I don’t normally like to do this, but I had to share it with someone.
My wife Annie and I have lived in the same house in Kendall Park for 19 years now. We’ve made changes and upgrades throughout the house, but other than a coat of paint and the replacement of dead appliances with low-end new ones, we’ve done nothing in the kitchen.
That’s meant that, for 19 years, we’ve had a harvest gold kitchen — a color that had been out of style 10 years prior to our moving in.
And it’s not like you could hide the kitchen’s age — we had linoleum floor tiles (harvest gold) that were coming loose; our cabinets were warped and sagging; and the dark wood paneling was coming off the wall in spots. Our clothes dryer, which was in the kitchen, no longer worked and we’d pop the circuit breaker if we used the coffee maker and dishwasher at the same time.
Oh yeah, and if you poured a pot of water into the sink, it would pop the pipes, causing a flood — which it did nearly every time we had a crowd over.
So a few months ago, we decided to bite the bullet and start from scratch. We had everything ripped out — the kitchen was stripped down to the concrete slab and wall studs (the ceiling and the recessed lighting would stay). We ordered new appliances from a place on Route 27 where we got a great price, but more lip than was necessary; new flooring (laminate that looks like slate tiles) from a place in Edison; a new sink and faucet from a place in North Brunswick, where the salesman stepped over the line while flirting with my wife; new Silestone countertops from a place in Brick and new cabinets from a place in Hamilton. I’m sure I’m leaving something out, but you get the picture.
For the most part, things have gone smoothly if a little more slowly than expected. Our decorator, Sabrina Teekah of Elegant Interiors, has been a big help, keeping us focused and on track, setting out a gameplan for us that we would never have been able to plan ourselves.
It hasn’t been fun, but it has worked. We’ve got a little kitchenette set up in the dining room with a microwave, toaster oven and — most importantly — my coffee pot. And we have two dorm-size refrigerators in the den that are barely big enough to hold some water and some leftovers.
As I said, it has gone relatively well — until Thursday, that is. That’s when we got word from the appliance store that Frigadaire would not be selling our washer and drier through smaller stores and that the company would be shipping only a small quantity to Best Buy. And they had yet to manufacture them.
Suddenly, we were back to square one on the washer and dryer, except we had a kitchen plan that was based on the specs for the Frigadaire, which are smaller than most large-capacity washers. Every alternative was either too big (like the Whirlpool), the wrong color (like the Maytag) or way too expensive (like the Miele). We almost went with the Miele anyway, but at the last minute we found out that it was an electric dryer.
We visited Best Buy on Saturday, hoping to find the Frigadaire. No one there knew what we were talking about. We assumed that they had not started manufacturing them and focused our attention on an LG, which was close in size (too big, still), but the right color.
When we got home, we started doing some research on prices and — to our surprise — came across the Frigadaire in stock at P.C. Richard. A call on Sunday to the store confirmed that they had them. We made the trip Monday, placed the order and they were delivered this morning.
No harm, no foul, as they say, except for the lost sleep and aggravation.
That’s where it stands — though, Annie is planning to chase down Frigidaire’s CEO and give him an earful. I just want this thing done, so we can get on with our lives.
Consider this my way of venting.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 