New Stove With Issues

We are finishing out the replacement of our white appliances and were hoping that it would be completed today with delivery and installation of our double oven stove and microwave. Too bad, it was a no go.

Here was our stove and microwave this morning.

The first issue I was faced with during delivery is that they asked if we had purchased the electrical cord for the stove. That we needed to purchase the cord, was not information that was given to me during the sale.

When they pulled out the stove, it was gross behind it.

The second issue was that the electrical outlet is in the floor, not the wall so there isn't any room in the back of the stove to plug it in since there isn't any blank space.

So it sticks out. Yuck!

I'm going to have to call our cabinet guy to see how far over the stove will be moved with the new arrangement so that I can have an electrician come out and move the plug.

The third issue is that the woman at Lowe's did not inform us that the microwave that she sold us was the floor model. We refused delivery and will wait for a brand new microwave.

Here is what the area looks like now.

Hopefully they can deliver the microwave next weekend.

Our New Dishwasher

As always, we went to Lowe's when we decided to purchase new appliances for our house. Three weeks ago we purchased a refrigerator and dishwasher. Our refrigerator was installed last weekend (free installation- Yippee!!), but our dishwasher was still on order. Of course, that's the one that we needed most because our current one leaked.

After calling Lowe's and reminding them that we still needed our dishwasher, they said that they would deliver one from another store location on Saturday. Why they didn't do that in the first place, I'll never know.


The dishwasher that we purchased had an optional installation charge of $129. Aahh, No!! Brian said that he would install it.


The last time he installed our dishwasher (at the old house), it was a mess because we had tiled in front of it and it made the installation a pain. This time, he said it was really easy. He pulled out the old dishwasher on Saturday morning and our scheduled deliver time was between 1 and 2pm.

Right when Lowe's pulled up in front of our house, I had to head down to Sports Authority Field at Mile High to pick up my race bib for the Cofax Half Marathon (which I didn't run, but still wanted the shirt).

When I came home, our beautiful new dishwasher was installed. Ta Da!!

Brian's Birthday Present From Samuel

I had purchased Brian a large rolling toolbox that we agreed would take the place of all of his presents for 2012 (birthday, Father's Day, Christmas, etc.), but I still had to get something for him from Samuel.

This is what I came up with. I'll update it yearly so that he can see how Sam grows over the years.

D - A - D Photos

If I Didn't Already Have One . . .

If I didn't already have an iPad case, I would definitely get the iGuy. It looks so fun and steady for young hands.

Why didn't I see this one first, before I bought mine???

Samuel's First Concert

We had so much fun at the Fresh Beat Band concert last Saturday night at the Paramount Theatre.

I first found out about them on Nick Jr. when I saw their TV show. They have light hearted shows about friendship and solving small problems using cooperation. I love the message.


I found out about their tour late last year and was bummed that their concert schedule did not include Denver. In January, I heard that there were dates added, I checked and bought the tickets immediately . Not long after, according to their published schedule, Denver (the last tour stop) was sold out. Yea! We got tickets.


I wanted Sam to have a special outfit to wear, so I went on Etsy.com and found JLC T-Shirts that screen prints shirts for kids. They had a listing for The Fresh Beat Band where the child's name could be screen printed below the band's picture. For $8.99 + shipping, it was well worth it.

As you can tell, we weren't anywhere near the stage, but we had a blast and Sam had a lot of fun.

Mother's Day

Since my ILs live close by, we all went to brunch at The Olde Neighborhood in Arvada for Mother's Day. The brunch was okay, but the best thing was hanging out with Samuel for Mother's Day. I couldn't ask for a better present.

Then Sam grabbed the camera and started shooting some interesting photos. Nice try kiddo!

Selling a Fridge Shouldn't Involve the Fire Department

Lowe's called me on Wednesday to let me know that our new fridge was in stock and wanted to set up at time to deliver it. Because Brian and I both work full-time, that dropped the availability for delivery to the weekend. I scheduled it for between 8-10am on Saturday morning.


We had debated about keeping the old fridge in our garage, but finally realized that it would be an energy suck and since there are only 3 of us in the house, would be completely useless.


Brian wanted Lowe's to haul the old one away, but I thought that we could make a few bucks by selling it on Craigslist. Of course, I won that discussion. Brian's only concern was that he didn't want the thing taking up room in our garage for weeks while I find someone to purchase it.


I knew that it wouldn't take long to find a buyer, but I was even surprised when only 5 minutes after it posted, I received a call from Debbi about buying it and having it hauled away around 9am. I was thrilled. In the mean time, I moved some items in our garage so that the old fridge had a spot.


I received a call from Lowe's at 8:15 saying that they were on their way. Yea!!! A new fridge and $75 for the old fridge. I was thrilled.


