4 posts tagged “home”
When buying a new home it's not uncommon to purchase one or more major appliance at the same time. Even if the home, like most, comes with the appliances you may not like what is already there. In our case, there were no appliances at all. We had the joy of shopping for a refrigerator, oven/range, washer, and dryer.
We started out by setting parameters. In our case we needed gas range but had our choice of gas or electric dryer. Melody wanted a newer fridge, and I'm not inclined to trust a used washer or dryer to last very long, but it would have been nice to find a used range. Unfortunately, one didn't turn up while we were shopping. I also prefer a dryer with a lint trap in the door rather than on top of the machine. Having used both types in recent years, the dryers with the lint trap on top haven't worked as well and the lint ends up making a big mess. Other than that, we had to do this as cheaply as possible-- buying a house doesn't leave you with a lot of extra money for things like appliances.
Next we did some pre-shopping. This was mostly just for fun, but it also gave us a general idea of what we would have to spend, helped us set a budget, and effected how much we offered (and ultimately paid) for the house. After that I found the delivery policies and fees of the major vendors (Home Depot, Best Buy, Sam's Club, Sears, Lowes, and local independants).
After that we started really shopping. Some of it was done online, but that at first was mostly to set expectations for trips to the store. For purchases like this you want to see the items in person. I stopped a few times each merchants listed above. After spending a lot of time looking around, we finally settled on a fridge from Sears. We wanted to keep our purchase together to avoid multiple delivery charges, but Sears didn't have as great a deal on the other items. For a while I thought we would end up with a nice closeout dryer and washer from Home Depot, but they wouldn't deliver the closeout times and we don't have the vehicles to pick it up ourselves. In the end, I created shopping carts online with all three items with the different merchants, adjusted for delivery costs, and took the cheapest option. The winning cart was from Lowe's, and it included the nicest dryer (with the lint trap where I like it) and the nicest oven (the only one in that price range with both a clock and window/light for the oven). Lowe's seemed to have a much larger selection online than the others did.
Now we just sit back and wait for delivery. We were able to schedule the fridge delivery with Sears to be the day after we moved in. They showed up on-time and were very efficient. Unfortunately, the item was slightly damaged, but the delivery people were able to tell us how to get a replacement and left the other item with us so we would have something to use. I wasn't happy with the person I had to talk with to get the replacement (she didn't want to believe it was really damaged), but it only took one 15 minute phone call to make the replacement.
The experience with Lowe's delivery was less satisfying. I was initially given the impression that all the items were in stock and they could be delivered within a week. However, it soon came to light that they had to wait about three weeks for one item. During the intervening period I was called twice about the other items by different warehouse managers, wondering when I'd be coming to pick the items up. Not good. When everything finally did arrive, the delivery people installed the washer, but left the gas range and dryer (the items I was most hoping to have professionally installed) for me to handle. To top that off, they got the hot and cold water backwards.
Installing the gas wasn't that hard, but it was still something I would have liked to avoid. I was advised to call the local utility and see if they would do the hookup. They do offer that service, but at an outrageous rate. Here's a tip for them: you are not in the business of making money from the installation process. Make the process easier and safer, and more people will use your core product. So I hooked the gas up myself for two appliances. I made sure to read all the instructions three times to make sure I understood every detail, and used a soapy mixture to check for leaks when I was done (if you see bubbles, gas is escaping somewhere). It's been nearly a month now and no explosion yet, so I think we'll be okay. ;)
Two years ago this week a tornado hit Stoughton, WI. It came within a mile of our apartment, and we were completely unaware of it until after it had already passed. The sirens were going off, but there wasn't one placed near enough to our location. I can now say with confidence that this will not be a problem at our new home. Last night there was a tornado in the county where we live. It hit roughly 20 miles away, but apparently that's close enough to use the sirens and I could hear them loud and clear. That plus the loud lightning ensured I'm good and tired today.
