The appliance saga is OVER! After doing a LOT of researching and visiting stores and talking to Lowe’s about our options. We have a new refrigerator…. AND a new range! Yep! We went to Lowe’s and talked to one of the managers and after explaining the nightmare that was our Frigidaire refigerator…. we worked out a deal to replace both our rand and refrigerator so that we could maintain our matching applianced. Phew!

We had narrowed it down to three before hitting the stores:

1. Whirlpool French door and double oven. However once we were in the stores pulling the doors in and out, the freezer just didn’t feel as sturdy as the other two. So it was the first deleted from the list.

2. Kitchenaid 4-door fridge and stainless topped double oven. The bad things were that the stainless didn’t match between the 2 appliances and we checked THREE different stores. So that defeated the purpose of replacing both of ours. Plus, in the door opening/closing tests, it just wasn’t as nice of a closing as the winner….

So who won?

3. Why the Samsung, of course! I had been in L.O.V.E. with the 4-door Samsung since we were originally appliance, but we didn’t buy it then because they had no gas range and at that time no projected release date. And at that time it was our range that was on it’s last legs that we really needed to replace. Even in the beginning of our reshopping the gas range wasn’t available yet. Then suddenly it appeared on Lowe’s site as… Available! *Queue music!* However…. it wasn’t a double oven… and we had grown quite accustom to having our second “pizza oven” and I wasn’t thrilled with losing it. However, ulitmately I decided my love of the Samsung fridge outweighed that fact that I was losing out on a pizza oven…. OH…. and did I mention that we chose the wifi version! Yep… our fridge has apps! I can read twitter, check my google calendar, see pictures from picassa, there’s a recipe app and weather! I love knowing the weather! So I love that I can see the outside temp right there on my cool little screen on my gorgeous fridge! OH… and the coolest app: notes! We can write notes and pin them to the screen! You can pin them to the home screen… Love it!

The Samsung fridge is HUGE! We had to measure our front door to make sure it would even make it through… Hubby has to remove the door and it just made it by the entertainment center (which can’t be moved as it’s mounted on the wall… I don’t think I’ve ever posted pics? I really need to! I love it!) But I digress!

I had a paranoid scare! After 24 hours the fridge wasn’t cooling sufficiently…. Not again! I called Samsung service and find out that there are no service centers for our area!?!? So they wasnted to…. get this: replace the unit! UGH! Fortunately I was just impatient and paranoid after the Frigidaire ordeal. Within the next couple of days it got down to proper coolness and pretty much maintains 34 degrees! YAY!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my flex drawer! I use it for Propel, beer, hubby’s unhealthy Monsters, bottled water that we take when we go shopping… basically anything bottled or canned beverage. It keeps then nice and cold! WOOT!

The freezer drawer is deep with a pullout interior drawer for some additional organization. I Only use that one for my lunches I buy to take to work and blue ice packs since I have my other freezer… but it’s roomy… however I think I’d lose stuff in it if it were my only freezer…

The range is nice… I love the burners I actually love the griddle for the middle fish (oval) burner since it sits on top of the grates rather than replace it like on the Frigidaire. It cooks nicely… there are a range of burners from simmer to fast boil! I like that it automatically adjusts the temp down for you when you choose convection. I’m looking forward to cooking my turkey in it on Thursday! One thing the oven does have but I don’t think I’ll use it much is a warming drawer.

It’s been a couple of months now and for the most part I’m happy. I’ll save my one other drama for another post!

