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After our kitchen episode on Friday night, we made the trek to Calgary to discuss the details with our personl custom cabinet maker.
"What?" you may be asking. "Personal cabinet maker?"
Doesn't everyone have a personal cabinet maker when they are building a house?
Doesn't that make us sound, like, super rich?
Ha! I wish.
Our personal custom cabinet maker is actually a retired man we became friends with during our five years in Calgary who is also a skilled wood worker. He does amazing work and is being extremely generous and building the cabinets for us for cost. I have no doubt I'll love what he builds.
After our visit with him, we decided to take advantage of our time in a big city with many more stores. We visited appliance stores, lighting stores, furniture stores, and, of course, IKEA. The options are endless and overwhelmed us.
We make a couple of quick decisions with light fixtures:
1. The $20,000 crystal-ball chandelier just wouldn't fit in out front entrance. (darn)
2. The chandelier would also put us a 'bit' over budget.
3. Lighting stores are way over-priced so Totem will suit us just fine!
4. Apparently amber coloured globes on fixtures is coming back??? Not our thing.
Furniture: we're only planning to buy a new leather couch set so that limits this area somewhat. Nothing screamed at us,
"You must buy us now! We're the one!"
Good thing because we're not ready for that yet.
Appliance.
Let me talk to you about appliances. I am seriously in awe of all the possibilities. It is crazy wha tthey have done to a simple fridge or stove these days.
1. Refrigerators: They can be traditional with the freezer on top. They can be side by side. They can have the freezer on the bottom and in the form of a large drawer. The last version is the newest and what I thought I wanted but most of them are designed in such a way that the drawer offers a really poor use of space. I have found a couple of styles where the bottom is a door and shelves slide out, that design I like. Then with the freezer on the bottom style you can also get it with one big door or two french doors. Then there's also the water/ice dispenser option, some with water filters built in. I like that option because we currently use a separate cooler with 5 gallon jugs of purified water. It is rather unsightly and takes a lot of space. I figured out the cost upgrade to a dispenser in the fridge would pay itself off in about 5-7 years. Worthwhile logic? I'm not sure yet.
2. Ranges: I was introduced to the Cadillac of ranges. It is amazing. It slides into place and hangs slightly over the side counter tops. This means no food dripping down the sides in between the counter and range. That area is normally impossible to clean without moving the range. Who does that on a regular basis? Not me, so this option is the perfect solution. It has a large capacity, self-cleaning, convection main oven. In place of the lower drawer it has a second oven that can be set to a different temperature. This range also has a ceramic flat top and has a whole slew of other incredible feathers.
I want it. I love to bake and cook and would take advantage of the features but is ex -pen-sive!
A flat-top, self-cleaning convection version is likley more than good enough and still a major upgrade from what I've had before.
3. Dishwashers: No debate here. We've been using my parents' super nice Bosch for three months and it's the cat's meow! You can barely hear the thing run and it cleans wonderfully! We're getting one of those.
4. Microwave/hood-fan. Cheap and basic is just fine here. It only needs to heat and defrost. End of Story.
If we were to actually get all these fancy kitchen toys we'd by paying......
Drum roll please....
Prepare yourself.....
Gulp.
$7000 loonies!!
(loonies in Canada are $1 coins, they are called such because they have a loon stamped on them. Silly, I know but that's they way it is)
I don't know what to think. Do we control ourselves and visit good ole' Sears and go way more basic? After all they will still do the job. Do we justify it by saying this is our dream house where we plan on living for a very long time? Is it sinful to spend that much money on appliances for food when people are starving in other countries?
Help.
"What?" you may be asking. "Personal cabinet maker?"
Doesn't everyone have a personal cabinet maker when they are building a house?
Doesn't that make us sound, like, super rich?
Ha! I wish.
Our personal custom cabinet maker is actually a retired man we became friends with during our five years in Calgary who is also a skilled wood worker. He does amazing work and is being extremely generous and building the cabinets for us for cost. I have no doubt I'll love what he builds.
After our visit with him, we decided to take advantage of our time in a big city with many more stores. We visited appliance stores, lighting stores, furniture stores, and, of course, IKEA. The options are endless and overwhelmed us.
We make a couple of quick decisions with light fixtures:
1. The $20,000 crystal-ball chandelier just wouldn't fit in out front entrance. (darn)
2. The chandelier would also put us a 'bit' over budget.
3. Lighting stores are way over-priced so Totem will suit us just fine!
4. Apparently amber coloured globes on fixtures is coming back??? Not our thing.
Furniture: we're only planning to buy a new leather couch set so that limits this area somewhat. Nothing screamed at us,
"You must buy us now! We're the one!"
Good thing because we're not ready for that yet.
Appliance.
Let me talk to you about appliances. I am seriously in awe of all the possibilities. It is crazy wha tthey have done to a simple fridge or stove these days.
1. Refrigerators: They can be traditional with the freezer on top. They can be side by side. They can have the freezer on the bottom and in the form of a large drawer. The last version is the newest and what I thought I wanted but most of them are designed in such a way that the drawer offers a really poor use of space. I have found a couple of styles where the bottom is a door and shelves slide out, that design I like. Then with the freezer on the bottom style you can also get it with one big door or two french doors. Then there's also the water/ice dispenser option, some with water filters built in. I like that option because we currently use a separate cooler with 5 gallon jugs of purified water. It is rather unsightly and takes a lot of space. I figured out the cost upgrade to a dispenser in the fridge would pay itself off in about 5-7 years. Worthwhile logic? I'm not sure yet.
2. Ranges: I was introduced to the Cadillac of ranges. It is amazing. It slides into place and hangs slightly over the side counter tops. This means no food dripping down the sides in between the counter and range. That area is normally impossible to clean without moving the range. Who does that on a regular basis? Not me, so this option is the perfect solution. It has a large capacity, self-cleaning, convection main oven. In place of the lower drawer it has a second oven that can be set to a different temperature. This range also has a ceramic flat top and has a whole slew of other incredible feathers.
I want it. I love to bake and cook and would take advantage of the features but is ex -pen-sive!
A flat-top, self-cleaning convection version is likley more than good enough and still a major upgrade from what I've had before.
3. Dishwashers: No debate here. We've been using my parents' super nice Bosch for three months and it's the cat's meow! You can barely hear the thing run and it cleans wonderfully! We're getting one of those.
4. Microwave/hood-fan. Cheap and basic is just fine here. It only needs to heat and defrost. End of Story.
If we were to actually get all these fancy kitchen toys we'd by paying......
Drum roll please....
Prepare yourself.....
Gulp.
$7000 loonies!!
(loonies in Canada are $1 coins, they are called such because they have a loon stamped on them. Silly, I know but that's they way it is)
I don't know what to think. Do we control ourselves and visit good ole' Sears and go way more basic? After all they will still do the job. Do we justify it by saying this is our dream house where we plan on living for a very long time? Is it sinful to spend that much money on appliances for food when people are starving in other countries?
Help.
1 comment:
Oh boy I could shop for appliances for days! A while ago I was totally inlove with this refrigerator Martha Stewart had in her show, with a glass window on the door... Buy a quiet dishwasher for me too! My stupid one keeps me up all night until it stops the cycle :x
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