renovation diaries

when i first started searching for apartments, my broker asked me to make a list of the things i wanted. i told him i was sick of living in a 1960s style box with zero charm. i was OH SO OVER fugly parquet floors (helllooo, 1950s) and walls that went straight up to the ceiling with nary a piece of molding in site.

i wanted CHARM CITY, and i wanted it ALL: original hardwoods, crown molding, clawfoot tub…and the real kicker: exposed brick. a true symbol of old new york, of the lives that came before ours.

of course, no one gets it all. not usually, at least. and as of about a month ago, i certainly didn’t. i’d gotten the hardwoods (in relatively good condition, and definitely salvageable in both the bedroom and the living room; the entryway remains up in the air), the molding (you can fake it, just like highlights), and the tub (thank you, clawfoot tub gods!). but the brick was a no go.

as a reminder, here’s what the living room looked like when i bought the grand apartment.

grandapt_before_LR3 copy

here’s what it looked like in the beginning of the demo phase (dated picture rail off the walls, new electrical in the process of being run throughout).

new york city apartment renovation

nothing to see here, right? just some white plaster that was sorely in need of a refresh.

but then. BUT THEN. one morning, before i left for a 10 day trip out west, i stopped in to talk to my contractor about what was to happen while i was away. and through a tiny little rectangle of wall that was being cut out to make room for new outlets, i saw something red peeking out.

i bet you can guess what comes next…

“wait a second…is that BRICK?!”

“oh, yeah, probably.”

(he leans down to take a closer look)

“yes, that’s brick.”

“does that mean it’s BEHIND THAT ENTIRE WALL?!?!”

“probably, yes. do you want us to find out?”

UM, HELLO! DO YOU EVEN HAVE TO ASK?

DO I WANT YOU TO FIND OUT? HELLS YES, I DO.

let me remind you of my dream:

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i nodded eagerly, and told him that if there was brick underneath that whole wall, i wanted it exposed. ALL OF IT.

and then i left, and did a little happy dance in the elevator.

a few days later, i got this:

by the time i got home from my trip, they’d made quite a bit of progress.

cut to last week, and an entire wall of plaster had been painstakingly scraped off. my exposed brick wall was free, in all its glory!

it’s a bit surprising, actually, considering that this isn’t an exterior wall (the exterior of the building is indeed brick, but all the other interior walls we’ve torn into are old wood/plaster situations). it’s a wall that’s shared with the apartment directly beside mine.

as you can see below, there are old electrical boxes in the wall – likely where the original tenants had sconces – which means that a) this brick was original to the apartment and b) at some point, someone CHOSE to cover it up.

why anyone would consciously say to themselves, gee, i’m going to cover this beautiful brick with plain old PLASTER is beyond me…but that’s all in the past, because i have discovered it, and i plan to restore it to its former glory.

the goal is to sand the wall down and seal it, just so it’s not casting dust everywhere. i’m also hoping i can rip out the old fixtures you see above, as they jut pretty far out of the wall. beyond that, i’m keeping it simple: one or two larger art pieces behind the couch (which will go on this back wall), and a large round mirror behind the dining area (to the right of this photo).

since we’re still about a month or so out from decorating, here’s a little eye candy to tide you over. YAY BRICK!

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all white errythang (and a story about cabinets)

September 15, 2016

before pictures, contractors, design plan, kitchen, renovation diaries

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throughout this entire process, i have waited for the moment where things start to feel real. the moment where a construction zone starts to feel like some semblance of a home. and earlier this week, that moment happened.

my kitchen cabinets were delivered late last week, and my contractor promised that friday or monday, they’d start putting them up. true to form, after meeting him at the apartment on friday morning and reconfirming the layout, they got to work. and by early afternoon, i’d received photos of the cabinets in progress. EXCITING, right?!

i’ll be completely honest: when my contractor told me “had a guy” who “did cabinets” i was a little bit skeptical. that skepticism only grew when i found out the guy worked out of the back of an ACE hardware store in DEEP brooklyn (literally, i took the 2 train all the way to the end of the line). after exiting at nostrand and walking a few blocks past a target and an applebee’s, i came across a defunct meat market advertising “just killed!” chickens.

i almost turned around. surely, i was lost. signs ahead pointed to brooklyn college, but there was barely a soul on the street.

then i walked one more block, and saw a (small) sign for ace hardware. i stopped, and stared at the chain link fence surrounding the store.

this must be the place, i thought to myself. the place where i get swallowed up into some freaky alternate back in time universe where they kill chickens right in front of you and then ask you if you need semi gloss or eggshell.

there was a small parking lot out front; an old nissan altima was parked diagonally across two spots. beyond that, two double doors opened into a quiet neighborhood hardware store with no kitchen cabinets in sight.

i’d been told to ask for “chew” — but the woman at the checkout desk simply stared blankly back at me when i said his name.

