July was not What We Planned On

Our July was not what we planned on. Some may remember in February we remodeled our kitchen with granite countertops and cupboards. Well it mushroomed into new flooring but it wasn’t in stock until July. So I was excited to have a new kitchen and since I’m still working on my De-Stress Your Mess challenge, I’m keeping the countertops clutter free! (That’s a major accomplishment for me! LOL)

Our New Floor

The new floor was installed in July and I love the gray instead of the terra cotta which we had when the walls were blue and countertops were beige. Our kitchen was now complete and I love it! But that was only the beginning.

Washer and Dryer

Since our washer and dryer were over 21 years old we knew they were on the way out. When we saw a good sale at Lowe’s we decided to get the set before the old one totally died. Well once the new set arrived, we had to call Alexandra in to show us how to work it. It’s totally cool, you put the clothes in and it measures how much water is needed automatically. So new kitchen and floor throughout the hall, eating area and kitchen plus the washer and dryer was what we thought would be the end of our spending for awhile.

Oh no, not the Stove

As luck would have it, the bottom burner element in the over burnt out so I ordered a new burner from Amazon and thought it would be an easy fix to get the oven back working. But not so, seems like one of the connector wires burnt so it would cost more than just plugging in the element to get it back working. Back to Lowes we went to check out stoves. We find a nice one but it wasn’t in stock but at least we had the stove top for cooking. A week later we had our new stove! Talk about a learning curve again, this one has a regular and convection oven, an air fryer and dehydrator. I’m excited about that to dry apples and other fruits. Well again Alex came to the rescue and she downloaded the app, it seems like it’s a smart stove. We can turn it on even when we aren’t home! Appliances sure have come a long way in 21 years. Our old stove was the basic white but since our refrigerator was stainless we opted to get a stainless stove also.

Now the refrigerator

Speaking of the refrigerator, the night the floor was installed Alex noticed the ice maker wasn’t working and there was a puddle on the floor… a large puddle! We turned the ice maker off and would call the repairman in the morning. But, yes there’s a but here too, we didn’t realize it wasn’t just the ice maker, it was the entire refrigerator and bottom freezer that went out. The next morning we tossed all the food in the trash. The repairman came out and after installing a new mother board found it also had a leak in the coils. Trying to get it repaired took over a week so we bought a small under the cabinet refrigerator so we could at least have milk and cold water. After realizing the old one would cost almost $900 to repair, we know it was time for a new fridge also. NOTHING WAS IN STOCK!!! I finally checked online and clicked “in stock only” and it brought up a french door with bottom freezer, just like the old one and we lucked out. It was due in the store on the 29th of July, our 54th wedding anniversary and we we able to get it delivered on Saturday July 31st, Rich’s birthday! We finally have a working washer, dryer, stove and refrigerator! But to our surprise Alexandra went grocery shopping and stocked the fridge AND freezer! We have the greatest granddaughter!!

Time for new AC Heat Pump

Everything was new and while we had sticker shock we chalked it up as our 54th anniversary present to each other. Now are you ready for this? The next day Alex calls us and says the upstairs AC/heat pump won’t cool. UGGGG, now what, we still had 3 years left on the warranty but for parts only. The repairman came out and found a leak in the coils. Good news, the part was under warranty but labor was $2000!! So our option was to pay $2000 and worry that another part might go or get a new upstairs unit. So now we have a brandy new upstairs unit. There is nothing more that could breakdown…..or is there? They came out to do the spring maintenance check (should have been here in April) on the downstairs unit and those coils had a leak also! Since they just finished installing the upstairs, the downstairs repairman suggested we get a new one since it would cost more to repair than the upstairs unit. But I told him we had a 10 year parts AND labor warranty on this one which is rare but we had it! Are you ready for this? The last day of the warranty was the day they checked it! So we lucked out on one thing, We had the new coils installed and parts and labor cost nothing. Since the unit is 10 years old we’re hoping it still has life in it with the new coils.

July was not what we planned on but this major overall with our new AC/heat pump unit and appliances saga ended on July 31st. We’re hoping for an uneventful August other than Lia’s 3rd birthday party!

Lesson Learned

I finished writing my blog last night and around midnight I read the email with the daily suggested topic for today to write something that inspires me or someone else. In a way I hope this inspires some with my ending point. We never know when emergencies arise or things may breakdown so it’s good to have a backup plan. From day one Rich and I have always saved for emergencies, even everyday items aren’t purchased unless we have the cash on hand. But I also like to use our cashback credit card for purchases. I am happy to end this almost nightmare story by saying I made a few dollars by using the credit card but as soon as the statement arrives everything will be paid in full. http://themarthareview.com/earn-money-when-using-credit-cards/