby

    September 21, 2012 at 7:15 am

    I need one of those. I am gonna go Bosch.

  7. Christen

    September 21, 2012 at 7:22 am

    Bosch all the way. My parents have one and I thought it was broken since it was so quiet! And of course the cleaning is impeccable. They’ve had it for almost 10 years and have never had a single issue with it.

  8. Jen

    September 21, 2012 at 7:39 am

    I would go for the Bosch. I had one that was so quiet and everything always was clean. The best appliance investment that improved the quality of life. I’m an avid cook, but I would almost forgo a fancy cooktop in favor of the Bosch dishwasher if I had to.

  9. Martha

    September 21, 2012 at 7:45 am

    My parents just got a Bosch dishwasher and it is amazing. Everyone I know who has one raves about it. It is so quiet, we can eat dinner whiel it is running in the same room and not notice. If I ever get the chance to renovate a kitchen, I would go Bosch.

  10. Jenny

    September 21, 2012 at 7:47 am

    Definitely DEFINITELY go with Bosch. We’ve had a Bosch dishwasher in 2 different homes and absolutely LOVE them. Furthermore, I have heard that KitchenAid appliances suck and have lots of repair issues. (Apparently they can make a mean stand mixer, but that’s about it.) So my vote is for Bosch all the way.

  11. Mb

    September 21, 2012 at 7:48 am

    Had a Bosch in my last house and loooooved it, new house came with new kitchenaid, guess what, loooove it. They actually appear to be fairly equal- though I have found kitchen snobs to just prefer Bosch just because, well just because. Kitchenaid seems to do a bit of a better job with really caked on junk, but that may be because my Bosch was not as new. Either way I think you will be happy….

    Mb

  12. Lauren

    September 21, 2012 at 7:49 am

    I am less than thrilled with my kitchenaid dishwasher. Sure, it’s quiet and attractive, but it leaves food on the dishes if you stack them at all too close, then the super hot heat bakes the food on. Now admittedly that heat does eliminate the extra water on top of the cups we had with our old machine, but actually cleaning the dishes would be better.

  13. Courtney

    September 21, 2012 at 7:52 am

    Not personal experience, but my dad had a KitchenAid dishwasher installed about five years ago when they redid their kitchen. That thing was CRAZY quiet, like I was never sure if it was really on. But, it recently crapped out, and was going to cost almost as much to fix as to get a new one, so something to consider. I love the renovation posts! Can’t wait for some before and afters.

  14. Amy Smith

    September 21, 2012 at 7:56 am

    I shouldn’t even comment with all the “Yay for Bosch” comments because the last thing you need is to waver :P But we haven’t been happy at all with our Bosch or their customer service. We got a brand new $500 Bosch dishwasher that was “energy-efficient”. Well, it turns out the Energy Efficient part is the fact that it doesn’t heat dry, but air dries. Even with rinse aid, our dishes doen’t really get very clean. We basically have to wash them before we put them in and use the dw just for sterilizing. The customer service folks gave us hell about it and said we just needed to use rinse aid…which we do. But that could just be one bad experience in a slew of amazing ones :)

  15. Emily

    September 21, 2012 at 7:57 am

    I’m going to vote Bosch, not because we’ve owned one, but because nothing could suck as much as our KitchenAid dishwasher. The Lowe’s guy was all, “quietest on the market!” “nothing beats it!” and then, just a few months in, it started making the most ungodly noises. Noises that suggested we were trying to wash rocks in it, rather than dishes.