“yo! is there a CHOO that works here?” she called out to the orthodox man working the paint counter in the back, payis dangling down from his hat.

“back here,” he motioned to me. “come back this way.”

suddenly, from the very back of the store, a small man poked his head around a doorway.

“hi sarah!”

chew! he did exist! in the back of this weird orthodox hardware store in deep brooklyn was an asian man who sold kitchen cabinets.

i spent the next hour with chew going over the type of cabinets i wanted (white shaker), ruminating over what size pantry i needed (18″ would suffice, anything larger was overkill), and discussing the pros and cons of soft-close drawers (i hate them, chew said they were standard these days).

at 7pm, ace hardware closed; by 6:55, i was out the door, waving goodbye to chew, who had, in the past 55 minutes, become my friend. chew understood the look i was going for (“you like the farmhouse style! but not TOO farmhouse!”). he knew i liked to bake and therefore needed space for my cookie sheets (“we’ll give you roll out drawers, two big ones, so they can stack! it’s too heavy otherwise!”). he’d agreed to customize a 16″ deep double cabinet for my island (“you need room for the legs!”), and to figure out a way to make the giant farm sink i wanted from ikea fit (“don’t you worry, sarah, we’ll make it work.”)

chew was a god among men. a god hidden in the back room of a hardware store in a strange no man’s land between midwood and flatbush.

he was, in other words, exactly the kind of smart, creative, small business kind of guy i hoped i’d be working with when i decided to pinch my pennies and go with the lowest contractor quote i’d received.

i’d budgeted $8k for my cabinets; shmulik had told me that depending on what i wanted, they’d come in between 6 and 8k. a few days after i met with chew, i received a layout, along with a quote: $7370–almost $600 below my max budget, with wiggle room for any additional filler pieces i might need last minute.

would i have loved to be closer to $6? of course. but i also wanted a pantry, and a small breakfast bar, and the two rollout drawers chew had got me all excited about. so i forked over a 50% deposit, and a few weeks later, a giant load of boxes arrived at the grand apartment.

a few days after that, the boxes were unpacked, and the cabinets went up on the wall.

and just like that, i had “the moment” – the one where i saw a home coming together right in front of my very eyes.

kitchen tile: making dreams come true

September 8, 2016

design plan, kitchen, renovation diaries

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hi friends! i know it’s been forever since i wrote anything, and for the 2 of you who read this for updates from afar, i apologize. i went away for 10 days, and while i was gone, my kitchen floors were installed, sheetrocking started, and an exposed brick wall was discovered (!!!!). i’ve now been back for a week and a half, and i have no excuse beyond simple lack of motivation. but i’m back, i’m ready, and i have photos to show you! LET’S DO THIS THANG.

first off is the kitchen floor. you may recall that i agonized over this decision. the color way of the tile i had my heart set on was out of stock til early october, and so it was either start from scratch, or go with a slightly darker grey. once i’d resolved to go with the darker option, my contractor told me the tile i was eyeing was flat out stupidly expensive, and not worth it, especially in terms of resale value.

i had to ask myself: am i silly for spending $1800 on tile (full disclosure, it would have been more, but my friend nika’s friend alley at chelsea arts stone and tile gave me a slight discount (thank you, alley!)? do i want to go with my heart, and find savings elsewhere (the original plan; i always knew the tile was expensive)? do i want to do the “responsible thing” and go for something more basic and less expensive?

ultimately, i went with my heart. let’s be real, i ALWAYS go with my heart. it gets me in trouble a lot of the time. but that’s a story for a different day. my reasoning was this: while it’s certainly true that i may one day get married and have kids and sell the grand apartment to someone who’s all, ew, i hate that cement tile, i want to rip it all out and start again and may i please have $5k off the asking price to do so?, it’s also a definite possibility that those things aren’t in the cards for me, and that i will be living in the grand apartment for a very long time.

WOOF. THAT WAS HEAVY.

anyway, without getting too emotional about this whole thing, my point is this: the grand apartment is MY home. not anyone else’s. not my contractor’s, not my mothers’, not the guy down the street’s. i am the one who will pad into the kitchen each morning and brew a cup of coffee, i’m the one who will slave over spaghetti bolognese every sunday in november. and thus, the kitchen tile should be as i want it to be. it should be something that makes me happy (within reason, of course). because that’s what home should do: make you happy.

pardon the crappy phone shot, but !!!

and guess what? the second my contractor sent me a photo of the tile on the floor, i was SO HAPPY. like, ecstatically, gloriously so.

isn’t she a beaut?! picture her with white shaker cabinets (which are being delivered today!), silver hardware, white subway tile….swoon. seeing your vision come to life (and actually having it look good) is a magical thing.

mo’ sconces, mo’ problems

August 17, 2016

bedroom, lighting, renovation diaries

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remember that 2002 nelly song dilemma (feat. kelly rowland)? no? let me remind you.

