My (Partially) New Kitchen

Our kitchen is the original one, from 1969. When we moved into the house, we knew we'd need to update it sooner or later. The appliances didn't work that well. The shelves in the cabinets sag with every dish we put on it. The countertops have a slope on it, which can cause some stuff to slide. And the linoleum flooring needs to go!

We knew we'd need to get updated appliances fairly soon, so I've been scouring sales and doing research. A few weeks ago, we came across an AMAZING sale -- one that was projected to be better than Black Friday sales and even sales through the New Year. So we jumped on it! But first, before you see the NEW ones, you really need a good appreciation of the old stuff! First off, the oven: a Magic Chef. It's all one piece: oven on top and bottom with the range in the middle. But if you notice the two back burners of the stove cant be accessed and are USELESS if you have anything on the front two burners. Now it's not often that I need more than 2 burners, but even trying to store a hot pot on the back burner is virtually impossible because of the slanted back part pushes all the pots forward.

The top oven's temperature gauge was COMPLETELY off. It ALWAYS burned things. I actually thought it was my baking sheets that were causing it to burn and was ready to ask for an entire new set for Christmas. Nope -- it was the oven. Also, if you baked cookies in the top oven, it would gradually take longer and longer to bake them with each consecutive batch. Soooo annoying! Dylan wanted to pose in front of the oven as I took the final pictures -- but (as you can tell) he had to go to the bathroom very bad! :) And refused to go until I took the picture! :) Hahaha memories! :)

The bottom oven was even more of a joy than the top! (sarcasm there) The bottom oven door would not close. In fact, it always would pop open about 1.5 inches, which caused a lot of heat to escape if you were cooking. IF we dared to cook in the lower oven, we had to hold it close with a broomstick, like on Thanksgiving from last year.

Another danger about the lower oven was that the door had lost its spring control when you opened it. If you weren't careful, the door would literally FALL and almost hit the ground.

To prevent this from accidentally happening, we would keep the self-cleaning lock on it to keep the door closed. BUT you cant cook with that lever locked, so then we'd resort to uneven heating or broomstick-ghetto-ness! :) To make things even more fun with this oven, since the self-cleaner lock was jutting out, on multiple occasions we've stabbed ourselves in the hip with it! Ugh!!

The refrigerator was also an antique. It was probably one of the smallest fridges out there, which makes trying to store 4 gallons of milk and a Brita pitcher in it a true test of origami! The freezer CONSTANTLY fluctuated in temperature! Sometimes you could scoop ice cream with a plastic spoon.... other times we needed to call in World's Strongest Man to even make a dent in it! The glass mugs in the freezer had been melted and froze so many times that they had rings of ice around them every inch or so! One of the main frustrations about my fridge (aside from the lack of room) was that any green leafy vegetable went bad in 1 day -- regardless of expiration date! The shelves were a dark tinted color so I couldnt see anything on them unless I started pulling stuff out. So annoying!!

Other storage features of my kitchen include this beautiful corner cabinet! (more sarcasm there) It has a light behind the back glass, but no way to remove the glass to actually change the light!! Genius. Plus I despise the fact that everyone can see all the clutter on those shelves!

This is the other storage section I can't stand. This little cabinet is about 6 inches short of normal counter height. Not sure what they thought they were going to do with it. Again, the open cabinetry drives me nuts!!! Parker says hi though! :)

So we found an amazing sale at a local appliance shop with really good rebates. After a lot of research and a cup of coffee to think things through once more, we made the jump and purchased new stuff! We scheduled delivery before Thanksgiving with the intent to just put in the new fridge and oven immediately. We can get by with the other stuff for now. Dylan was a big help to Mommy while I emptied out the fridge.

Matt pulled the stove out, getting it ready to go.

The delivery guys came and hauled it away. No tears were shed over this one!

We then had to rip out the top cabinet above the fridge to make the new fridge fit. BUT the Montana football game was on -- and we know how important MT football is to Matt!!! So notice the laptop on the counter so he wont miss a play!

With Dylan's help, he hooked up the new stove.. again all while watching the football game -- laptop on the floor! :)

Okay, are you ready to see the new stuff??? Drum roll please................
......................... Here it is: my new oven!!

 And new fridge!!

Words cannot express how much I LOVE my new appliances!! My food doesn't burn in the oven anymore. I LOVE the double-oven feature! I love having the freezer on the bottom and fridge on top. Milk tastes AMAZING now. My leafy vegetables stay good for many days! There's tons of space -- it's all so nice!! I'm so much happier in the kitchen now! So thank you to Matt for helping make this possible!!! And for being patient along the way while I figured out exactly what I wanted. In the end, I LOVE IT!!! There's still some work to do, as you can see by some of the demolition that we did. But while we figure out cabinetry and other kitchen features, we can still enjoy the benefits of new appliances!! YAY!