Welcome Home, New Fridge!

Last week we had a great week off visiting with my cousin. We spent a day at the beach, spent time in the pool, got caught in our first storm on the boat (we're ok!), cooked some great meals, had a couple great meals out, enjoyed the beautiful sunsets, and just generally hung out.

Thanks Kristin for some awesome photos, especially the food ones! ❤

We also had a couple less-than-stellar days trying to repair our fridge that was on the fritz, and using the keezer (deep freezer turned kegerator) as a fridge. We had two different repair guys out, the first one fixing a frozen thermostat, and the second one informing us that the compressor was going out and would cost more than we paid for the (new to us) fridge to fix it.

We've needed new appliances for a while, they're all about 13-15 years old, but we were hoping to hold off until we really got into the kitchen remodel. But, with the death of our fridge, we decided there was no time like the present.

I've had my eye on these cafe appliances from GE since before we bought the house. I love the high-end look with the upper-mid-range price tag, the color, the handles, and the features. But that price tag 🥴. We still have a TON of work to do (we haven't touched the bathrooms and they'll get completely gutted, and the kitchen isn't going to be exactly cheap either), so ever dollar we spend counts.

I spent hours (days? Weeks? I don't even know...) looking at appliances online and decided what I really like most about the cafe appliances is the look (the matte white with the sleek bronze handles 🤤), but the look is definitely coupled will ALL the features I want. I can't get a similar looking appliance suite, but I can find the features I want. So, Scott and I started hunting online again. We knew we wanted the freezer on bottom with French doors on top. We've done the side by size, as well as the "standard" freezer on top, both leave something (space and organization) to be desired. We also knew we didn't want the water/ice dispenser in the door. Yes, it's convenient, but it also takes up the uber-valuable space in the fridge and often means a smaller ice compartment. The third thing to consider was the brand. I'm not super brand loyal when it comes to appliances but I asked both repair guys and they both said "go with LG".

Scott found us the perfect fridge at Best Buy, and the Naples store had one on the showroom floor to see, so we headed down.

We checked tons of other fridges (I even gravitated towards the stainless cafe appliances, not realizing that's what they were. Dang it they're beautiful!), and decided this was definitely the one we wanted, so we ordered it and had it delivered Saturday.

There was a lot to be done before the fridge came in though. Another reason we've been holding off on buying new appliances is we (well, *I*) wanted to move the fridge to the opposite side of the kitchen, requiring new electrical and water to be ran. This would also mean removing everything from the pantry and finding a new home for all of our food until we can build our new pantry cabinets. The cabinets can't be built (or at least installed) until we tear down the bulkhead in the kitchen, so we had been in this "chicken or egg" conundrum trying to decide if we wait until we can build the cabinets (so tearing the ceiling down first, then building the cabinets) or if we move everything to a different cabinet temporarily.

We decided to go with the latter.

First, we had to clear out the pantry. Here's the crazy We've been living with:

Notice how We have no floors in the pantry? That's because the original plan was to take down all of this framing around the pantry to allow for a cabinet between the fridge and dishwasher, as well as on the right side of the fridge, like this:

Ignore the cabinet colors, this was a 3D rendering of a design I made with RTA (a cabinet company) using their free design tool.

So, this added to our dilemma, and explains why we had no floor down. We didn't want to lay floor until we had removed the walls so we weren't cutting flooring around walls that wouldn't be there forever.

So many things about the house have been like this where we don't/can't do something until a different part of the project is done. Well, projects be damned! We decided to go ahead and move the fridge anyway.

So, we got to work cleaning out the pantry and then Scott removed the (warped particle-board) shelves.

I decided to use a couple upper-cabinets as the temporary pantry. It took some creative organizing, and a lot of purging, to get it all to fit, but here's how it ended up:

I an blaming Kristin for the clear storage containers I bought for the pantry and fridge. While she was here she got me into The Home Edit on Netflix and I'll just say organization makes me *irrationally* happy. Like, giddy. So if you're looking to have your pantry or closet organized, I'm your girl 😉.

With the pantry cleared out (no, all the food didn't make it into the pantry right away, it actually took days to get the kitchen back in working order), my dad came over to help run the electrical and water. The water was easy, the fridge is right next to the dishwasher and sink, so Scott had to add a new valve and drill through the wall beside the dishwasher and it was in. The electrical was more complicated. The fridge needs to be on its own circuit, meaning its own breaker. Don't worry, between Dad and Scott, this wasn't as scary as it sounds.

First, Scott cut a hole in the wall to be sure we could even fit a box for the outlet, and success, a box would fit!

We made a trip to Lowe's to get the wire and breaker we needed, and then a trip to Home Depot because Lowe's was out of the breaker type we needed.

Once we were back to the house Scott and Padre created the plan: they'd need to drill a hole in the stud near the top of the wall and then run the wire up, over the kitchen to the attic access and then all the way across the ceiling in the dining room to the breaker box.

They had a couple different tools (fish tape and a fish pole, neither of which is fish-shaped or fish related) they used to get the path right across the kitchen and then pulled a string over the ceiling that they'd eventually tie to the wire and pull it across.

If this sounds confusing, it was.