“no matter what i do, all i think about is you…even when i’m with my boo, you know i’m crazy over you.”

it was–and still is, if you ask me–a JAM. a slow jam, but a jam nonetheless. anyway, a nelly style dilemma is what i am having right now in regards to my bedroom sconces. every time i think i’ve found “my boo” i go crazy over another sconce! CHAMPAGNE PROBLEMS, people. but seriously, i am spoiled for choice (there are 9 TRILLION sconces in the world), and i can’t for the life of me find the sconce for me and my bed.

bedroom sconce

why, you might be asking, does this matter now? i’m still in the construction phase. why am i worrying about lighting? well, as it turns out, there are two kinds of sconces: plug in and hardwired. hardwired means they are actually wired into the wall, early on in the process–which means that if i’m going this route, i have to choose their exact placement NOW (if i go for plug in, i have a little more time to decide). i haven’t 100% figured out my design plan for the bedroom yet (i want to wait until the closet is built out to see where things will fit/what will fit), and i’d also like to upgrade to a queen bed (but need to wait on my budget to decide). both of these things make choosing exact sconce locations now a wee bit complicated.

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so why would anyone in their right mind choose hardwired sconces? for starters, hardwired sconces tend to be cleaner (see above), a little more sophisticated (like these from pottery barn), and for the most part, tend to look a little more intentional. which, you know, they are, because you chose them ahead of time and MADE A PLAN as to where to put them (anyone who knows me knows I LOVE PLANS).

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that being said, plug ins have come a long way (i have been eyeing these pretty babies from schoolhouse electric, as seen above). it’s not all “you mama says you ugly” cords up in here. and, as a major benefit, plug ins offer way more flexibility. so long as you have an outlet relatively close, you can put them up whenever, wherever.

though my electrician assures me that i am “the boss” he’s also said multiple times that hardwired would be better, and if i can figure things out now, i should. but i just can’t decide! i want the flexibility to upgrade my bed and futz with the layout in the design phase, but i also have found many a hardwired sconce that i quite like.

so, where does that leave me? here are my top contenders are of now. they are TOTALLY different. the top is a sophisticated hardwired choice, the bottom is a younger, pop-ier plug-in option that comes in both white and brass. thoughts?!

pottery barn (hardwired)

schoolhouse electric (plug in)

a sneak peek at demo week 2 (with video!)

August 15, 2016

before pictures, design plan, renovation diaries

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welcome to the disaster zone!

yesterday, while “editing” this video (and by that i mean lightening it ever so slightly), it occurred to me that if i really want to do this right, i should hire someone to film a few video shorts of the process. NOT try to do it myself. because as the video below evidences, i am a SHITTY videographer. and my iphone is NOT up to the task. keep your eyes peeled for upcoming videos–which hopefully will be prettier than what’s below–but in the meantime, in the absence of anything better, i thought i’d show you where we stand.

for those who prefer photos over crappy iphone footage, here are a few more in-progress shots. these were taken last friday; this week, they’ll start prepping the electrical work, then sheetrock over the walls to make things flat and pretty, and maybe even lay down the kitchen tile (!!!!). stay tuned, friends, because it’s ABOUT TO GET GOOD.

standing in the entryway | looking into the living room

kitchen to the right | that sewage pipe will be turned into a seemingly purposeful pillar, and the breakfast bar will go directly to the right of it

kitchen scariness | back wall will house the fridge, upper and lower cabinets, and a pantry

living room into hallway | bedroom to the right, bathroom to the left

staring into the bathroom | floor will be penny tile, walls will be white subway

demo day 2 (and a little dilemna)

August 9, 2016

before pictures, contractors, design plan, entryway, renovation diaries

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HOLY GARBAGE PILE | living room looking into entryway/kitchen

once the first day of demo was done, things started moving quickly. work kicked off last thursday, and on friday, i stopped by the grand apartment before work to take a look at the progress. i’d gotten so excited at the photos i’d received from my contractor on thursday that he told me i should come by the next morning–so i could “feel like i was part of the process.” it’s like he read my HGTV-saturated mind!

i won’t bore you with the basics, but here’s what you’re going to see below: the living room/entryway, all demo-ed out, with a short description of what’s planned/where they’ll head next. suffice it to say i am THRILLED that things have finally started picking up, and i cannot WAIT for the next step (designing my kitchen, EEK!).

also, if anyone wants to volunteer to stop by and take a slo mo video of me knocking something down, please let me know. i was too embarrassed to ask shmulik to do it.

so, let’s get down to BUSINESS, and look at some pictures of “my dust and debris” (as my boss so lovingly referred to it).

