Saturday, November 24, 2018

November Update

Most years Jeff and I don't take advantage of Black Friday sales but, with the move, this year was an exception. Our current dryer went kaput after only 8 years. (Which is a rant, I'll spare you.) We've also been having problems with the washing machine, but it is still limping along. So, yesterday, I ordered a new washer and dryer (and freezer and microwave).

I don't know about you guys, but I have had a dilemma about which brand to buy. Basically, there are no laundry machine brands that are designed to last and all are likely to fail within the first decade. So, given that, I decided to go with a lower budget line of machines. I figure if they make them to fail, then I'm going to spend less on them. Though, I still haven't figured out why anyone would want WiFi laundry machines.

I actually ordered them to be delivered to the new house in Prineville, so it should be interesting. Little stuff we'll continue to wash here in Portland and hang dry. We'll bring the huge stuff, like sheets and quilts, to Prineville and wash them there. LOL

In the afternoon, we found ourselves back at Portland Direct Tile & Marble. I often find myself perusing their tile pictures online and their staff are super helpful about bringing out pieces for you to look at. Yesterday, I found a room in the back I had never seen before where they had a ton of discontinued borders to choose from. I was super excited to find some that I thought would look good with the soapstone. Green is really not in style this year. Also, I am not excited about this year's encaustic tile trend. We have always tried to avoid trendy kitchen materials because we don't want to "date" our remodels.

We finally made a commitment on the border when we found they had enough remaining of this one.

I have made so many collages of materials that I have gotten sick of doing it. And, in the end, I think we've decided to go with a somewhat boring beige stone plan.
It will probably be colored like one of these. We have not finalized the cabinet wood yet. We drove to Prineville to meet with Cabinets, Floors & More a couple weeks ago, but they cancelled the appointment at the last minute because they had a fire in their shop.

We also haven't settled on which soapstone slabs. On Monday, we're going to go look at the two options again (with the tile border panel in-hand) and choose one of them. Here are the photos we took of them in the shop on our first visit.
Black Soapstone with green veins
Very Dark Green with some lighter green patches (this has not been wetted down so it will be darker once we oil it)
Anyway, we should have most of the details figured out by the middle of December then hopefully we can get a working estimate from the contractor. Then we can sign contracts and hopefully they'll get started sometime around the beginning of the 2019.

5 comments:

  1. Speed Queen is designed to last, and it's made in America. I have never owned one myself, but will buy when my washer and dryer goes kaput.

    https://www.appliancesconnection.com/speed-queen-963527.html

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion. I was told this by many people and looked into them. All I could find at my local stores were the top loaders. And if you look at their website, the front loaders only have a 5 year warranty.

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    2. Oh, too bad, I wouldn't want a top loader either. Sometimes it's best to buy what's on sale these days. Much of what we buy these days are made by other manufacturers anyway. I bought a large LG washer a few years back, and knock on wood it's working great and I love it. My dryer is a Miele and luckily never had a problem with it ever. The Miele washer was another story. Good luck.

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  2. The best set of washer/dryer that I have ever own was a cheap Roper set that lasted 20 years. Worst set is the Amana set that is at the Torrey Rd house. It is noisy and the plastic parts that move the drum have broke 3 times already. It goes off kilter sometimes when it spins. Also there are long pauses between the different stages. The set at Gear Acres is a Bosch front loader set. My parents had an Amana fridge go bad in 5 yrs and they were given the run around. It was an assembly problem with a screw going through a line. Then after they bought a new fridge (had to have something) Amana said they would replace the fridge but they wanted the old fridge or they could have 75 bucks if they had the original receipt. My mom was 80 and they played her. I told her to call her credit card company and they would send her a copy of the check etc. But she was very flustered about the entire thing. Who saves an old non working fridge? or an original receipt of a non working fridge? Appliances piss me off.

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    1. I hear you. I'm super annoyed how quickly appliances die now. I'm hoping this is a just a low point for the appliance makers and it improves from here.

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