Praying to the appliance gods...

[Let me preface this post by saying that we have been without a stove (unless you count the fancy hot plate that we used in our apartment in January and February a "stove"), countertops and a working kitchen sink since DECEMBER].

As part of our kitchen renovation, we needed to replace the dishwasher, range and refrigerator. I spent countless hours doing market research, reading consumer reviews and comparing prices online.  Countless hours.  So, by the time we went on our appliance shopping adventure, I felt armed and ready to handle the sale.  I thought I knew everything you needed to know when it comes to appliances.  I left the house that morning knowing what I wanted (GE Profile....based on both price and consumer reviews) and was ready to do some negotiating. 

or so I thought......

B just waltzed right into Yale Appliance, no research or information in sight, and starting asking questions and looking at different options. Oh, no no no dear!  I already knew what I wanted!  I entertained him for a while, though, “Oh, yes, honey those are great appliances,” but all the while thinking, “we can’t afford that!!”

An hour or so later, we are sitting at the salesman’s desk running numbers for the Electrolux induction range and French door refrigerator. What????  That was not in our price range.  I keep kicking B's leg behind the desk and giving him the sideways "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" glance.....all the while, trying to calm my heart palpitations.  Apparently, though, electrolux had a rebate offer and Yale was doing a sale in conjunction with that. AND somehow, B also managed to get us an already delivered-to-but-unopened version of the fridge, which meant that it was about $1000 less.

So much for all my research.

I definitely wasn't complaining though.  I was in love. the whole time I researched appliances, I would skim over words like “convection” and “induction” and just keep thinking “those are too expensive for our budget. Well…B (apparently much savvier than Ii) just riled us up some pretty fancy ones for only $200 more than the ones I had picked out originally. Maybe next time we go to make a purchase, I will do a little less research and just trust B to take care of the details. Sounds good in theory, but I am not that great at relinquishing control.  Let's just say I'll try.

So, back to the dreamy appliances.  Have you all seen the Electrolux commercials with Kelly Ripa starring as the quintessential do-it-all mom who tosses laundry into appropriate drawers 40 ft away, serves ice cream cake at the perfect temperature, does laundry in the blink of an eye….and, my favorite, boils water in 90 seconds?? Yea, crazy right?  I’m not normally a follower of consumer trends or a slave to advertising, but I couldn't wait to see if I could be just as efficient as the ads let on.

A few weeks go by and the appliances get delivered to the house. At this point, we are about 85% of the way through our kitchen renovation (before and after pictures to come...I swear) and its time to FINALLY test out the new appliances.....

But...first of all....the refrigerator will not fit through the door.  I'm looking at the delivery guy with pure fear and desperation in my eyes. 

"Dude, i need that fridge.......you don't understand." 

He replies, "it's not happening ma'am." 

The worst sentence in the world.  I hate being called ma'am in the first place and I hate being told no.  Wow, that sounds bratty.  I think I was just at the point in the renovation (about 4 months in) that I couldn't take another set back.  So....mr. delivery put the stove in the kitchen and the refrigerator in the garage for the time being.   Ha.  I love my life.

Luckily, we figured out a solution though.  We were already planning to put a slider in the kitchen out to the deck (to be built), so we would be able to get the fridge into the house when they came to open up the wall for the slider.  Ok, phew.  So, we keep the existing fridge and just hook up the stove.  Might as well get some use out of 1 of the appliances, right? 

I sprint downstairs where our wedding gifts are all stacked up in boxes (they have not been opened since my wedding shower in June of 2008) and find the ones with our new pots and pans.  I come up the stairs beaming with excitement to make our first meal in our new house (after living there for 4 months....have i said that part yet?).  Coincidentally, it's B's birthday too!  So we make tacos (his favorite).  B dices everything up and we get it all set up on the counter.  He reads the instruction manual for the new stove and turns on the burner.  We pull out one of the pans and throw the onions in, but......hm...no sizzle?  

Me: "what does that red light mean?" 
B: "I don't know yet, I'm reading the instructions as I go"

Me: "Is the pan getting hot?  Maybe we are doing something wrong"

Pause for a few seconds and try to will the appliance to work.

B: "Um...honey, you're not going to like this...."

I would continue our conversation, but some not-nice words were thrown out at the stove as we discovered that the pots and pans from our registry do not work on an induction stove.  [For educational purposes: induction ranges can only work through a magnetic reaction between two metals.  The stove has a metal reactor and it needs to connect with another piece of metal (stainless steel or cast iron) to produce heat.  There are some non-stick pans that have a stainless steel bottom on them, however, but mine were the Calphalon Contemporary Non-Stick ones that are fully anodized aluminum....whoops!!]  At that point, I look over at B with tears in my eyes, "But I asked the salesman if non-stick pans would work on this kind of stove and he told me yes.  Why did he lie?"  Between laughs, B looks at me and says "well, he probably just wanted to sell the stove to you, honey." 

I have officially lost all faith in humanity. 

To make a long story short (or shorter, since its already quite long), we either need to buy all new pots and pans or return the stove (although its past the 30-day period since we were waiting for our floors to be finished before we installed it).  Furthermore, I highly doubt crate and barrel will want to exchange my 2-year old gifts from a registry that no longer exists on their system, even though they still have bows on them.  So maybe I will try to sell them on ebay?  Or craigslist?  Ugh.

Sooooo...at the end of the day, we purchased these AWESOME appliances, but we can't use either one of them.  Seriously.

Pizza or chinese tonight, babe?