this is the living room, in its current state. those drawers you see there were part of the old “built ins” in the kitchen. i would have saved them if they were in better shape, but they were literally sloping away from the ceiling/wall, and had about 12 layers of paint on them. alas, my new cabinets will be shiny and pretty and light and bright. sorry, old drawers. also, see that dark line up towards the ceiling? that’s where the picture rails used to be. i had shmulik take them all down, in hopes of installing crown molding throughout once things have been patched up and repainted. he also stripped the floor molding so that we can start fresh down there (and seal it off so that no roaches get in…YUCK).

so much garbage. the door frames were metal (you can see them sticking out in the middle right of the photo)

i decided to have shmulik open up the faux arched entrway between the living room and entryway to allow more light to seep into the space. as soon as i saw these photos, i yelped with glee. already, it feels SO much more open. having a nice wide open entryway is really going to make all the difference – especially once the breakfast bar goes in.

another shot of the entryway, straight on

so, let’s talk about this angle. what you’re seeing above is living room to the left, entryway to the right. originally, when i discussed the plans with shmulik, i wanted to replace the closet i tore down on the right (to create space for the breakfast bar) with one in the space above (where that junction box thingamjig is hanging). i thought this was the perfect plan: i’d get my breakfast bar (!!) and i’d still get storage (even more of it!).

where i thought i could build a closet

these dreams were dashed on friday morning, when shmulik and his guy, george, informed me that if i added a closet in the space above, it would have to extend at least 24″ out. add onto that doors and such, and you’re looking at a depth of 28″, minimum. add onto that the depth of the breakfast bar that will be directly across from it, and i am, as shmulik put it, “making space only to close it off again.” effectively, i COULD have a closet in the space above–but it would mean a tight entryway that would diminish the light i’ve created by knocking down the wall, and make for a bit of a squeeze when people actually sit at the breakfast bar.

i could put a closet here, but then it would be in the living room. and that’s just weird.

BUMMER. like, MAJOR bummer. shmulik offered to build the closet on the short wall to the left of the entryway (aka, IN the living room), but i said no to that. i want to put a dining area there, and a little closet in the back right corner of the living room would be super wonky. design fail.

if only i were carrie bradshaw and i used my oven as storage! alas, no can do. my new plan is to get a REALLY sweet coat rack (if you see one, let me know), and a nice console table with baskets underneath for extra storage.

i am not 100% satisfied with this plan, but i think it’s my best option. also, it wouldn’t kill me to go a little marie kondo before i move.

any thoughts? suggestions? HELP ME FIND STORAGE. HELP ME FIND PEACE. HELP ME FIND THE SERENITY TO THROW OUT (DONATE) HALF OF MY STUFF. PLEASE.

demo day 1

August 8, 2016

before pictures, contractors, entryway, kitchen, renovation diaries

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baseball cap on one, yarmulke on the other. welcome to the lower east side.

guys, i know it’s been a wee bit quiet around these parts, but that’s because for a few weeks, i was waiting on things like permits and board approval and i didn’t want to bore you with the basics. but that’s okay, because i’m back, and WITH A VENGEANCE! that’s right folks, i have FINALLY started construction, and the first phase of that is none other than DEMOLITION, which i have literally been waiting for since i put my offer in on the grand apartment back in january (i know, i know. this shit took so freaking long).

see, as i’ve told you before (and as anyone who knows me even a little bit knows), i am an HGTV addict. like, check me into property brothers rehab, i have a problem, i can’t stop watching drew and jonathan tear down walls and build them back up again. if you, like me, watch property brothers (or really, any other show on HGTV), you know that “demo day” is a BFD (for my older readers, BDF = big fucking deal). demo day is where it all begins. it’s also where HGTV likes to insert scary/sad music jonathan knocks down a wall in the kitchen only to discover that it’s load bearing and the homeowners can’t do the open concept he’s promised. essentially, demo day is where stuff starts, and more importantly, where stuff starts to go wrong. why? well, you can’t know what’s behind a wall until you tear it down. and that’s what demo day is all about.

my first reality check came in the form of a sewage pipe, cleverly disguised behind the wall separating the entry to the kitchen and the closet directly to the right of it.

giant sewage pipe that literally runs the length of the entire building. of course i bought the unit where the sewage pipe lives.

last wednesday, i met my contractor, shmulik, at the grand apartment to discuss plans (mostly, to remind him of which walls we were knocking down. thursday morning, he met me outside my current apartment to pick up the keys (which i had stupidly forgotten the morning before). and by thursday afternoon at 3pm, my phone was dinging with the pictures above. demo had officially begun! and with it, bad news had arrived: behind the wall that i intended to (mostly) tear down didn’t just contain the electrical junction box. it was also hiding a gi-NORMOUS sewage pipe that housed ALL THE POO IN THE BUILDING.

if these walls could talk, they’d have some serious potty mouths.

that was the worst joke i’ve ever made. ANYWAY, let’s get into the nitty gritty, shall we?

