In Which We Test Drive Appliances

Jer and I took a trip down to Best Buy to check out some different types of appliances today. After trying out a variety of refrigerators, stove tops, ovens, microwaves, and dishwashers, we came to a number of conclusions.

First of all, a bottom-drawer freezer is definitely the best option for us. Jer is able to access both the freezer and refrigerator pretty well; all of the freezer and the bottom half of the fridge as opposed to the bottom half of both the fridge and freezer on the side-by-side model. Also, as Renate pointed out, the fridge and freezer shelves are fairly narrow on the side-by-side model, so the layout on the bottom-drawer freezer/french door refrigerator is better.

Secondly, we're either going to have to get a built-in oven with a separate cook top, or we're going to have to find one with all of the controls on the front of the oven. Otherwise there's no way that Jer can reach them. If we don't have a separate cook top, Jer will only be able to reach two burners.

Of course, the bottom-drawer fridge and the front-oven/separate cook top options are all on the way-expensive side of the appliance price spectrum. I'm not sure exactly why ADA accessible is synonymous with luxury, but there you have it. Hopefully we'll be able to find some good bargains.

As for microwaves and dishwashers; he can get into just about any model of either, though the dishwashers with the loop handles are a little bit easier (and more expensive). Of course, he can't reach the microwave the way the cabinets are set up right now, but oh well-- at least he'd be able to get to the oven, which is what he uses most anyway. That and his espresso machine-- right now I get to make his fresh-ground lattes every morning, and since I'm not a coffee drinker it will be nice to quit playing barista and let him go back to fixing them just how he likes them.

Next on the list is finding either a floor store or a commercial installation of the different types of floors we're considering (laminate, hardwood and strand woven bamboo) to see what the best surface for wheeling around on is. I'll be calling flooring stores tomorrow to come up with somewhere Jer can test them out. Whichever one we choose is going to end up going down in almost the entire house, so we'd better make a good decision!

I'm trying to figure out right now where the heck we're going to put the library-- we have just under a thousand adult books (and about three hundred children's and young adult books) and so putting them all in the office is becoming increasingly impractical-- we've run out of room on the seven bookcases in our current office and the new one isn't going to be much bigger. It would be so awesome if we could find a place in the new house to have a real library instead of the mismatched bookshelves we've got now, but I'm not sure where we could do it. Maybe we could convert the dining room or something-- line it with shelving from floor to ceiling, put up a ladder, and throw a couple of wing back chairs in there. Or maybe not-- those library ladders are about a thousand bucks a piece. A thousand dollars. For a ladder.

Oh well. A girl can dream, right?

~Jess