Monday

 

We unwrapped appliances today to check for damage. We didn't see any. They're all still covered in protective plastic film. We'll leave that on and let the installers remove it.

We can't wait to use our induction cooktop on our new range. I hope it's not hard to adjust to. Samsung makes an induction range to match the white glass fridge and dishwasher, but it looked dated, not a whole lot of white glass. Our salesperson/neighbor said that the Samsung has had lots of issues, so we went with a Frigidaire, from their "Gallery Series.” The main difference with induction cooking is that heat is generated via magnets under the cooktop to the ingredients in the pot. No heat is transferred to the pot itself from the source. The advantage is that heat control is more precise, almost as good as gas. The other advantage is that the cooktop and pots don't get as hot, so spills are easier to wipe up and users are less likely to burn themselves. (The pots and surface get warm from the ingredients, not the heat source.) The disadvantage is that pots must have iron in them or be magnetic. The induction cooktop does not have any knobs or on/off button. You simply place a pot on the eye and the magnet recognizes the pot and turns on the touch controls under the cooktop surface near the front for that eye and you adjust the temperature by touching the glass surface. It should make clean up a lot easier for messy cooks.

Our 35 year old Calphalon set was made of aluminum, so we donated them and started over with Le Creuset, in Marseille blue. They are heavy, so we're going to have to stay in shape to use them. 

The microwave drawer appears to be undamaged. Our designer insisted that we include this appliance. John was/is very skeptical, but I'm waiting for him to say that he loves it most of all, probably the first time he uses it and sees how easy it is to place something in it, take it out, or stir the contents without having to take the dish out. In other words, it functions exactly like a drawer. You load and unload from above. To close it, you just bump it--or push a button.

The fridge looks great. I hope it will be easier to keep clean than stainless steel. There is a "beverage center" inside that houses a carafe of filtered water. It fills automatically. Filtered water will be nice for our coffee maker, since our water has more minerals than usual. Currently, we fill gallon jugs with filtered water at Publix.

I think we'll actually be cooking at home again. Our old kitchen was so depressing and ugly that we didn't enjoy using it. The old sink was so shallow that you could hardly get anything wet under the spout. The two bowls were tiny, too. I banged my knuckles so many times trying to wash things in it. 

Our new sink is a single bowl, and it is huge and deep, big enough to spread dirty pots out and clean with plenty of room without water splashing everywhere. One of the things I will enjoy about the new sink is that there is no wall behind it to trap water. Our old countertop behind the sink was always wet and moldy. It didn't help that the sink was mounted above the countertop, so it was difficult to get the water into the sink bowl once it escaped. So it sat there, a perpetual Petri dish.

The dishwasher is in white glass to match the refrigerator. We haven't had a working dishwasher since we bought the house five years ago this MLK, Jr. holiday. 

In 2019 on that holiday weekend, we drove down to Florida Thursday night after work and closed on our new house on Friday. We saw it in person for the first time during a walk through just before closing. We cleaned Friday and Saturday and drove back to North Carolina late on Sunday. We recovered on Monday and went back to work on Tuesday, 700 miles away from our new home.