where the workers are standing used to be a) a set of “built ins” in the kitchen and b) a coat closet. i had shmulik demolish both to create room for an L shaped breakfast bar that will wrap from the kitchen into the space you see above (out into the living room). the goal was to bring more light into the space, open things up (while i can’t do total open concept, i wanted to create a sight line from the kitchen into the living/dining area), and add extra counter space/storage below.

another angle of the pipe. it’s enormous.

that plan was all well and good until they started knocking things down and discovered that the “wall” between the kitchen entry and the closet was there for a reason. a very large, brown metal reason that starts with “sew” and ends with “age pipe.” GROSS. i asked shmulik if it could explode and rain poop all over my pretty new home and to his credit, he didn’t laugh, but instead, assured me that no sewage would be exiting the pipe and entering my new space. HALLELUJAH.

so, what does it mean? thankfully, my breakfast bar can still happen. but the “tiny little pillar” i intended to construct to house the electrical panel (you can’t really see it above, but it’s there) will need to be about a foot wide to house the sewage pipe too. it’s not ideal, but it’s also not the worst thing ever. so my tiny little pillar becomes a rather large column. so long as it hides the poop chamber, i’m satisfied. and if we can make it look cute (maybe some crown molding up top? some art on the wall?), all the better. renovation = compromise, and so long as i still have a place for two people to sit their booties down and swing their legs while they happily sip wine and chow down on pasta, i’m happy.

meanwhile, in tile heaven…

July 21, 2016

design plan, kitchen, renovation diaries

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on the left: the tile i wanted | on the right: a very close second

as you may have seen on instagram (hii, are you following @_thegrandapt yet?), i am having a BIT of a tile dilemma. #champaaagggneeeproblems

the tile i so desperately wanted after seeing it in kate arends’ kitchen is out of stock. til october. no can do, folks.* this unfortunate news means it’s time for plan B. i have two choices: to go with a tile that is practically identical, but slightly darker (and a little more in the taupe family of greys), or to go back to the drawing board completely. i am REALLY not into going back to the drawing board, mostly because i am oh so ready to get this show on the road, but also because i really do love the “star” pattern i had already picked out. it’s a statement without smacking you in the face. it’s moroccan-inspired but not overly so. it’s not cheap, but it’s also not ludicrously expensive. it’s practically perfect in every way!

so, what’s a girl to do? visit a tile store, and more importantly, talk to someone who really knows their shit.

enter: chelsea arts tile + stone, and specifically, alison, the owner. i heard about CATS (i mean, has there ever been a store with an acronym more suited to me?! I THINK NOT!) through a friend of mine, nika, who i met in GREECE of all places.

me petting a street kitten approximately 30 seconds before we met nika and peter

nika and i met on the cobblestone streets of paros, one of the greek islands, last september. my friend sara and i were strolling along shortly after our ferry had docked, and i was busy petting every (and i mean EVERY) cat in sight. down the street, we heard the familiar sounds of the english language, and sure enough, soon two friendly folks ambled around the corner. those folks were nika and her friend peter, and they were all, “HI! YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?! WE SPEAK ENGLISH!” and we were all, “WHERE ARE YOU GUYS FROM?!” and they were all, “TORONTO!” we became fast friends, and ended up inviting peter and nika to spend a night with us in santorini.

when nika saw on instagram that i’d purchased the grand apartment and was on the hunt for tile, she reached out and was like:

“yo. you HAVE to contact my best friend alison. she runs the only female-owned tile shop in NYC and she’s the bomb.”

to which i said something along the lines of, OH HELL YES. female owned? #girlboss #girlpower #allthefeministhashtags

at the time, i already had my eyes on the cement tile shop’s “star” pattern–so i didn’t really need a fancy tile shop. but then things fell through, and i decided to reach out to alison, and see if she could offer a little guidance.

as it turns out, she not only had guidance, she had my tile. in a sliiiightly different colorway.

the pattern i wanted, in a taupe-ier grey, paired with marble-look quartz countertops and amazing mirrored glass tile.

alison kindly set up not just one tile, but four, so i could see the full scope of the design and the coloring. and contrary to what all my instagram friends had said (thank you all for your thoughts!), she felt that it would NOT be that much darker overall than the colorway i had originally wanted. in addition, she showed me what it would look like paired with the marble-look countertop i’m planning on getting, so that i could see how the grey would play off the slightly warmer quartz sample.

and you know what? i like it! in fact, i don’t just like it. i might even love it! am i sad that my original choice is out of stock? sure. but i trust alison’s vision, and i think she makes a good point when she says that a) i’m going all white everywhere else, and b) my reclaimed wood will need a little warmth to play off of (which this darker colorway gives me).

alison’s shop was CHOCK FULL (and i mean, to the brim) of amazing tile. that you see above? it’s sourced straight from a factory in morocco. if i had a spanish style home in los angeles, i would be ALL OVER that blue and white situation on the top right.

she also showed me other options for cement tile–but most of them felt either too french cafe, too modern, or too busy moroccan. in my gut, i feel like the “star” pattern i’ve picked out is perfect in its simplicity. it’s graphic, but not overly so, it feels fresh, but not scarily modern, and it’s got a hint of global flair without feeling full on fez.

so: here’s the consensus. i’m sleeping on it, but more than likely, i’ll plan to order the “star” tile in the darker colorway seen above. it’s in stock, alison can get it easily from the warehouse in new jersey to the curb outside of the grand apartment, AND it looks fabulous with the countertop i’ve already decided upon.

