New Appliances!

We bought appliances for the house today! They won't be delivered until April 4 :( I am soooo excited to see them IN the house and I am actually really looking forward to doing some laundry. Our fridge, dishwasher and clothes washer are all energy star. I don't believe Best Buy carries Energy Star clothes dryers, microwaves, or ranges or that they are even on the market at all. As a bonus for buying Energy Star, Avista (the local electric/gas company) is offering rebates. For the appliances we purchased, we will receive $100 in credit on our account. Yay! I'm really trying to be green wherever we can in our new house. I noticed that the windows are Energy Star and the house is very well insulated. We would like to get a new stand for our TV, and probably new desks for the office. I'm going to yard sale like crazy this spring to find pieces that I can re-use and re-finish. It's a lot better for the environment (and the wallet) than buying new...

Here are pictures I grabbed online of our appliances and links to their information on bestbuy.com...

Refrigerator

Twin-cooling means no odor transfer between freezer and refrigerator. We gave up "water in the door" to save money, but there is a filtered water spout inside and an ice maker and tub in the freezer (it even comes with a handy ice scoop). I'm super excited about the "french door" design. It seems soooo spacious, and there is no bending to get veggies out of the crisper. The bottom freezer is also more efficient since "cold air is heavier than warm air". Samsung also makes some of the most energy efficient models. This one should only cost about $50 a year to operate.

Range

This range is self-cleaning. I know, big deal. But this one is different in that it is "steam" self-cleaning. The lower heating element is hidden and there the bottom is concave (?). To clean, you pour 1-1/4 cups water in the bottom of the oven and press the self clean button. The oven heats up to 350 degrees (as opposed to 700+ on a conventional oven. Hello energy savings!) and steams the yuckies on the inside of the oven. Then, when the cycle is over, you wipe any of the baked on yuckies from the bottom of the oven. Presto! I really had wanted to run a gas line to the kitchen and get a gas range, but it was getting a little costly. Booooo.

Microwave

Just your basic, everyday 950 watt microwave. I believe this is "silver" not "stainless steel". I'm curious how it will look with the stainless range. I guess we shall see....

Dishwasher

I thought this was a pretty basic dishwasher, then Mike told me it was way cooler than the one we have now. The new one has a "sani-rinse" cycle and a hard food disposer. Cool!

Washer

I was really wanting a "steam" washer and dryer, but again, cost prevailed.... These are awesome though. "Vibration Reduction Technology" means it won't sound like a train coming through the house during the spin cycle... Samsung also has a cool "silver care" feature, where the water runs between 2, 99-point-something percent silver plates to kill bacteria or somesuch fancy scientific jibba jabba, when using cold water!.... The yearly operating cost of this machine is around $12 with a natural gas water heater. And with the silver care, we won't have to use hardly any hot water, so maybe less than that...

Dryer

It's a front load dryer... There's a child lock-out.... We also got the pedestals to raise the washer and dryer up so I don't have to break my back to load and unload and they're great storage!

I hope I haven't bored you to death with my appliances. In the next couple days we should have farm fresh eggs to blog about. I was telling my mom last week that I would like to find a farm in Medical Lake that sells fresh eggs, and she told me her co-worker sells them. I've known this lady practically my whole life and did not know this. So my mom ordered 2 dozen! That's a lot of eggs. I can't wait to see/eat them. I will take photos and blog all about my experience. I'm anxious to see Mike's reaction. He is nervous that there might be a real live baby chick in one....We shall see.