Fancy Appliances

This post has been a long time coming... seeing as we attended this show quite some time ago. Last month, B and I were invited to attend an event showcasing what's new in appliances from both Frigidaire and Electrolux. It took place at the airport Hilton hotel here in Toronto, and let me tell you - we learned a lot! 


When we arrived we met up with a rep who took us through the different appliances, and the first thing we looked at were the induction cooktops. My favourite part about the induction cooktop was the no scratch easy clean surface they come with. B and I have an electric glass stove top (though we hope to buy gas in the future), and we find that food always gets stuck and burns onto the surface, making it hard to clean. With induction cooktops, the only part that will heat up is the part underneath your pot or pan, due to magnets, this means any spilled food or boil overs won't burn onto your stove.

When it came to stoves and ovens, a very cool technology that is coming down the line was the built in thermometer. Based on the price point you buy, the features of these thermometers differ. My favourite had to be the "automatic stop" feature. Based on what you are cooking (i.e. pork, chicken, beef, etc.) you put in your information like the finished temp, and when your food is ready the oven will automatically turn off. Perfect for a Thanksgiving turkey, no? No need to continuously open and close the stove to check on the turkey (aside from basting), and if you need to run out quickly no need to worry about the turkey over cooking. Brilliant!

I've also decided that I want... no NEED one of their steam washer and dryer pairs. Unlike most appliance companies who only have steam coming from the top, Frigidaire and Electoloux have steam coming from the bottom. Think about it, smart right, considering hot air rises. (Oh... and how great is this blue colour?... Would look fantastic in our laundry room!)

Are you someone who still loves the traditional top load washer? Well, that's been addressed with some new technologies. By removing the agitator in top loading washers, there is more tub room, and less wear and tear on you clothing. Big bonus, right?

I was a big fan of the "real stainless steel" that they use on their appliances - you can really see the difference in how it stands up to finger prints and smudges. 

A few other things that I really loved? This Electrolux stove was definitely right up there. Gas (which is definitely what B and I plan to buy when we replace our own), and loved that piece that fits your wok. Gorgeous.

I was also a big fan of the custom look of both of these stoves below, also from Electrolux.

It was a great show and we both learned a lot checking out all of the different appliances at different price points, and a lot of the new technologies coming down the line. It gave us both a good case of appliance envy though. I would've gladly taken home anything in the show room there!

I got a great little grab bag with some nice little items to give away... so keep an eye out for an upcoming product review and giveaway! I can't wait to share (now that I'm over 100 followers!). 

Are there any appliances that you're lusting after as of late?

Our Boxing Day Scores

This Boxing Day, B and I decided to brave the Boxing Day sales... at the big box home stores. In other words - no crowds to deal with. Thank god. We got some of the obvious first time home owner things - more lights for our Christmas tree and a few ornaments to help fill our tree next year. But with those purchases aside, we had some big ticket items we were on the hunt for.
As I've been writing about for a while now, we have plans to renovate our basement laundry area. That means that the #1 purchase on our list was a new water and energy efficient washer and dryer pair. After scouring all of the after Christmas sales (via flyers), the best deal we came across was for an LG washer and dryer pair at Home Depot. The LG 3.5 Cu. Ft. Front Load Washer (WM2010CW) and 7.0 Cu. Ft. Dryer (DLE1310W) - $886 for the pair (regular $1296) + an additional 10% off! So we saved over $500 on the pair, plus with over $70 in gift cards - we're only paying roughly $830 of our own money for the pair, after taxes! It was definitely a great way to start our shopping trip and put both of us in an excellent mood for the remainder of our excursion. 

Once we had finalized our purchase at Home Depot, we headed over to Lowes to pick up a toilet that they had on sale for $148, for our basement bathroom (regular $208). The toilet is exactly the same as the one we purchased back in July for the upstairs bathroom. It's a low flow, American Standard toilet - and the best part? The city of Toronto offers $75 back on our water bill for purchasing the toilet - so essentially, we're getting it for $75!

We also took a chance to see what they had in the way of deals on Dishwashers. We weren't sold on buying one, but thought we'd take a look since the one that came with the house is not only not very efficient... but also doesn't do a very good job cleaning dishes. Well, once we saw the Bosch dishwasher they had on sale for $698 (regular $1198) - we WERE sold! We overhead one of the sales associates telling someone there were only two left, so we snapped one up immediately, and we LOVE how it looks in the kitchen (for now anyway - it'll look way better in the future when the kitchen is actually redone!)

We also made a stop at RONA to pick up some plain white subway tiles for the new tub enclosure and a lot of other fun stuff for our whole tiling job. Was nice since we not only got 10% off everything, but we also got 4x the Airmiles on our purchases, which gave us a good number of bonus miles - who knows, maybe we'll cash them in for something nice in the house somewhere down the road!

So, that is how we made out during the Boxing Day sales - and we are extremely happy. But with all of that out of the way, it's time to get down to business on the basement reno! As my previous post showed, the demo is well underway - for the first half of the basement anyway (laundry room and bathroom). I'm looking forward to sharing some updates - as Day 2 of the demo has been quite successful so far! Keep those eyes peeled!