WIN WIN, folks.

want to see some more pretty? check out a few snaps from the CATS showroom, and stay tuned next week to see a post on bathroom tile, and whether i’m leaning marble hex or simple penny.

*watch me smack myself upside the head when october rolls around, and i’m still in early construction phase, and i tooootallly could have waited til october!

kitchen design plan: the appliances

July 13, 2016

budget, design plan, kitchen, renovation diaries

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designplan_kitchen

so, remember all the pretty above? that was my kitchen design plan, which i shared a month or so ago. it included all the finishes, the flooring, the paint colors and the inspiration–but it was missing one crucial piece of the puzzle: the appliances.

as i wrote about yesterday, i AGONIZED over the purchase of my refrigerator and oven (and to a lesser extent, my dishwasher). why? because i love to cook, and so i wanted to make sure i was getting the very best. but also, mama’s on a verrry tight budget, so not only did i want to get the very best, i wanted to get the very best bang for my buck. that meant that although i would have loooved to go all spurge-y on viking and sub zero and wolf, there was simply no way. my finances helped to narrow things down…somewhat. see, there are a surprisingly large amount of appliances available in the median range of things.

speaking of ranges, another thing that complicated the issue was that i was VERY particular about the kind of range i wanted. see the oven below? it can be yours for just $400. and it will probably work JUST FINE. but that ugly back panel, with its ginormous buttons and oversized screen? i did not want that. AT ALL. NO BACK PANEL FOR ME.

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this simple fact complicated things. i quickly learned that ovens like the above are called “freestanding” ranges. as in, they can stand on their own, floating in space, unanchored by silly things like countertops. if you want an oven with no back panel, you need a “slide in” range. and that immediately a) slims your pickins’ and b) makes things WAY MORE EXPENSIVE.

of course, me and my stupid expensive taste had to go and ruin things again. instead of $400, i was now in the $1500-$2000 range. YIKES.

that being said, the one item i was willing to splurge on was my stove. see, i’m a girl that LOVES to cook, and loves to bake even more (like, to the point that i’ve toyed with the idea of opening a bakery someday). so while i could live with a not-so-fancy fridge and dishwasher, i simply could not live with a sub-par oven. and i really, really couldn’t live with a freestanding range with that UGLY BACK PANEL STARING AT ME EVERY TIME I PUT A TRAY OF COOKIES INSIDE IT.

my family tried to talk me out of my “no back panel” obsession, but i could not be swayed. so i looked at a few different options. first was this kitchenaid model, which was straight up REALLY, REALLY pretty. i have a longstanding love affair with my kitchenaid mixer, and so i thought sure, why not? kitchen aid is reliable, there’s no back panel, this baby is beautiful, let’s do it.

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kitchenaid oven, $1498 | rated 57 by consumer reports

HELLO GORGEOUS.

then i started reading the reviews. and consulting consumer reports. and it turned out that for all its beauty, and the fact that it was selling like hotcakes, people didn’t really love their kitchenaid ovens. they didn’t even really like them, in some cases. and consumer reports gave it a 57 (for reference, the highest rated stove on their site gets a 79). WOOF.

the next contender was this GE model, which was relatively well-rated by the folks online. commenters liked it, but consumer reports gave it a 73 (not terrible, but also, not great). i’ve had GE appliances in my rental apartment for the past 7 years, and they’ve held up great. GE is generally known to be a reliable brand, but a deep drive into the online reviews revealed that GE wasn’t what it used to be, and that many people had issues with their newer GE appliances, this stove included.

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GE cafe oven, $1598 | rated 73 by consumer reports

of course, there was also the fact that it simply wasn’t as pretty. out it went.

the final contender was the very first stove i had fallen in love with. it was a samsung model that was as pretty as the kitchenaid range–AND it had better reviews! unfortunately, it was also the most expensive range by about $200. but i mean, look at it. it’s BEAUTIFUL!