Getting the string/fish tape across the kitchen was half the battle (well, less than half), they still had to go across the dining room to the laundry room, where the breaker box was. Part of what made this tricky was that the dining room has a vaulted ceiling, so there's no way to access it. Scott climbed into the ceiling through the access in the kitchen and Padre got in through the access in the boys' room, which is on the opposite side of the laundry room. The sound didn't carry so I was the messenger on the ground, running between them with messages like "1/4 inch at a time, push towards my side" and "hold right there". Exciting stuff! Below is the Floorplan of our house with the teal dotted (ok, slashed, mostly) line showing where they had to run the wire.

The fish tape/poles weren't long enough to make it across the whole dining room so Scott used some PVC. Once Padre could see the PVC Scott had used to bridge the gap across the dining room they had to figure out how to get the wire down into the breaker box in the laundry room. Padre used a fish pole and pushed it down from the attic near the boys' room. With the pole in place, the tied the string they ran across the kitchen to a wire and pulled the wire up through the hole in the wall and across the kitchen, then tied the wire to the poles and pulled it across the dining room and down through the breaker box.

We did run into a snag mid way when we realized Scott asked me to cut the string (that they ran across the kitchen) and hand it to him. I did that, but we weren't talking about the same string, so they had to re-run it across thd kitchen (thankfully this was arguably the easier part). I can't stress the importance if clear, concise communication when working on any house project.

They got everything done at the perfect time. The fridge was delivered and placed next to the island (the kitchen was still a disaster).

Mom and the kids came over so we took a break for dinner and a swim. Scott used some of this time to level the floor in the former pantry to get ready for flooring. He used quick dry concrete (90 minutes) so he was able to lay the floor that same night.

With the floor down, Scott abd Padre pushed the fridge back, hooked up the water, plugged it in and leveled it.

The next day was the 4th of July And we celebrating by going to my parents' neighbor's house for food, games, and great company! I also managed to get the fridge organized.

I love that we can finally see all of our food and I'm beyond excited to have an icemaker!

This morning I set out with the intention of reclaiming the kitchen from the mess of tools, boxes, and random pantry items. While I worked inside, Scott mowed, weedeated (weedate??), and prepped for potential Hurricane Elsa by moving everything up from the dock and cleaning up the lanai. He also made room in the garage for the old fridge. While I don't trust it for meet, eggs, or dairy, it'll work to keep drinks cold until it doesn't. So for now, it goes in the garage.

With the old fridge out, here's the kitchen now:

We have SO MUCH ROOM in here now!! It really is such a major change, just moving the fridge!

When we built the island we based the location off of the fridge being where it is now, so it's been a little tight the last couple months with the fridge in the "old" location.

In case you've forgotten what the kitchen used to look like, take a look at these photos of its evolution:

the first couple photos are from the listing, sadly the house never really looked that "nice". There have been major changes already though, starting with opening up the kitchen to the room next to it (our dining room, the former family room).

I know what you're thinking "there's so much SPACE, whatever will you do with it??". Fret not, I have a plan.

The left side of the now-open will will be floor to ceiling pantry cabinets with pull-out shelves for about 40ish inches. From those cabinets to the left wall there will be uninterrupted counterspace. We haven't decided yet if we'll cut a pass through to the front room (thank you Kristin for the idea!!).

It might look something like this:

The black lines are the cabinets and counter, the white is where the potential pass-through would be. The pros to doing the pass-through is it opens the front of the house to the kitchen, and you'll be able to see the front door from the kitchen (at least the entry way). It also makes use of the weird skinny part of the front room before it turns a corner into the living room. I'm not sure what else to do with this space that won't make it feel like a hallway, so this would solve that problem. Cons are that we believe this is a load-bearing wall. So it can be done, we just may have to call a professional to at least consult. Also, Scott pointed out that if we do a pass through I'd put barstools on the other side, but that's a little awkward if you are sitting there and want to enter into the kitchen, you have to walk around the whole outside see of the kitchen, making a half-circle. I'm not convinced that's a reason not to do it, but it's something to consider.

With the kitchen put back together we wanted to tackle one more project. While Kristin was here she helped me go through the wall decor we've been storing in the boys' room and decide what to hang and where. We also spray painted a couple of frames for pictures I got from a friend that didn't quite match the color scheme I'm going for.

Before she left I laid all the items against the walls they'll be hung on and tonight Scott helped me hang them.

We started with curtains and the two pictures in the frames we painted for the dining room.

Then moved to the entry way and hung the "welcome" picture mom and I made last summer, along with the coat rack Scott and I made. The coat rack is unique because when its not in use you can push all the "hooks" up, making it look like wall art.

The last few items were a pair of mirrors that were given to us a couple years ago from Scott's family, and a starburst mirror my brother gave us as a housewarming gift in our last house that we painted black.

One item that wasn't on the list to hang,, but got repaired abd hung anyway,, was the sign for the front door (well, wall by the door) that a friend from high-school made for us. The Florida heat had melted the hot glue holding the jute hanger, so a reinforced it and put it back up.

It's been a great couple of weeks and it felt good to accomplish so much this weekend. It felt even getter to get an ice cold water from the fridge today We!

We did take a moment to appreciate the sunset, which is probably the calm before the storm, for when Elsa hits tomorrow.

We'll stay safe and be back next week with another update.