Weekend Wrap-Up: Appliances, Furniture and Laundry (Oh My!)

This was the first weekend we didn’t have “plans” in a long time. On Friday Brad and I were both dismissed from work early for the weekend, which was nice.

We spent our weekend doing the crazy exciting things that every 20-something wants from a 3-day weekend… shopping for appliances and furniture, and doing laundry. It’s the first Labor Day in a long time that we haven’t been able to grill.

Labor Day is a pretty good time to buy things for a house. Appliance sales rival those of Black Friday. Furniture stores often slash prices as well. (Labor Day isn’t a horrible to purchase a lot of things either…

Appliances

Brad and I have been looking at appliances online for months now. Our house comes with very basic appliances (range, dishwasher and over the range microwave). We’re self-described appliance snobs, so we want more than the basic and we want stainless. We priced out “upgraded” appliances through the builder and it was unsurprisingly not worth it. We did our research and ended up at Best Buy on Saturday ordering an entire suite of appliances. We’re going with Samsung and getting everything, fridge, dishwasher, microwave, Flex Duo range (yay!), washer and dryer, plus all the cords and connector kits that people forget they need.

Image via Samsung.com

We ended up saving over 40% on all the new appliances and scheduled them for delivery on move-in day. Yay! Here are some tips for appliance shopping:

  • Comparison shop. Best Buy beat out the employee pricing that we can get through a family member who retired from Whirlpool
  • Consider open box. Check the selection on open box, that how we were able to awesomely appoint the Pelham house with high-end appliances. Dings, dents, etc on the sides of appliances will frequently be covered up by cabinets, it’s the damage to the front that you need to determine if you can live with.
  • Ask. Ask about promotions and manufacturer incentives, as well as price matching.
  • Stack. If you’re buying several appliances, you’re often able to stack various promotions. For instance, we did a kitchen order, which got us a giftcard and then turned around and used the gift card on the laundry room purchase.
  • Free delivery. Ask about delivery fees, you can often get free delivery with purchases of a certain amount or specific sales. Delivery fees can vary on a range of things, if you don’t own the right type of vehicle, the truck or van rental to pick it up yourself can sometimes save you a little.
  • Time it right. Black Friday and Labor Day are often the best times to buy, but there are frequently promotions throughout the year for other holidays and to make room for new models.

You can also consider buying used/like new appliances from places like the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, from Craig’s list, etc. Or from me if you’re local, we’ll be selling our brand new gas stove, over-the-range microwave and dishwasher after we move in.

Furniture

We haven’t purchased much new furniture. The layout of our new house had us wanting a new sofa… specifically a sectional. We sat on a lot of couches over the weekend. Most furniture stores were offering good deals and the sales associates were helpful, but willing to give you time to check things out without them, which I appreciate. We ended up finding our sectional at Costco of all places though.

Refer to my advice on appliance shopping above since it applies to both quite well.

Build Update (because you don’t really care about my laundry)

We went to the house over the weekend to measure the family room to see what size couch we can accommodate, but we also went yesterday and lots had been done.

The drywall was finished, the ceiling was textured, the first coat of primer has been applied. Our slate fireplace surround and mantle have been installed as well. The mantle is a little more ornate than I thought it would be, but it looks nice.

The two biggest things that happened very quickly are that our brick was put in and our first floor flooring has been installed. The “brickies” did a good job, and thanks to my job I know what they did, how quickly they did it and was able to see that they used a good moisture management system, which will protect the integrity of the brick for a very long time.

The entire first floor is currently covered by three layers of cardboard to protect it during the process. We peeked under the edge of the cardboard and it looks good.

They should be installing cabinets today, which will be a dramatic change to the kitchen.

How was your Labor Day weekend?

2 thoughts on “Weekend Wrap-Up: Appliances, Furniture and Laundry (Oh My!)

  1. I love reading how your house is going.. It is going up sooo fast. So glad for you and Brad.
    I found your site thru what looks like your moms site. It sounds like she is also building a house. Hers sounds like it may be going a lot slower than yours.
    On the appliances, I have a question, Does Best Buy offer Technicians to fix any of their appliances if you have failure problems? That is something I have always have trouble finding, a reliable person to fix my appliances

    • Hi Janet, thanks for your comment (normally I don’t take so long to reply). My mom and her husband are building a house on their own whereas we went with a builder. It’s been interesting to experience the process at the same time. Yes, appliance repair is a service offered by Best Buy’s Geek Squad. I have no experiences with it though. Make sure you know if your appliance is under warranty, because you may need to arrange service directly through the manufacturer, who may also be able to recommend service providers in your area.

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