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You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / We Have Appliances

We Have Appliances

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The kitchen appliances were delivered today:

fridge

oven

The pictures were taken by dad, so don’t crap all over the photography.

We have a custom built hood that goes over the stove, and the counters come next week. It’s kind of nice seeing everything come together a little bit. I feel as if there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

If you look in the fridge photo, the box with the stop sign is my dishwasher. I’m 46 and I have never owned a gas oven or a dishwasher (one rental where I lived for three years had a dishwasher, but we never used it because there were three of us there and when we cooked we had so many dishes we had to do them by hand anyway), so I am feeling very bourgeois. I’m told a dishwasher is a game changer.

At any rate, I am excited about a lot of little things. For example, the fridge has a water dispenser (something else I have never had), so now I no longer need to have a big Brita taking up half the top shelf. We’re going to go ahead and put an inline filter in the line to the fridge in the basement to save money on replacement filters. Also, the freezer is on the bottom, which means that no longer will I have food stuffs stored ankle high in the fridge that I forget about and pull out three weeks later looking like a biology project.

I’m also excited about the fact that my shower is going to have a door. No more shower curtains. No more mildew, no more getting in the shower in a hurry and not noticing that the liner is on the outside, showering, and looking out to find you have flooded the bathroom. No more treacherous steps OUT of the tub.

And a gas stove!!!!!!!

Oh, and walking around the house naked. I’m excited about that. Sorry for the visual.

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Very nice!

    Well, not necessarily the walking-around-the-house-naked part. But the rest, yeah!

  5. 5.

    JMG

    Gas stoves are the only way to cook. You will feel inspired and liberated all at once. Dishwashers are terrific appliances, but they are also cranky appliances. It’s like having a British sports car. Your refrigerator looks fabulous.

  8. 8.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I have frig envy. Be wary, all of us with water lines into our frigerators have had leak issues at about the 3 yr mark. I hear it’s a plastic part in the base of the frig unit. Easy fix, but disaster if you don’t catch it in time.

    Dishwasher is totally a game changer! Everything is looking lovely.

  12. 12.

    Percysowner

    Congratulations! I love, love, love gas stoves. I don’t have one now, because the house I bought had an electric one and I’m not replacing it until it dies, but then, I’m running a gas line and finally getting a gas stove again. You have so much more control with them. Dishwasher’s are nice as well. I really like the black appliances. They look sharp with the white cabinets.I can’t wait to see the kitchen with everything done.

  13. 13.

    Mary G

    Congratulations! I had never had a refrigerator icemaker in the door either until this last one (I was 55, so you’re ahead of me). People say they take up too much space and break down a lot, but I love not having to wrestle ice cube trays and mine has worked for six years, so my experience is all positive. Gas stove and dishwasher also FTW. You’ve got a nice work triangle going on there.

  15. 15.

    Roger Moore

    I’m told a dishwasher is a game changer.

    There are certainly some things that make sense with a dishwasher that don’t make sense without one. I recently got a food processor, and it seems like it only makes sense if you have a dishwasher; washing it by hand would use up a lot of the effort you save by using it. I hope you got one that can do only the top or bottom rack, which should save power and water if you want to do a small load.

    Oh, and walking around the house naked.

    Just don’t bring the mop with you.

  19. 19.

    Roger Moore

    @JMG:

    Gas stoves are the only way to cook.

    Induction, induction, induction. It gives you the things that are best about gas- control and instant temperature changes- and electric- more efficient, less waste heat turning the kitchen into an oven- while also being stunningly easy to clean. I will never go back to gas, even if I move somewhere that has a gas hookup.

  20. 20.

    Poopyman

    Oh, and walking around the house naked. I’m excited about that. Sorry for the visual.

    I notice there are no curtains. Great way to introduce yourself to the neighbors!

  25. 25.

    hovercraft

    @mskitty: @TaMara (HFG):
    I’m confused, they look stainless to me, with either bad lighting or no flash. So who knows what they are?

    ETA: John I can’t wait to see the completed house, just hold off on the naked pictures, this is not that type of blog, I don’t think.

  26. 26.

    Jay Noble

    Being an old single bachelor, with no pets or cooking for others, I found it took too long to get enough dishes to do a load. Annnnnd the dishes were never as clean as I’d been taight they should be.

    Laundry however is easily a couple loads a week.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @John Cole:

    technically, slate.

    Technically, the paint color of my car is “Mocha Steel,” which sounds like a stripper name to me. Or Donald Trump’s next wife, although I may be repeating myself.

  32. 32.

    numfar

    If the fridge has an in-door ice maker, be sure to keep a hair dryer nearby. It will occasionally create icebergs.

