Home Renovation Ideas in Gold Coast
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constra<strong>in</strong>t. There are def<strong>in</strong>itely ways to get more out of your budget, like buy<strong>in</strong>g used from<br />
Craigslist or purchas<strong>in</strong>g a floor model from a local appliance store. However, because we<br />
were under time constra<strong>in</strong>ts, I opted to just buy new s<strong>in</strong>ce we already had a very generous<br />
budget of $15,000.<br />
For each appliance, I tried to f<strong>in</strong>d as many reviews as I could onl<strong>in</strong>e (<strong>Home</strong> Depot, Best Buy<br />
and Lowes were <strong>in</strong>credibly helpful) and used the number of reviews as a gauge for how<br />
popular the product was.<br />
Choos<strong>in</strong>g a Dishwasher<br />
The dishwasher decision was the easiest one. We had had a Bosch <strong>in</strong> the past and thought it<br />
was great. It was <strong>in</strong>credibly quiet and cleaned dishes super well. The dry<strong>in</strong>g of plastic<br />
Tupperware wasn’t great but I also didn’t want any extra heat<strong>in</strong>g of plastic so that wasn’t a<br />
huge consideration for me.<br />
I basically just purchased an updated version of our older Bosch dishwasher <strong>in</strong> sta<strong>in</strong>less steel.<br />
Unfortunately, we’re a month <strong>in</strong> and it’s already malfunction<strong>in</strong>g. Hopefully the servic<strong>in</strong>g<br />
department will take care of all of it and we’ll be back up and runn<strong>in</strong>g soon. So I guess the<br />
lesson is that you can do lots of research and buy someth<strong>in</strong>g new and of quality and still end<br />
up with a lemon!<br />
Choos<strong>in</strong>g a Refrigerator<br />
Choos<strong>in</strong>g the right refrigerator was def<strong>in</strong>itely the hardest appliance decision. There seemed to<br />
be so many brands and possible layouts. Samsung, LG, Frigidaire, GE, Kitchenaid? Did we<br />
want the freezer on the bottom or the top? Or perhaps a side-by-side model? Or did we like<br />
the French door look?<br />
Now some models have a door-<strong>in</strong>-door layout (like this and this) where the outer door lets<br />
you access the items <strong>in</strong> the door shelves and the <strong>in</strong>ner door opens up to the entire fridge.<br />
It helped to sit down and write down a list of what I wanted:<br />
An external water and ice dispenser: I’ve never had this <strong>in</strong> the past and it seemed so fancy<br />
(even though it’s a pretty common feature)<br />
A counter depth fridge: S<strong>in</strong>ce we were plann<strong>in</strong>g on keep<strong>in</strong>g our old fridge <strong>in</strong> the garage, I<br />
decided we didn’t need the largest fridge. This meant a counter depth option (mean<strong>in</strong>g it<br />
wouldn’t jut out too much from where the counters and cab<strong>in</strong>ets ended) would be f<strong>in</strong>e for our<br />
needs<br />
More fridge space and access to fridge space: I tend to shop for the week and go through<br />
everyth<strong>in</strong>g I purchase (I run a meal plann<strong>in</strong>g service after all). When I cook, I’m mostly<br />
grabb<strong>in</strong>g items from the fridge compartment, so it made sense to have that space most<br />
accessible. Plus, we cook for leftovers so more fridge space over freezer space would be nice<br />
(and aga<strong>in</strong>, we were keep<strong>in</strong>g our old fridge so would be able to freeze th<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>in</strong> that freezer<br />
compartment).