Shiny and New

Look what I got last weekend!  I feel like I have a shiny new car in my kitchen!

LG LFC21776ST French Door Refrigerator

Over Memorial Day weekend here in Texas, we had a tax-free holiday on Energy-Star rated appliances. Memorial Day is traditionally a great time for appliance sales anyway, but adding an additional 8 1/4% savings onto that made it even better!

When My Man and I decided to take the plunge, his first question was, "What COLOR?"  As you can see, our oven and microwave are both white.  I wanted to start moving to stainless steel as part of a future kitchen face lift.  Since we have two teenagers, he was concerned with the inevitable fingerprints.

Never fear, bloggers are here!  After reading this post from Melissa and the related comments, my plan of attack was to wipe the fridge down with a damp microfiber cloth every day (or a few times a day).  I'm afraid of trying the Pledge trick right now since my fridge is brand-spanking new.

Let's just say that stainless is forcing me to be more fastidious!  And that's a good thing.


By the way, microfiber cloths can be found MUCH more cheaply in the automotive section of your favorite discount store.  I got this pack of 12 for somewhere around $10.  They are thick and large.

You would probably pay $5 for 2 smaller ones in the home cleaning section of the store.

The second question to be decided was the STYLE of the fridge.  I desperately loved the look of the french door refrigerator.  I had seen a friend's model a couple of years ago and coveted that clean look.  But another friend said she hated hers because of the bottom freezer drawer.  After hearing her concerns, I decided it wasn't an issue for me because I have a separate upright freezer in the garage which holds most of our frozen food.  If the fridge is your only freezer space, though, I think I would agree with her.

The last thing we hashed out was the ICE MAKER in-the-door issue.  We both decided that we preferred having more interior door bin space to a water and ice dispenser outside.   Besides, I hope to have hardwood floors in the future, and I had visions of ice cubes bouncing onto the floor and not getting picked up.  That would be very bad.

So now we're researching wall oven/microwave combos.  If any of you have experience with convection ovens, would you please give me your opinions on whether they are useful?  Any comments re: brands and styles would be great, too.  Unfortunately, Consumer Reports (our go-to source for all major purchases) doesn't do a very thorough analysis of wall ovens and built-in microwaves.  Most people must have separate ranges.

Thanks for any help you can give!