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samsung oven (the winner!), $1798 | rated 77 by consumer reports

that’s some restaurant style shit right there, amiright?! but a budget is a budget, and i was determined to stick to mine (i had given myself $1600 for the oven). so i had to find $200 somewhere else.

that’s where the fridge came in. i needed a 30″ model (#apartmentliving), which narrowed my choices down quite a bit. but i also really wanted a french door on top, bottom freezer design, which narrowed things down even further (most french door style fridges are around 33″-36″ wide; a fine size for someone in suburbia, but not for a single gal in new york city). my top choice was this samsung model, which i first came across at home depot and fell in love with almost immediately.

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samsung fridge, $1298 | rated 74 by consumer reports

it was oh so sleek on the outside, and oh so functional on the inside. there was an ice maker in the freezer (non-negotiable in my book), and it boasted 21.8 cubic feet of storage in its itty bitty 30″ body. but it was also sort of pricey. i was ready to take the plunge, but before i did, i decided to run my choices by a home depot online chat associate. being the amazingly helpful person that she is, my new friend elizabeth informed me that there were a few very similar models i could look at before selecting the samsung above.

one of those was this LG model, which was basically identical, but also, $200 cheaper! HALLELUJAH! SEND THE LITTLE ANGELS DOWN TO DANCE AROUND ME! i had found my $200 savings!

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LG fridge, $1098 | rated 75 by consumer reports

i immediately freaked out to elizabeth about how excited i was to find this fridge, and thanked her PROFUSELY for her help. i’m sure she was all, someone get me off this online chat, this woman is a crazy person, but really, i was so thankful! home depot, if you’re out there, your chat associates are seriously the best, and have been SO helpful throughout this process. it is RARE to find good customer service out there, and so far, HD has hit it out of the park.

so, i now had the oven and the fridge covered. that left the dishwasher.

my parents raised me to be a bosch girl, all the way–they are the undisputed leaders in dishwasher land. but here’s the thing: i was already buying a pricey oven. and while many dishwasher brands are all, “IT’S SO SILENT YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW IT’S RUNNING!” “CLEANEST DISHES EVER!” “SHORT CYCLES” the reality is that all a person truly needs is a box that washes their dishes in a relatively short period of time. silent is nice, sure. so is a stainless steel interior. but i have been washing dishes in a white plastic GE box for seven years now, and i don’t feel as though i’ve missed out on any of the amazing benefits above.

would it be nice to never have to hear my dishwasher? i mean, i guess so – but i don’t really mind the sound of running water. if i close my eyes, i can almost pretend i’m sunning myself under a waterfall instead of sitting on my couch watching house hunters.

all of this is to say, i felt very strongly that i did not need to spend $600 on a dishwasher (yes, that’s what nice ones cost, and that’s the STARTING POINT! crazy!). but $400…$400 i could do.

and lucky for me, this whirlpool gold (which a salesman at PC richards told me was basically equivalent to buying a bosch!) model was on sale at home depot for that exact price.

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whirlpool gold dishwasher, $400 | rated 75 by consumer reports

was it the fanciest? no. did it have a stainless steel interior (which would have cost an extra $100)? no. but as consumer reports said, “if you only run your dishwasher while you sleep, you’ll find lots to like in this low-priced whirlpool, which had superb washing, drying, and efficiency.”

SOLD! as a bonus, consumer reports informed me that whirlpool was the most reliable dishwasher brand. SOLD AGAIN!

so, as a reminder, here’s where i landed:

samsung oven: $1798 on sale at home depot (originally $2499)

LG fridge: $1098 on sale at home depot (originally a staggering $1799)

whirlpool gold dishwasher: $399 on sale at home depot (originally $599)

total price for kitchen appliances: with tax, i ended up paying just about $3500. if i hadn’t bought during a sale, that price would have skyrocketed up to almost $5k. can i get an amen for buying on sale?

do i know, with 100% of my being, that these are the VERY BEST APPLIANCES for my budget? no. but i don’t think i could ever know that. here’s what i do know: minerva at home depot west 23rd street told me that i was buying well, and that i had made good choices.

and guess what? all any newly-christened 30 something wants to hear is that she’s made good choices.

5 things i learned while shopping for kitchen appliances

July 12, 2016

design plan, kitchen, renovation diaries, things i learned

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sometimes, when my mother wants to demonstrate that things are really taking off, or really going well, she’ll utter a rather funny phrase: “now, we’re cookin’ with grease!” it rarely applies to any instance where a person is actually cooking with grease, or doing anything kitchen-related.

but for today’s purposes, it actually DOES! because guess who pulled the trigger and bought her kitchen appliances this past weekend? that’s right, this girl. after spending the past 2 months reading review after review, soliciting feedback from family, friends, coworkers and even random strangers on instagram, i finally settled on my choices, and took the plunge.

back when i thought this process would move merrily along, i figured i’d purchase my appliances over memorial day weekend, the rationale being that summer holidays were bound to produce big sales. but memorial day came and went, and i still hadn’t closed, so i wasn’t about to go march my ass into PC richards and plunk down a couple thousand dollars on an oven.

