Our house get's an upgrade...or two...or three...

We've been doing a little upgrading to our house, since we've got an extension at the Academy and will be here till the Summer of 2010. We decided that we wanted to enjoy those upgrades for a while and not just do them to make selling the house easier. We needed to replace the carpet in the family room, because of the years of pets and traffic. We went with a darker, speckled color that'll hide dirt better. Its much softer than what we had before, and the boys enjoy sitting on the floor more. In fact, Spencer and Austin sat on the floor the whole session of Sunday morning conference coloring in coloring books.

We went down together and picked out the carpet. We've been talking about it for quite a while, but finally decided it was time. Steve was a carpet installer for 7 years with Grandpa Anderson, and could have installed it himself, but after two knee surgeries he decided it was worth it to him to pay to have someone else put it in. Eventually we'll be doing the stairs, the den, and at least the master bedroom. They are all in serious need of replacement soon.

Then a few days after we bought the carpet, but before we had it put in, the dishwasher started to make some really ugly noises. We couldn't find the problem and learned it would be too expensive to fix so we decided it was time for a new dishwasher. Last summer we antiqued the kitchen cabinets, and got new counter tops, which highlighted the fact that all our appliances were mismatched. We wanted to slowly make the move to replace the white and cream colored ones with stainless steel, so we determined there was no time like the present to start the transition with the dishwasher. When we started looking, we found a pretty good deal on an entire stainless kitchen set that included the dishwasher, range, refrigerator, and over the range microwave. We talked about it, and decided to go for the whole shebang! The day came for the big purchase, and unbeknownst to Steve the purchased turned into and entire stainless kitchen...AND a new front load washer and drier! The money was flying out that day...Steve was a little more than surprised because that part of the big buy hadn't been discussed. That's okay, Maddie is happy that she'll be getting the old ones, and we'll recoup some of the money from selling the old ones and by getting rebates and tax credits for energy savings!

Steve and the boys have had a couple of very busy nights moving all the furniture out of the Family room on Wednesday and Thursday night. The appliances were delivered on Thrusday, and the delivery guys only installed the Washer and Drier, and the Stove. Steve had to hook up the water to the Fridge and the Dishwasher on Thursday night. Then on Friday the carpet was installed. So Friday and Saturday everything was put back into the Family room. (Saturday between Conference Sessions, and other running around). Then today, he and the boys finished removing the old microwave and installing the new one.

The house is looking good, and we'll be able to enjoy our improvements before we put the house up for sale in about a year. ... By the way, anyone want to buy an electric range and over the range microwave???