My new kitchen and it's toys!

My kitchen is my haven, it is my safe place. I have 2 rooms in my house that I love to be in at any time. The kitchen and my bedroom. I love to lay down any time of day and have the big fluffy pillows and quilt to hide under. My kitchen for the obvious reasons. Ya'll know that I love to cook, bake, can, preserve. It is theraputic for me. But my kitchen holds my memories too, around the table homework, crafts, sewing, painting, drawing, crying, and life happens. I have places on the table where if I look close enough I can see where my dad wrote something down. I can see where Eric and PJ were learning to write. So you see why my kitchen is my haven.
For years we have tolerated a refrigerator that was a piece of junk. It leaked water for months, we don't know how long. All I know is that I looked one day and the floor under the stove was puddled up badly. We had someone come out and fix it. Put new shelves in it once, and then it was getting to the point that the door shelves were falling off every time that you opened the door. It originally came from the Maytag scratch and dent place in town. But it wasn't just a scratch or a dent. It was MANY. And on a white fridge, the black dings and dents show up more than what you want them to show up.



We decided that we were gonna buy an upright freezer,

so that way we can buy a 1/2 of a cow. Grain fed, no antibiotics, no hormones. All natural cow. And a pig too. That way I know what my family is eating. And I know that it will be good for them.
Ok, move the fridge, gently, carefully, don't scratch the floor Chuck! We get it moved and it starts hemorraging water. No just a little leak, the thing started flooding. I was scrubbing the wall and the floor where it sat to put the freezer there. I turned my head when Chuck was on the phone discussing how he wanted the cow to be cut, looked over and water was coming right towards me. Man, why today???? My freezer is to be delivered shortly and now I have this to deal with too. This little ditty was delivered about 12:30 yesterday afternoon. When they got it set up and they left, we started looking at it, there was a scratch that was on the top that the factory scratched and tried to cover up with touch up paint. I called Lowe's and talked to someone about it. We tried to get someone out there that can replace the door when someone would be home. Nope, couldn't get anyone to come out at a reasonable time to replace it. So, when Chuck talked to them, he got them to put $35 back on the card. Now, we paid $50 for the delivery, but that will be reimbursed. And then we got a $50 rebate on it too. So, in turn, we are getting $135 back on a $500 freezer.
We head out to Lowe's, now I have spent more time there in 3 days than I really thought I would. Talk to Nina about the refrigerator and look for something that we can afford. We find a bottom mount that we both liked for about $898. Yes, the French door would have been great, but considering this is our first purchase, we decided that the bottom mount with PJ still being little would be a good idea. Plus it brings back so many memories when my step-grandmom had one. I loved it then.
We decide we have some time and we were going to Mike's Maytag. And as soon as we walk in, we see the one at Lowe's, but it was $1299. What is the deal here???? Come to find out that it was the next year model and the one at Lowe's was last year's model. Ok, I get it. So we look around, talk to the owner and decide on the black bottom mount just like the white one. He tells us tax and delivery it would be $912. Chuck offers him $900, and it comes out to $895.59. Not too bad. Well, right when they were ready to deliver the refrigerator we get a phone call. There was a dent on the top left back corner. We go over and look at it, and decide that we were gonna go ahead and get it. He handed us a check for $55 for the damage on the fridge. This is gonna be a good day! So for $840 we got a nice 22 cubic foot fridge, do I need all that space, I don't know. I do know this I got a new fridge! And it is a beaut! One last thing to find. And it was the hardest of them all. Finding a decent pantry worth the money. Everything is chip board, pressed board or particle board. Whatever it is called it is just crap!
We went everywhere that we could think of, even the wholesale cabinet place on the other side of town, nothing. Even that was crap board. We all know that the pressed board will swell, and chip away eventually. We wanted something that when someone went into the cupboard, that the door wouldn't fall off in their hands.
We went to Stamper's once, and spotted something that I loved.

But the price was just outrageous! I couldn't see spending that much money on it. We looked and then left because we just couldn't get the deal that we thought we could get. Chuck low balled the owner and he didn't like it one bit. We went to another nice furniture store in town, told them about the Hooker Cupboard that we saw at Stampers and we wanted to know if he could beat that price. He told us that he would look into it, but because of the quality that Hooker is, don't count on it. He called us back and said it would be $450, but it would be 3 weeks before delivery and it was only $25 less than what Stampers wanted.
We go back and get the piece that I just didn't want to spend that much money on it. Come to find out, it was orginally priced at nearly $1000. So, who am I to complain. Plus if we went to the owner and told him that someone else in town can have it to us for cheaper he would tell us to go get it there and don't come here again. So, I didn't want to take any chances. That place is top of the line furniture and they don't need to have the riff raff of Cleveland coming in and touching their good stuff!
So delivery for this is coming this afternoon. If you look in the pictures above, you will see the Tuscan style flooring that I laid 2 years ago. This piece is perfect. That is NOT MY HOUSE ! Just a pic that I found on the website
Chuck will be home to set everything up before I get home. Get everything in order. I don't think I will be asking for that new sewing machine anytime soon. But I don't care. My haven has new and beautiful stuff in it for all of us. I am so excited!!!!
Yes, I know it is just appliances. But for the first time in our lives, we can afford something like this. New appliances, first new refrigerator. No one else had their food in my space! This is ours. And it may not mean that much to you, but you read all of this, and it means a lot to me that it is mine!!!