Chapter 7: Kitchen Renovation

So when Keith told me we needed to go kitchen appliance shopping one Saturday morning, I was actually a little less than thrilled. I’ve been excited about this entire kitchen renovation process, but finding appliances just didn’t seem like fun. Turns out, I was very, very wrong!

I’ve never gone shopping for a new frig, oven, microwave or dishwasher. I always just happily used what was provided in my apartments and in our first home without a thought to what I might be missing. Now I know I was missing a lot! All the cool features and functions of kitchen appliances these days are so new and amazing to me. And I pinch myself because I can’t believe that we are getting all four of these appliances – brand spankin’ new!

First, Keith and I decided to have a game plan before we went shopping. No surprise here – right? We decided that since there are so many different brands to select from that we should just pick two to look at and go from there. We selected Whirlpool and Maytag (later we realized Maytag is owned by Whirlpool – ha ha!). GE, Kenmore, LG, etc. are all great brands, but we knew they were most likely going to be slightly over our budget. Plus, we’ve had good experiences with Whirlpool and Maytag in the past so we decided not to fix something that wasn’t broken.

Being new to Pittsburgh, there is one consistent recommendation we’ve always kept hearing about – Bridgeville Appliances. Everything we heard about this local mom & pop shop that has been around for more than 60 years was extremely positive. And everyone said you can’t beat their prices or service. Luckily, we found all of this to be true!

Here’s what we picked: (all stainless steel of course!)

• Whirlpool Microwave. I think the microwave has me tickled pink the most because it functions as a true convection oven too! Now I’m especially glad that we didn’t decide to go with the double ovens in our kitchen design.


• Whirlpool Dishwasher. A close second in my happiness factor would have to be the dishwasher. Anything is a step up compared to what I’ve been using the past 9 months. This lil’ guy even has a pots and pans cycle.


• Whirlpool Range. So I originally wanted to go with a gas oven (I think oven hoods are so fab), but it would have been costly to get the gas line hooked-up for our kitchen. However, I know I’m going to love this flat top surface and SteamClean option for easy cleaning.


• Whirlpool Frig. I didn’t realize the refrigerator would be the appliance we’d have the most debate over. And it wasn’t necessarily a debate about the style of the frig because we both liked the trendy French Door style, but we were also completely fine with the standard Side-By-Side Door style as well. The debate was over the size. We basically learned there are two refrigerator sizes on the market – counter depth and full size. While counter depth (30 1/8 inches) is smaller, it costs an extra $1,000 more than a full size frig (35 ¾ inches). I know. This seems completely absurd to me too. But fashion is expensive and that’s basically what we’d be paying extra for. The look of the counter depth is more appealing than a frig that sticks out about 5 inches further from the edge of the counter. I wasn’t nuts about making a fashion faux pas, but Keith didn’t think $1,000 was worth it. Solution? We actually found a refrigerator almost in the middle of two sizes – with a depth of 33 ¾ inches to be exact. It only came in the Side-By-Door option so that pretty much solved our debate. I think I can live with the extra 3 inches….and I doubt anyone, but me ever notices.

So basically, I really enjoy my Saturday morning trip to Bridgeville Appliances. But now the hardwork was about to begin on our part...removing the cabinets and floor then installing the hardwood floor. All this would need to be done before Columbus Brother's could start on the installation. Sigh! Seems like the work never ends - right? Stay tuned!