Appliances - Check!

We completely geeked out at Yale Appliance this weekend and ended up doing what we do best: finding the best product possible at the top of our price range (okay, maybe SLIGHTLY outside of our price range – ha! “range” - no pun intended) that looks like we spent a LOT more money than we did. That’s always our goal. We won’t cheap out, but we will go to great strides to find things that appear to have cost more than they did – even if that means paying a few bucks more than we budgeted. Sometimes a small amount of money can bring something from decent to phenomenal. Usually, it’s a detail here or there that just makes an item “sing.” Finding what my dad calls the “suck appeal” without breaking the bank is something I kind of get a high off of. We really mastered this with our wedding planning. And we have it down when it comes to wine purchasing, as well: There’s a lot of crap out there for under 10 bucks. But there’s also a lot of good, lesser known wine for under 10 bucks. Some very lovely wines cost as much as your Barefoot or Yellow Tail but aren’t embarrassing to serve to friends at a dinner party – in terms of label and taste.

So that’s the approach we’ve taken with everything from tiles to cabinets to, most recently, appliances.

How do you get the look of a pro-style Viking or Wolf kitchen without spending $5,000+ on JUST a stove that looks like this?


Well, you go to Yale Appliance in South Boston – which is basically the IKEA of appliances and lighting and you look at quality, aesthetics and manufacturers’ rebates. The more you buy from a manufacturer, the more you save. We really liked the looks (and the reviews and data re: servicing needs/complaints) of the Jenn-Air pro line.

Here's the look of the items in an actual kitchen:


Gas convection range, french door shallow depth refrigerator (so it looks built in), over the range microwave hood and stainless interior dishwasher (Chris is stoked about this $1300 high-end dishwasher!). And there is something industrial about the handles on all of these appliances that scream Chef Ramsey!

Get a closer look at the stove. Sure, it's no Wolf, but it's damn near it in looks - and, according to reviews, not far behind when it comes to performance either.

So we bought the fridge on Sat to enable us to take advantage of the $150 Massachusetts tax rebate, as well as Yale’s $150 match. Regular price: $1999. Our price: $1249.


And we have the rest of the package teed up to buy on August 13th, which will save us a few hundred bucks in taxes (for those of you Bay Staters who don’t know already, the weekend of August 13/14 is tax-free weekend in the Commonwealth).

We won’t get all of the rebates on our new kitchen until the items are delivered (probably late September/early October, right before the cabinets are refaced), but we will certainly make sure we get cash in on the rebates. You’ve probably heard about $50 rebates for phones costing $250. How about $1200+ in rebates on a $6,000 kitchen? We’re listening…

Interesting fact I found online: The average breakage, or people who do not turn in rebates is 80-90% in groceries. So instead of lowering wholesale price, manuacturers bet on this "breakage". But $1,175 is a little different than a coupon for 75 cents off that Green Giants peas.

We budgeted $3,000 for all of our appliances. When all is said and done, this kitchen will cost us about $4,800. We love to cook. The reviews are good. Everything matches and looks legit. We’re getting a really good bang for our buck. We are happy to move on from this decision.

One other update worth sharing – before picking up our appliances, we took 3 cars to Fitzgerald Tile in Woburn and left with 1,300 lbs of tile and 25 lbs of grout for the “mudroom turned sunroom.” All in all, a very productive Saturday! (Yes, I am strategically trying to have very productive Saturdays with Chris before football starts. Then, I know I’m on my own. Well, I’ll have Mom…who has been so so helpful!)