  33. 33.

    cmorenc

    @John Cole:

    t’s kind of nice seeing everything come together a little bit. I feel as if there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

    That “light at the end of the tunnel” you’re seeing is actually the headlight of the train coming toward you, named “The Remodeling Express”.

  34. 34.

    FlyingToaster

    Never had a leak on the fridge line in 14+ years.

    The Dishwasher is a game changer. I never had one until we bought this house, and boy, it’s been a freaking lifesaver. I still have to hand wash the larger pots and pans, but for just throwing the bowls/plates/cups/silverware in every night, Yay!

    If only they made a device you could throw your 9-year-old daughter* into, and she would come out sparkling clean. Ahem.

    * On Tuesday WarriorGirl and her friend SarcasmIncarnate slid down the mud-ice slope in their snow pants. Wednesday they slid down the mud slope in their rain pants. I refuse to wash these more than once a week (Friday night), so she’s wearing the snow pants tomorrow as well. I don’t care how dirty they are.

  36. 36.

    narya

    One of my two no-negotiation criteria, when I finally bought a condo in 2010 (at the age of 52) was that it have a gas stove. (The other was significant southern exposure.)

    I have a dishwasher, but, even though I cook and bake very extensively, I never ever use it. It doesn’t get the dishes clean, and when I’m in the middle of a marathon I often need to wash and re-use something, so fuck it. I’ve also perfected the art of washing dishes as I go, so I’m rarely faced with an insurmountable pile.

    That said, your place looks so nice–can’t wait for the full tour when it’s done!

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    Not something I would usually recommend, but suggest laying out for the extended warranty on the fridge. GE sold its appliances division to Haier (Chinese company) at the beginning of the year and there’s been some scuttlebutt about a subsequent downturn in quality and reliability.

    Also too, get used to routinely doing an Adrian Monk-like double check that both doors are completely shut after you close one; sort of goes with the territory with some French door models.

  41. 41.

    JMG

    Dishwashers are appliances that just aren’t as well made as they were in previous times. Our 2010 dishwasher at our home is starting to give off a funny smell and doesn’t drain well even after our kitchen was renovated in 2015. The dishwasher from 1984 in the Cape Cod house we timeshare sounds like a malfunctioning Atlas rocket at Cape Canaveral in 1958, and gets everything sparkling clean.

  44. 44.

    Applejinx

    @efgoldman: If you get the Brita faucet filter, you gotta get the expensive one (lateral movement to switch) rather than the budget one (twist movement to switch).

    I’m a bass player among other things, so I figured it didn’t matter that my cheaper Brita was getting stiff and awkward. Until I literally ripped the plastic toggle apart with my bare fingers and thumb, making it impossible to do ANY changes on it. The expensive one is built more permanently.

    John, it makes me happy to see you having stuff that’s good and makes you happy :)

    Closest I can get is: bass DI that’s the best of its kind I’ve yet found, and some fun experimenting with a new video camera acquisition: Xiaomi Yi. It’s downright hilarious how much raw video power you can get for about eighty bucks these days. All the little tools and tricks are getting literally dirt cheap. I’m lusting after a crazy gimbal stabilizer thing you can get for about $200 that’s like a robot Steadicam: when I was growing up, nobody could have that at any price, and now look.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @FlyingToaster:

    I still have to hand wash the larger pots and pans, but for just throwing the bowls/plates/cups/silverware in every night, Yay!

    I like to say there’s a reason they call them dishwashers, not pot-and-pan washers. They’re pretty good on some kinds of cooking residue, but they can’t do much for anything that’s burned on.

  50. 50.

    hovercraft

    @NotMax:

    both doors are completely shut after you close one; sort of goes with the territory with some French door models.

    Hopefully he has the alarm on the doors, it’s annoying, but it can be a lifesaver.

  52. 52.

    hovercraft

    @Roger Moore:

    I think she’s going to have a distinctly Russian name, like Natasha Fatale.

    Are Putin’s daughters married? What better mole to have than the presidents wife? I don’t know what they look like, so even if they are single, who knows if they look anything like his ideal woman, Lucrecia.

  53. 53.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TaMara (HFG): He has a strategic refrigerator door gap. There are now four and five door models. He really needs to upgrade immediately before installation or his neighbors will have more capability than he does and think he’s weak in terms of refrigeration.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    @hovercraft

    Depends on the model. On some (most?) the alarm is keyed to the interior temperature rather than the the doors not being fully shut. But still a useful feature.

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SiubhanDuinne: I had a 4Runner that was officially tan. In reality it was closer to cocoa brown. What was interesting is there really was a tan colored 4Runner in that year’s models and I have no idea what they called the actual tan color if my dark brown one was considered tan.

