We are back!

I know, ... I know,... It's been a looooong time.

But we are back full of ideas, projects, pics for you.

As you know we a first time home buyers so our projects will be an adventure (for us). I promise you will be able to follow all our trials, experiments, embarrassing/humorous mistakes and our victories.

So many things happened during this time: we had our 30-day inspection as well as our 120-day inspection; we went to Brazil to visit family and Kiara (our pet) traveled with us; the same day we left on vacation, the builder put our sod (there will be a post to tell you, with details, all the drama!); we started our first Ikea project; all our appliances are installed now (last one - OTR Microwave) was installed last weekend - seriously!

Talking about it, we installed the appliance ourselves. It took us about 3,5 hours to get it done. It was a lot of work. The most difficult part was to make sure we didn't "catch"/damage any electrical wiring and also find the studs. We have a stud finder, however it wasn't that easy to find the studs.

The tools we used for this project were: level, driller and screwdriver.

In the end, everything worked fine. Check the pics with our before & after.

Before:

After:

Our next projects for the kitchen area include: backsplash, 3 pendant lights (over the breakfast bar), high chairs and maybe crown moulding (cabinets).

What do think about our kitchen?

Appliances - choices

As I mentioned in another post, when we purchased the house, we decided to get the "appliance package" instead of "decor dollars".

On Black Friday some of the appliances that we wanted to upgrade to were on sale. Not a huge sale, but savings are always good, right?

For the kitchen,the standard appliances were Frigidaire Gallery (smudge proof). We chose to upgrade some of them. The delivery will be on December 30 - one day after closing.

Check it out:

Refrigerator: since we like cooking, we decided to upgrade to a bigger fridge. Considering all the advices (readers/followers: thank you for your feedback here in the blog, on facebook and even directly to me) we chose the French door, bottom freezer with water/ice dispenser.

Range/stove: we got the standard one. It has hot surface indicator and warm zone.

Dishwasher: we upgraded to a dishwasher with stainless steel tub. We read that this type of dishwasher is quieter.

OTR: it wasn't part of the "package", but we got a good deal. So we decided to match this appliance with the others.

Washer and Dryer: we upgraded. We picked Whirlpool Duet Steam front load(washer - 5.0 Cu.Ft/dryer - 7.4 Cu.Ft) with a lot of different cycles. Being honest, I believe I will need some training to be able to use all the functionalities. I loved the colour - chrome shadow!!!.... looks nice, eh?!

So, what do you think about our choices? I hope we got good appliances.