I need to take some nice pics of them in place… but for now here’s the manufacturer pics for you:

Don’t ask… but let’s just say I won’t be buying another Frigidaire refrigerator for a long, long time! I’m on my fourth… yes that’s 4th replacement…. But I’m done with them… so i’ve been searching! I’ve narrowed my it down to Whirlpool (#1 rated for both the range and fridge) and KitchenAid. I really, really LOVE the 4 door Samsung, however I don’t much care for their gas range (which is brand new, JUST realeased in the last week or so!! In the past they’ve only had electric which is why we didn’t go with them in the first place!) And loving one feature for our last set is how we ended up with our current issues! (I fell in love with the automatic door pull out thingy on the range, of all things! I’m trying not to make that mistake again and I’m looking at both the range and the fridge (and keeping in mind that we don’t want to change our our range hood… so that limits us, too!) Each of the three sets has stuff I don’t care for or don’t like.

If I break down the three brands:
Samsung: LOVE the fridge, don’t care for the range and it’s not a double oven which i’ve grown to love on my current range and don’t really want to give up. the top is black.
KitchenAid: like the fridge and like the range… sort of… the problem is that in the store it actually looks like it’s three different shades of stainless??? the back is goldish looking stainless, the top surface is another shade and the door fronts of the 2 oven’s looks to be yet another shade.
Whirlpool: like the fridge and like the range and the color of the range is perfect for our range hood. although it’s a black cooktop surface vice stainles..

All three ranges have the oval fish burner that i like. The inside of the KitchenAid is blue which I don’t like, but how often will I actuylly see that? All three fridges have LED lighting. The KitchenAid has the most room…. well… except for the Samsung that has that extra drawer that I LOVE! Darned old Samsung range! There’d reallky be no contest if I loved their stove!

They’re relatively close in price. So that’s kind of a wash on all of them. We only have to pay the difference from the old appliances to the new ones (which is a fare amount for the range since we got such a good initial deal… we’re going to end up paying about double regarless of which one we choose.)

Oh… the door bins in the KitchenAid have grey liners on the bottom, whereas the Whirlpool has blue… ick… but they can be removed if I can still see them once I have food in there. And the KitchenAid has the ice machine on the door (space saver).. Whirlpool and Samsung it’s in the food area.

The KitchenAid has a really cool display panel that… get this… I can upload pictures to it and it will run a slideshow! lol! Cute… and something else to break!

*sigh*

Typing this hasn’t helped. I’m still undecided!

Soooooo a little over a month ago I had no idea who Doug Reinhardt was! I mean, in hindsite, I realize I did know who he was, as he was one of Paris Hilton’s past boyfriends. But when I first heard the name I didn’t have a clue. He was described as the guy from “The Hills” which I’ve never watched. However, I am now in LOVE! See the reason for learning all this information about Doug is because he has a new kettlebell workout system out that is very popular on the fitness forum that I frequent. (It’s been called the P90X of kettlebells… and that’s a pretty popular and well-loved program!) The program was brand spanking new when first posted on the forum and a few of us were a bit awstruck with the shirtless pictures of this Doug guy on the website and cover of the DVD. We also liked the description of the workouts… 16 different workouts all for $119 (not to mention a 10% off coupon). Considering other kettletbell DVDs pretty run between $35 and $50 a piece… %119 for 9 DVDs/16 workouts… is a steal! I’ve been through all 16 of the workouts and I’m on my way through a second time and I just love them! They are challenging and FUN! It’s filmed in the hills of LA overlooking the city and it’s soooo pretty! I particularly like the workouts that were filmed at dusk and at night! So very pretty! I can honestly say this is the best workout DVD purchase I’ve made in a looooong time! You can find info on the Reinhardt Kettlebell System (and more shirtless pictures of Doug HERE! (By the way…. he wears a shirt during the workouts as does the instructor, Owen. *sigh*)

I’ve gotten into a new, for me, fitness tool: Kettlebells! They are so.much.fun! I’ve resisted them for years. I’ve seen posts about them on the fitness forums but had no desire in swinging around a hunk of steel (and having it fly through the TV or mirror!) Well a couple of months ago I saw the new contoured kettlebells and decided I had to have some. I got them as well as a couple of workouts and fell in L.O.V.E.! However I quickly decided I didn’t want the newfangled contour bells… but, instead wanted the “real” regular shaped, round kettlebells. I was fortunate to find sone really nice ones at a kettlebell gym in orange county that we also on sale. So I returned the contoured and bought a whole set, including doubles, of sexy black “real” kettlebells. I’ve been buying some really good workouts. Some of my favorites are again, from people/gyms here in SoCal! That makes it nice cuz one of these days I’d like to take a personal training session with one of them and being close makes it a possiblity!

