Progress at last

We've been in the house in Decatur now for nearly a month. Our stuff is here in relatively reasonable places, but we can't finish unpacking and arranging until the storage building arrives. It's not a big house, and we have ten bicycles perched in various places throughout the place and we live with four dogs. I'm feeling pretty frustrated because I have no where to move stuff out of the way of any painting and wallpaper scraping activities I'd like to do.

But, we did order the building, a 10x12 model that will hold all the cycles and garden gear and tools, etc., and will even have a loft for things like Christmas and other holiday boxes or whatever else we decide to store there. Our new privacy fence is scheduled to be installed tomorrow, which will really be nice in the mornings when I'm not properly dressed to take the hounds on a nature-call walk. It was really difficult for me last week when Len was in Seattle and I was handling all four at once, many, many times each day!

My birthday was last week, and we went to a nice little French cafe in Decatur called Cafe Alsace. We took MARTA the one stop to the square and then back and walked home from the station. It was pretty fabulous! I'm loving the lack of driving we do now.

But, speaking of driving, we do a lot of it on the weekends. We've been to Home Depot about a zillion times, and since we want to replace the kitchen appliances, we've been to the Sears scratch and dent store and Lowes and any other appliance store we can find. Once all this commerce is complete, I hope the car sits idle for long, long periods between rides!

Len got a subscription to Consumer Reports on line to research the appliances. After all the appliances we have had in all the various homes we've owned, we have a pretty good idea of what we like and don't like. Our kitchen in Smyrna was by far the very nicest we have ever had. I loved the powerful cooktop and the double ovens, but the dishwasher was very loud and the microwave was just odd thanks to its weird controls. Our range in Seattle had a nice oven, with pretty even heat, but simmering was not an option on any of the burners. Just like the burners on this stove in Decatur, the only option was boil high or boil low.

And, this is a personal choice, but I really feel that stainless steel only looks good on the professional series appliances like Viking or the Jenn-Air we had in Smyrna and the like. To me, a Kenmore range with stainless steel is like a house with brick only on the front. Why bother? So, we wanted black because it will flow nicely with the style of the kitchen.

We found a great GE Profile range. It has two ovens: An oversized oven on top and where the broiler or storage drawer would be on another range, a small oven. There are five burners with the continuous grate feature, or you can pull off the center grate and exchange it with a griddle plate. The burner under that grate is oblong. There are two super-powerful burners and a mid-range, and one with an ultra-low simmer feature. Best of all, Consumer Reports rates it a good buy!

After going through the CR site, I decided on a couple refrigerators and dishwashers -- all either Kenmore or Kitchen Aid, and we headed out to the closest Sears store. I didn't want to spend much more than $500 for the dishwasher, but the one I really wanted was a $900 Kenmore! But, on the CR site, I found a very nice alternative for $500 and planned to get that one. When we got to Sears, the one I really wanted, the $900 one, was on close-out for $550! It was a floor model and black! We snatched that one right up.

As for the frig, we were really limited by the height restriction from our cabinets. We found a very nice black side by side Kenmore that fits the space. The microwave that we already have in the kitchen, which happens to be black, also happens to be the highest rated of its type on CR -- so no need to get a new Microwave!

The coolest news, though, was if I got a Sears credit card, I'd get a 20 percent rebate on all Kenmore products I bought with the card that day. So,yes, I got a card! We'll get something like $300 back!

It was a great shopping experience! The new stuff will be delivered April 14. Hurrah!

Now, for Len news. He was accepted at Georgia State Law School! The reason that is such great news is that he had not yet been accepted to any Atlanta school when we moved here and in the back of my mind I started to freak out since the decision process was taking so long. Phew! Now we wait to hear from Emory and see what Len decides. Life is good.