The removal of the old fridge went like clockwork. Installation of the new fridge, on the other hand, included removing our front door and some of the hardware from the fridge. No biggie. It looked perfect in our kitchen.


Lowe's had me sign the delivery information, and shortly afterwards, I received a call from Debbie saying that the people that would be helping them move the fridge would be at my house in an hour. Great.


When the 2 men arrived, in a rented Home Depot truck, Debbi came to the door and let me know that they were ready to haul it away. About 10 minutes later I hear "Oh Shit!!" and a big thud. Sam was asleep on the couch, so I couldn't run out, but I did open the door slightly to see one of the men holding his knee and the fridge on it's side in the driveway.


My guess was that the fridge fell on the guy (that was confirmed later). I was worried to run out there and offer any type of assistance, because this happened on my property and I was worried about any legal ramifications of assistance.


Brian cam home shortly after, looked at the scene and came to the same conclusion. The rental truck was there about 25 minutes before I heard a fire engine's siren around the corner with an ambulance right behind it.

I bet our neighbors are thinking that we are trouble makers. Within the first month of buying our house, we already have a fire truck and an ambulance out front. At least we got to meet one of our neighbors that was coming home, and whose path was blocked by Thornton's finest. Her name is Grace and she lives diagonal from us.

It seems that these 2 guys were trying to lift the fridge vertically (without any help) instead of putting it on it's side. Brian helped the guy push it into the truck on it's side when he got home.

After Sam woke up, the activity was still going on, so I took him over to the fire engine and he read each letter that I pointed to. Good boy! He loves letters and numbers.


He was so excited to see these vehicles up close, but didn't like how loud they were driving in.

The guy's knee was wrapped up, splinted and he was put into the back of the ambulance and taken away. I bet there were a bunch of neighbors looking out their windows, but didn't come out to see what was going on up close. I hope that we don't hear any more about it. I'd hate to have to talk to our insurance agent about a claim on our property.

Welcome to the Neighborhood!

The Great Garage Clean Out Challenge- Late Start

I am a regular reader of I'm an Organizing Junkie Blog, and last week they started The Great Garage Clean Out Challenge. I was afraid I was too late, since we weren't going to have this on our agenda until this weekend, but I was told that I could start whenever and post about our garage adventure.

Here are some before photos of our home and garage before the moving trucks arrived and filled up our space.

Here are the "now" photos.

Since we moved in, this space has been slowly decluttered (it actually used to be sooo much worse), but hopefully we will be able to make a huge dent in it before my dad comes into town on Monday.

Here is the mudroom concept that I want to add in the garage by the end of June. Unfortunately, it won't happen in the next few weeks. We have bigger fish to fry before then.

Source

We are also going to have a lot of cabinets available for organizing after we redo our kitchen. Here are some that will be available.

I haven't figured out how they will be utilized (garage and/or basement), but it would be a shame to throw them away. We can put them up high and use them for dangerous chemicals or down low and Sam can use them for toy storage in the garage. If they were used in the basement, I could put some of my craft stuff in them. Decisions. Decisions.

Starting at a New School

On Monday, April 16th, Samuel started at his new school. This school has a state requirement that all 3 year olds cannot be in diapers, so we went to the store and bought him a lot of new, big boy underwear and plastic pants to start his potty training. He has been interested in the potty for some time, but we haven't made the leap to completely out of diapers during the day.

Here is a picture of Samuel getting ready for school. When Brian and I both took him to his first day of school, or course, he was scared; but according to the teachers, he had a great day and a lot of fun.

Since then, he has made big improvements in his potty training during the day. We are so proud of our little boy.

Wearing his Plastic Pants

Ready for a New Adventure

Now when I pick him up, he barely registers that I'm there and goes right back to playing. I have to entice him with the car keys before he will make any movement towards the door. Go figures.

Zachary's 3rd Birthday Party- April 15, 2012

Samuel was invited to a wonderful birthday party for a friend's son that we don't see very often (unfortunately). Of course, this was the same weekend that we moved into our new house, so things were hectic, but I was able to take Sam to the party (gymnastics party). 


He had a blast!

The birthday boy, Zachary.

Good Standing in Line, Samuel

The Front of the Line

Besides the trampoline, there was an obstacle course that he had fun with.

Happy birthday Zach!

Teacher Appreciation Week- May 7-11, 2012

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week, and I wanted to come up with something that would be useful and appreciated for Sam to give to his daycare teachers. Of course, I found it on Pinterest.

Here is my inspiration (Source).

And here is the execution.

I'm going to print a page for Samuel to color saying "Thank You" but, for all intents and purposes, the gifts are complete.

I didn't notice at Super Target that one of the cups was smaller than the other. I guess I will leave it up to his 3 teachers to fight for the bigger cups.  :)

If you'd like to see what other ideas I have found to do a lot of different things, please check me out on Pinterest HERE.

Have a great weekend.