  62. 62.

    Major Major Major Major

    @efgoldman: the far left and far right share quite a few attitudes, just about different things. I think we should build lots of apartments with some subsidized units to address the housing shortage and do building inspections to help make sure 40 people don’t die in awful, preventable fires. All they hear is gentrification.

  64. 64.

    hovercraft

    @NotMax:

    On some (most?) the alarm is keyed to the interior temperature rather than the the doors not being fully shut

    I’m not sure which mine is, I just know that with two kids, it’s a very useful feature. I always assumed it was a door sensor, but either way it works.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    Wait until the doggies figure out they can team up to pull open the freezer and get to the goodies. :)

    @Baud

    That would be telling.

  69. 69.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Well, I like the color, which is, variously (depending on the light) beige, tan, or light bronze. But “Mocha Steel” just cracks me up.

    “And now, gentlemen, the Gold Club is proud to present the lithe, limber and luscious stylings of MISS … MOCHA … STEEL!!!”

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    @Poopyman:

    I once heard David Hyde Pierce tell a hilarious story about forgetting to turn the alarm off in his new house when he let the dog out to pee in the backyard and having to run the full length of the house — naked — to try and turn it off.

    The punch line, of course, was that he met his new neighbors the next day and they asked him to please install blinds ASAP.

  80. 80.

    raven

    We have a walk-in shower so there is no curtain. Of course it has a glass wall and you have to squeegee it every time you use it!

  81. 81.

    Another Scott

    Nice. It’s really coming together well.

    Seeing the fridge and reading your story reminds me. There was a lightning strike on my parents gas light once. It didn’t damage the gas light, but it worked its way into the house, popping wood trim off the wall, blowing up a TV, and catching the icemaker on fire. It’s hard to completely prevent such things, but it’s a reminder to have a fire extinguisher handy – you never know when you might need it.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  90. 90.

    hovercraft

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Well they are both of around the age he seems to like them, I guess the younger one will have the inside track, seeing as she’s friends with Ivanka. The only problem is she seems to be overly endowed in the rear end department, and since Rush and Co. have told me that Michelle is fat because she has a big butt, she may be deemed too fat for the position.

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    The color of my Subaru is apparently Quartz Blue.

    It’s actually a lovely color, when I keep it clean. It varies from light blue to blue-violet depending on the light and the time of day.

  101. 101.

    FlyingToaster

    @efgoldman: She’s learning Boccherini Minuet (the last song in Book 2). Sunday was her recital — Brahms Waltz, which she totally NAILED. We’ll be performing a fiddle piece together in about — lessee — 7 weeks. I’m the rhythm guitarist.

    SarcasmIncarnate is 8-years-old. She’s ALWAYS sarcastic. She’s one of the two class athletes (the other is ImpossibleLastName), and a leading source of class in-fighting. You’d think a class with only 16 kids would avoid this, but NOOOO, they have to have big fights about I-can’t-figure-what.

  103. 103.

    Adam L Silverman

    @gogol’s wife: I thought that’s what Trump supporters were claiming were going to be used by his opponents.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scottie-nell-hughes-mazel-tov-cocktail_us_58205c91e4b0e80b02cb01a6

    Donald Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes has done some memorable interviews during the presidential campaign, but a gaffe on CNN Sunday night may have been the topper.

    While defending a Trump attack on Hillary Clinton supporters Jay Z and Beyoncé, she referred to Jay Z and Kanye West’s 2012 video for “No Church in the Wild,” which featured a Molotov cocktail.

    Only Hughes didn’t say “Molotov cocktail.” She said “mazel tov cocktail.”

  104. 104.

    Botsplainer

    Jealous about the gas stove. Those are the shit for just about everything in baking and roasting.

  108. 108.

    Davebo

    I installed a whole house water filter system and my parents and it wasn’t hard. A sediment filter followed by a .5 micron filter.

    Works great and the filter costs are negligible.

  109. 109.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud:

    Oh, and walking around the house naked. I’m excited about that.

    See, you have something in common with Cole afterall.

  115. 115.

    danielx

    @Percysowner:

    Not to mention that glass stovetops just purely suck in terms of cleaning and upkeep. And then there’s the bit about trying to use your cast iron skillet faves and finding out that yeah, this stove top will scratch. Gas is better, but even an electric coil stove was better than the glass/ceramic things.

  118. 118.

    hovercraft

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Oh, and walking around the house naked. I’m excited about that.
    See, you have something in common with Cole afterall.

    I’m pretty sure it was Corner Stone who told a tale about a broken AC unit as his excuse for swanning around naked for days on end.

  119. 119.

