We can bake & refrigerate!!

Well, I didn’t mean to go a week without posting! We’ve had non-stop days of early mornings, full afternoons, and very late nights. Everyone started back to school this week and I’m trying to just keep up with that as best as I can. Living in construction while homeschooling 5 kids and doing the construction ourselves – it feels like a lot right now. I know 99% of it is in my perspective, so I’m doing my best to focus on all the incredible parts.

Like how we can bake and refrigerate again!

This week was definitely a highlight week. Our refrigerator went out back in February and we didn’t replace it knowing we were about to do such a big construction project. Since February we’ve been without a working full size refrigerator in our house. Not anymore – we have a refrigerator!

Early on in the kitchen planning stage I was given the opportunity to work with Wayfair and GE appliances on what I was dreaming up for our new kitchen. Wayfair is one of my favorite sources for anything related to my home – decor, tile, hardware, lighting, furniture…basically anything! You will be seeing a lot of Wayfair products as we enter the next few phases of construction.

Having the chance to partner with Wayfair and GE appliances on our new kitchen is a dream come true. Never in a million years when I started blogging 10 years ago did I think it would one day lead to working with these incredible companies.

Installing the appliances ourselves was easy – at least for me! I watched my dad and Chris do all the work. The refrigerator was a simple installation process. The range was much more challenging due to its size. I would recommend professional installation for a range this large unless you have a friend with a pallet mover and know guys willing to come lift 700lbs. Once the range was off the pallet, the installation was simple and quick.

All the appliances were securely packed and came with detailed instructions for set-up. We opted to install the appliances ourselves due to not being able to accurately match our timeline with a delivery timeline. However, I would recommend being prepared for installation the day appliances arrive, so you can take advantage of professional installation. I take advantage of my dad!

GE provided all the appliances from their Café Series for our kitchen. Yes, I am still pinching myself. Chris and I have never owned new appliances. We’ve always bought used.  Not only do we have new appliances for the first time in our marriage – we have dream kitchen appliances! I can cook for crowds now. I am so excited to fill this space with people and the oven with food to feed them!Within 24 hours of the range being installed, we were making cookies! Before construction we made cookies at least once a week for friends and family that stopped by the house. You could say we’ve missed it!I will share more about the appliances we chose and my favorite aspects of each at a later date. It might look like we are super close to being finished, but we still have a ways to go. Living in the construction means our build timeline isn’t what it would be for new construction. We moved the appliances in place in order to clear out the living room in order to finish the floors. I’m keeping the protective plastic on the fridge and the range handles until all the construction mess is finished. We may have a ways to go before we have a fully functioning kitchen, but now we can bake and refrigerate!

Back when we first covered the studs, my dad looked up a picture of our GE Café Series Range and drew it in sharpie on the wall. When I was priming the walls, I chose to not to cover his drawing. Just maybe one day I will have grandkids of my own running around this kitchen. Just maybe one will roll a ball under the range and I will have to roll the range out to retrieve the ball. When that happens I will point to the sharpie wall and tell stories about how their great grandpa helped build our kitchen and then we will eat cookies. Just maybe…

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