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instead, i spent the next month researching appliances. i posted on facebook, asking my “real adult” friends to tell me about what they’d owned, what they’d loved, and what they wouldn’t buy again. i read the reviews on homedepot.com like a FIEND. i had daymares of buying the wrong fridge and having it quit working within the first few months. i agonized over whether to splurge on the more expensive oven.

here’s what i learned:

read the reviews, but don’t put all your stock in them. for every 5 positive reviews of any given appliance, there will be one negative one. happy people are less likely to share that their happiness online. but angry people? disappointed people? LET ‘ER RIP. at the end of the day, you have to read the reviews, but go with your gut. my general rule of thumb was to look for appliances that had a high 80% and above approval/recommendation rating. you know, 4 stars land. anything less indicated an issue, but a 5 starred item with a few negative reviews? those people probably got a lemon.
someone else’s favorite appliance might not be your favorite appliance. initially, i had my heart set on a matching kitchen aid series of fridge/oven. i’d seen them on a design blog i read, design manifest. i figured if kitchen aid appliances were good enough for naomi, a one woman design powerhouse who does a LOT of kitchen projects, they were good enough for me. but i did a bit of digging, and it turned out that the kitchen aid reviews weren’t great. naomi bought hers because they were beautiful, but guess what? she’s not a huge cook. so while pretty is great, pretty doesn’t bake good cookies. functional does.
the “big names” aren’t what they used to be. i spent a good two weeks going back and forth between this samsung oven and this GE one. i’ve had GE appliances in my rental apartment for the past 7 years, and they have yet to let me down. GE = reliable, right? so said the man i spoke to at a western mass appliance store, who (with no shame, mind you) also told me that the only people buying samsung appliances were idiot millenials who “liked the fancy name.” and yet, the GE oven had consistently worse reviews than the samsung model, was rated lower by consumer reports, and straight up wasn’t as cute. so i decided to go with the samsung, which i truly loved, and guess what? when i got to home depot to order it, my girl minerva let me in on a little secret: since they moved all their manufacturing to china, GE isn’t what it used to be. and samsung? surprisingly good. SCORE ONE FOR ME!
sometimes, stuff breaks. but that doesn’t mean you need to pay $250 for an extended warranty. look, there is no way, and i mean, actually no way to guarantee that the appliances you buy will not break. sure, you can read 900 reviews. sure, you can check up on how easy it is to find a repairman in your area. sure, you can spring for the extended warranty. but you cannot control whether your appliance will or won’t break. all you can do is be prepared when it does. a little bit of sleuthing revealed that despite extended warranty plans seeming like god’s gift to appliance buyers, they’re generally not worth it. here’s why: first, just because things can break doesn’t mean they WILL. more than likely, your appliance will run just fine. second, those seemingly magical extended warranty plans? they’re not actually run by the nice folks at home depot. they’re outsourced to places that, unlike my friend minerva, don’t give two shits about you and the fact that you took a day off for your maintenance appointment. third, almost all appliances come with at LEAST a year of parts and labor warranty. and most appliances, according to my home depot associate, break within 18 months, if they’re going to break at all. so you probably don’t need to drop an extra $200-300 on that 5 year warranty. if something’s going to go wrong, it’ll probably go wrong pretty early on. but that being said, 18 months is longer than a year, which brings me to my next point.
your credit card = an extra year on your warranty. in my extended warranty research, i came across an AMAZING PIECE OF INFORMATION that legitimately made my day (#adulting). get this: many credit cards (including mine, chase sapphire, hi chase i love you!) will add an extra year onto the manufacturer’s warranty of your appliance (and not just appliances! many items!) if you pay for the purchase in full with your card. 1 year manufacturer’s warranty = 12 months coverage + 1 additional year of manufacturer’s warranty covered by chase = 24 months coverage. BINGO! there’s your 18 months, and then some! CAN I GET AN AMEN? that is something AMAZING SHIT RIGHT THERE. all told, 3 year warranties on my three appliances (fridge, oven, dishwasher) were going to come out to just around $500. i hadn’t budgeted for that $500, and i didn’t really want to spend it. but my future guilt – the guilt i’d experience if something DID go wrong and i hadn’t bought the warranty – gave me serious anxiety. this benefit from chase gives me an extra year of carefree cookin’, and if something DOES go wrong by year 3? well, that’s why i have a savings account.

so, what did i buy? that, my friends, is a story for tomorrow. but WAIT TIL YOU SEE MY OVEN! SHE SO PURTY!

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Archive

renovation diaries

exposed brick: a love story

all white errythang (and a story about cabinets)

kitchen tile: making dreams come true

mo’ sconces, mo’ problems

a sneak peek at demo week 2 (with video!)

demo day 2 (and a little dilemna)

demo day 1

meanwhile, in tile heaven…

kitchen design plan: the appliances

5 things i learned while shopping for kitchen appliances