For some reason I really enjoy hooking up AV components. I don't know why, but I do. The carpet in the old apartment made moving the cabinet to get behind things next to impossible, so I'd been looking forward to the chance to re-wire our entertainment center ever since I knew we'd be moving. I also had some items I wanted to do a better job setting up. I was able this time to put the speakers in so the wires weren't stretched so tight, and the bundle the extra cables coming from the newer DVD player so they were tight enough and not hanging all over the place. I was also able to run a cable from the TV to the stereo so we could use the better speakers for movies (no surround sound yet, but we'll add that eventually). Finally, I put in a cable so we can use the TV as a monitor for my wife's laptop.
A couple years ago I decided to drop cable TV in favor of traditional broadcast TV + Netflix + Internet. They raised our rates one too many times! I used to watch cable TV for weather and news, movies and shorter entertainment, and the occasional sporting event. I still miss Cartoon Network, but nearly everything else was replaced via the consortium mentioned above. News and weather are readily available online. We get enough broadcast channels to cover the major networks, if we're not on the internet instead. And Netflix does a much better job of providing us with movies we want to see than cable did. I still miss an occasional football game I'd like to see, but that's rare enough I can manage.
So now that we've moved, what's changed? Put simply, we're farther away from any broadcast towers, and with one exception (CBS) don't get same quality signal we've been used to. I considered a number of solutions: go back to cable, find a digital tuner, or get a better antenna.
Going back to cable actually was a better option than a first glance would show. Since I already have cable internet, putting basic in the bundle woudn't have made much difference in price, and at that point we'd only be a few dollars/month away from a premium internet + digit cable service. It's not my top choice, though, because it does leave us dependent on another monthly subscription service. I'm hoping for something that I can do once and be done with it.
A digital tuner would have been my preferred choice. This is something I'll have to do in a little over a year anyway, as broadcasters are forced to switch to an all-digital signal. Also, the government is supposedly offering a coupon that will make the tuner less expensive to acquire. Unfortunately, this didn't work out for three reasons. First, I had no way to know if the digital signal would be any better than the analog where I was, and with no way to test it I didn't want to invest in something that would ultimately be worthless. Second, after some digging I learned that the coupons will not be available until next year. Finally, there just isn't much on the market yet. So this is something I'm gonna keep in mind, and maybe in a year or so I'll look at it again.
That leaves me with upgrading my antenna. I have two options here. I could replace the unpowered rabbit ears with a signal-amplifying rabbit ears or I could erect an outdoor antenna on the roof. I wanted to avoid the expense of the outdoor antenna, and I didn't want to have to install it on our already aging roof. I have been skeptical of signal amplifying antennas in the past; wouldn't they amplify any noise as well? But not having much else in the way of options I checked Wal-mart, found one for about $20, and brought it home. I have to say, it works great. I wish I had spent another ten for a more powerful model, but this will be adequate for our needs for some time to come.
Almost exactly one week ago my wife and I became the proud owners of a house. We immediately moved out of our apartment and into the house, a process which is still ongoing. I'm going to put up a series of posts over next couple weeks detailing some of our experiences.
The first post is about internet access, or rather the lack thereof. My computer still sits in the garage (I'm posting from work). It will probably stay there for another week or two for a couple different reasons: other projects have to take priority and I don't need the distraction right now, and boxes and painting and such are preventing us from moving everything into the office right now anyway. I'm handling the lack of a convenient PC pretty well actually. Especially considering I usually spend way too much time on that thing.
Our internet service was finally turned on yesterday. We chose cable internet because the local cable company has a $20/mo special going with no need to get even basic cable service added, and because the house already had a cable modem. Unfortunately, I'm not happy with the service and probably won't keep it. The technician missed his first appointment and had to reschedule. Strike one.
Someone showed up for the rain check, but refused to use the old cable modem. I had checked the modem out in advance, because I did have some concerns. It is labeled as a telephony modem, but in this case that means it's a cable modem that provides VoIP service and lets you plug your traditional phone in. It also has a 10/100 ethernet port and checks on the web show that other people have used the same model device to obtain internet service. It supports the standard DOCSIS 2.0. I think they wouldn't activate it because they don't want us trying to use it to get free phone service (we have no plans for that, trust me). Instead they are charging an extra $7/mo to rent a very basic modem (one port, no wireless). Strike two.
They are one strike away from me going back to DSL. Our mediocre cell reception (future post) makes the phone service required for that option more attractive, and the extra cost of the modem makes the price difference that much smaller.