    FlyingToaster

    @efgoldman:

    Excellent. She gonna’ stay with fiddle or go to a real instrument? I’m partial to brass, but double reed players seldom have much competition, at least thru high school.

    Violin, all the way. She sees Chris Hadfield as her role model.

  123. 123.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: you *knew* those were fightin’ words, right?

    That being said, you and efg might appreciate one of my favorite musician riddles (speaking of reeded instruments):.

    Q: What is the difference between a dead snake in the middle of the road and a dead bassoon player in the middle of the road?

    A: It’s just remotely conceivable that the snake was on its way to a gig.

  133. 133.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Applejinx:

    Xiaomi Yi

    I got me one of them, they’re pretty nice. Liked it so much got one for the kid for her b-day. I’ve also got one of their dashcams.

  135. 135.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    It’s actually a lovely color, when I keep it clean.

    Ah, you lost me there.

    It varies from light blue to blue-violet depending on the light and the time of day.

    That actually sounds exceptionally pretty.

  141. 141.

    J R in WV

    @hovercraft:

    No – the fricking alarm gives you a false sense of security, but won’t go off under most circumstances when the door is ajar enough to make a big difference in internal temps.

    We have one with french doors, love the water dispenser, which we get a new filter for in the mail on schedule. The ice machine is in the freezer, but that’s on the bottom. It doesn’t dispense, you have to scoop out the cubes, but there are always fresh cubes when you want them.

    But the doors take a good push on both doors most all the time to close properly. The alarm mostly goes off either when you’re loading new groceries into the fridge or searching for something you know is in there, somewhere. No help then, of course.

  142. 142.

    FlyingToaster

    @Miss Bianca: I didn’t say that it wasn’t funny. Or alas, true. It was just COLD.

    My old buddy from HS, the oboe player, used to give the English Horn player shit. As a then-clarinetist, I would mock both of them for their future unemployability.

  145. 145.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    My BFF’s daughter started on the viola, then moved to the cello, and then — apparently feeling that the cello was too small — started playing the double bass. She has one at home for practice and uses the school’s for concerts since you need a U-Haul to cart the damn thing around.

    If there is a larger stringed instrument in existence, I’m pretty sure she’s going to start playing it next.

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne:

    If there is a larger stringed instrument in existence, I’m pretty sure she’s going to start playing it next.

    Harpsichord.

  148. 148.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: No. I meant harpsichord. A piano is considered a percussion instrument because it makes sounds due to hammers hitting things. A harpsichord makes sound due to picks plucking the strings. The keyboard is immaterial.

  149. 149.

    Sfinny

    Late to things but if you ever see this, John:

    Gas stoves are amazing. Heat control is great and the fact that I had something to heat water during the great blackout and other power outages was wonderful.

  150. 150.

    Cathie from Canada

    Just a note to make sure you use the correct pipe to drain the dishwasher.
    When ours was installed, they used galvanized pipe, which should NOT be used — the dishwasher detergents ate a hole in it and it began leaking into the basement. We couldn’t figure out where the leak was coming from but luckily we were changing the kitchen flooring and the installer moved the dishwasher and found the whole area underneath was soaked. If it hadn’t been for that, we wouldn’t have known until the floor collapsed!

  153. 153.

    TNTDevil

    Couple of suggestions (and free advice is worth what you paid): Consider installing a water softener & RO system in your home. Secondly, at your first opportunity, replace your water heater with a tank-less hot water heater. Never run out and cut your gas bill bigly.

  154. 154.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Meh. I have a feeling this is one of those musician insider things I’m never going to get. I never got past “Mary Had A Little Lamb” on any instrument, including the recorder.

    ETA: Plus what V seems to like is getting to pluck and bow the strings, so anything with a keyboard is out. No jokes from the peanut gallery, please, she’s only 12.

  157. 157.

    Gretchen

    So glad to see something other than stainless steel appliances. I’m hoping their heyday is over. And I’m wondering why this house is more suitable for walking around naked than the old one.

  159. 159.

    Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim

    Dishwasher is nice, but the real golden barrier in my book is a washing machine. You were going to wash the dishes at home anyway, but not having to go out somewhere and sit watching your clothes so no one swipes your socks is where luxury begins. When I first had one, I washed all my clothes at once, and walked around the place nekkid, at least until the first of the underwear was dry.

  161. 161.

    Sam White

    Glass shower doors are a wonderful thing. Here are a couple tips to save on the inevitable soap scum buildup.

    1. Get a squeegee and use it every time. This is the number one thing to save on the later cleaning

    For cleaning the window off, the best thing I have found is to use a mixture of 50% vinegar and 50% Dawn dish washing liquid detergent. Put it in a spray bottle and then use a sponge. This works like magic with no scrubbing.

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