On a side, workout, note: I finally hit 1000 miles since using Nike+ to track my running! I only run on the treadmill and I don’t run for hours and hours, miles and miles… just 30 or 45 minutes as part of my work outs serveral times a month or week… depending on my focus! So i’m quite proud of the accomplishment! I thought I’d get a new shirt or item or something for my little Nike+ girl over there —-> but nothing… *pout*

Brie went to Rainbow Bridge Friday.
June 17, 1997 - March 4, 2011

HERE’s the link to a wedding page I made several years ago with some photos from our wonderful day!

I thought is was time for a new post for the new year! I wrote a post up about my new appliances but didn’t publish it cuz i needed pics… well I took the pics and never uploaded them, then my parents got here! I’ll still post it… as soon as I upload them! I also thought a 2010 retrospective post would be good… but I need to write that one! What a BUSY year it was for us!!!!! Now I’m off to workout (first run on the treadmill with my new shoes that I desperately needed!) Then off to work after 3.5 weeks off….. WAAAAYYYYY too long for me cuz I’m so out of the groove of it all after so long!

We’ve watched 5 of the Harry Potter movies so far. When a new movie in a series comes out we always like to watch the previous one(s) before going to see the new one. I had planned to start watching the HP ones a while back but we’ve been so busy with the house… the time for the new one is here so we’ve had to have a bit of a marathon. We had watched the first one last weekend… then watched 2 more Saturday and 2 more yesterday. That only leaves Half Blood Prince… then finally: Deathly Hallows, Part 1 on the 19! WOOT! We picked up our tickets for that, too!

We didn’t have any major projects this weekend. We did a lot of putting stuff away that had been in boxes in the other rooms. It’s nice to see it all coming together and I really need to get some pictures posted!

We (hubby) finally got the old tile floor out and the old thinset scaped (what a messy job!) We added a fresh coat of pain (kept it the same color so that we didn’t have to repaint the ceiling). Then the floor went in. The room looks SO much better with the new floor than it with the tile! It coming together slowly… we do a little each evening after work. As the title says: I have a desk! We had a bit of a set back with the bookshelf. We had one behind the door with the other furniture… but it was narrower, even though a bit deeper… and still allowed the door to open… well this one is shallower but longer so you can only open the door about 45 degrees…. OOPS! We really need the storage of the the bookshelf… so we have some ideas for using it in there (like making it a built-in).

I ordered Rock Band 3 from Amazon for release day arrival…. but haven’t had a chance to play it yet. I did get my three free Doors download tracks, though! Maybe I’ll have a spare moment to try it out this weekend?

But I’ve just been SO busy! Then the other day, I listed a couple of things on the local site to sell (it’s like Craig’s List but really local). Well the guy that bought our TV stand mentioned he was making a man cave/guy room/office… so hubby mentioned that we had a whole room full of office furnture we were going to sell and that I would send him pics later that afternoon. That meant a quick clean up and dust off to make them photo ready… something not budgeted for in my day. He got the pics and wanted the whole room full! Both desks, both book shelves, TV stand and printer stand! And he wanted them at 9:00 the next a.m.! (This was at 4:00) You wouldn’t believe the stuff you can accumulate and store…. I got it all out and now I have no desk… no computer room… UGH!

It’s a good thing that when I replaced my computer a couple of months ago, I replaced it with a laptop! At least I’m mobile! This weekend we plan to pry up the tile that’s in that room, then lay down more of the Pergo… then we can start moving back in with our new office furniture! YAY!