Tick tock, it’s harvest time. This week, we rustle up our matching set of Harvest Gold and send them to meet their maker. Thanksgiving’s just a month away and there’s nothing I want to be thankful for more than stainless steel.
Key to surviving this project is that the next 12 months should be as enjoyable as possible. We both love cooking – so whether we’re suffering a lack of bedroom or bathroom, we’ll appreciate having something in this apartment that works.
Appliance-buying-for-flipping golden rule (A)
Don’t be stupid. Casual surveys indicate that stainless steel appliances do add value – but we have to be careful spending within this very wide bracket. Pleather-packed discount stores sell cheapo no-name stainless steel appliances for very little. Elsewhere, Miele or Sub-Zero would be happy to take $15,000 and both kidneys off my hands.
Our apartment is a starter apartment, so we need what are essentially starter appliances + “that little bit extra”. You’ve got to woo people, right? It’s the Raisin Bran box with more.
As a first-time home buyer and keen cook [looking at a new or newly renovated property], I’d be looking sharply at the appliances.
- I’d be sick to death of bog-standard rental crap
- I’d want something shiny, nice, new and mine
- I would have had enough (enough!) of shitty “apartment-sized” appliances that don’t fit standard baking trays.
Appliance-buying-for-flipping golden rule (B)
Don’t be cheap. Just $200 or so separates “basic starter appliances” from those quite a lot nicer. You want some Monday-morning-examples? Oui! Check what an extra $200 gets you (in size and shininess) from Sears.ca -
End up in the $749 kitchen and you’d always think nasty thoughts about the cheap-ass previous owners. Our gamble? This is an expenditure that will stand out – far more than $200 spent on thicker baseboard or more expensive tiling.
What to buy?
Our first thought was to buy all three appliances – fridge, oven, dishwasher – brand new and in a matching set. My mum raised the red flag – “Don’t spend money you don’t need to, you won’t get it back!”
Wise lady. The dishwasher is only 5 years old, and is white. In a white kitchen, it will (hopefully) blend in nicely. Would we recoup the extra $1,000 to buy a stainless steel dishwasher? Unlikely. Recall my ecstasy at having a diswasher – period. Most first-time home buyers will be a in a similar boat.
Flipping Decision #17 (I just made that number up – but I might make a proper list later): the dishwasher stays!
Why buy now?
Why not. I now know I can get any oven sparkling clean, so it will still look brand new at the time of sale. The old ones are scary, noisy and horribly ineffcient. Plus, as it turns out, the current oven doesn’t actually work at all – as discovered at a crucial moment in pizza-making:
(The baking part).
P.S. Can now vouch for the edibility of fried pizza – but far prefer it barbecued.
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Harvest photo c/o David McDermott , Raisin Bran c/o Brandi Sims via Flickr Creative Commons
Hey, you want a s'more? Some more of what?
You could buy a stainless panel for the dishwasher somewhere down the line. I don’t think they’re that expensive or hard to find, and I know there’s stainless on a roll like Contact paper now but I’m not sure if that would look chintzy or not.
Contact paper!? Never heard of such a thing! I wonder if it looks even halfway decent – if it’s at all possible to get away with such delightfully devious tricks? Will have to search for some photographic evidence.
The former owner of our house did a beautiful kitchen remodel but BUILT-IN the crappy old refrigerator! Now it’s the only fridge that will fit in that space without ripping out cabinets. It finally died, and we replaced it with the cheap-o version of itself in stainless. Yes, it’s in stainless, but it doesn’t even have a light in the freezer. Such a dumb move!
Carbzilla – your nickname continues to delight. (And you should know where I plan to put 5 lbs of roast potatoes when our new oven comes. Yup. In mah belly.) Anywayyy – that sounds completely wretched. It’s good to note that Former-Owner Hatred (FOH) is a very real phenomenon and one to be avoided! Maybe he works for the fridge company that made the original & wanted to guarantee future sales?
I have the same problem, sort of… all stainless appliances except the black dishwasher, which is too new to replace yet. Here’s a link for peel and stick stainless: http://www.softmetalfilm.com/films.html
I may just try it out myself!
Want to play the guinea pig? Does your eye immediately go to the non-matching dishwasher or do you think you just notice it more as its stainless-loving owner?
I noticed it right away when I bought the house — the other appliances are KitchenAid (scratch & dent models, but that’s okay) in a kitchen that was redone prior to selling, so the cheapo black Kenmore DW kinda stuck out. It was something that I thought I’d replace right away, but since it’s still perfectly good, why bother?
Guinea pig? Sure! If I can make it look like SS for $30, it’s worth a shot. Anything for the Ugly Baby cause!
Maybe a handsome but inept bachelor will buy this place & never cook! And then he won’t even care.
Will eagerly await status reports of the peel-and-stick!
If you are leaning toward not replacing the dishwasher, I’d lean towards new white appliances. I don’t like white appliances, but I hate mis-match appliances more. Ours are all black, which I love more than stainless steel (I know, I’m in the minority there, but I have kids and I hate cleaning and fingerprints!), but they aren’t the same brand. And we never noticed that until after we bought the house.
The microwave nicely died just the other week and I wouldn’t even consider putting in a stainless steel or mixed stainless steel and black one. The mismatchiness would make me cranky.
My personal thought, if you were going to market the apartment as ‘totally recently renovated’ when I looked at it, as a potential buyer, would be, well why the hell didn’t they a) change out the dishwasher to make it all match or b) buy all the same color.
That said, probably wouldn’t be a deal breaker. It would just make me have to change out the dishwasher myself! LOL
Mm, white does scream NINETIES rather loudly. Interesting consideration re. “totally recently renovated, less 1x dishwasher”. It’s an tiring dance between crowd pleasing & profit safeguarding…. maybe we plonk a 3-eyed fish on the counter above & assume no one will notice the dishwasher!
Ahaha that would rock!
Another thought — if you can swing it, consider the freezer on the bottom setup — really handy for tall people and looks a little more upscale.
Oh, it’s swung. But you don’t know that yet
We needed a new refrigerator for the ugly-baby foreclosure monstrosity we’re slowly rehabbing, and I bought the biggest bottom-freezer I could fit into the space. Think about it – which do you spend more time opening, closing and searching through? Unless you really enjoy deep knee bends, putting the fridge on the bottom doesn’t make a great deal of sense. DO, however, think about an automatic ice maker. If you don’t already have the plumbing for it, it’s a small expense to bring in a plumber, but a really nice amenity to have.
Whaat? Where’s the monstrosity in vivid, ugly detail? Want to see! I haven’t checked with Paolo’s preferences but I’m adamantly anti-deep knee bends. Good tip on the ice maker, thanks!
I’ve just this week started my own blog on our monstrosity. So far, just a couple of exterior shots, but I’ll be adding more. You can find it at http://www.foreclosurefixerup.blogspot.com
Oh cool, I’ll definitely check it out!
If you buying all your appliances and tons of building materials from one place (like Home Depot or Lowes) maybe you can negotiate a deal for a free dishwasher? Might be worth looking into.
Interesting thought! I bet there are package deals to be had as well. Thanks Cathy!
Designs in dishwashers haven’t changed that much in 25 years. If it cleans the dishes then thumbs up. If it almost disappears in a run of white cabinets , excellent!!! Lets face it… it’s a utility piece. When was the last time a picture of a dishwasher made you gasp… certainly not like a fridge or range top might … hiding down below waiting to do your chores …..Gooood !!!
Hahaha! Yea, I definitely have a thick stack of oven porn & a very guilty pile of fridge porn — dishwasher filth? None. Ok, you’re right!!