Day 12

This has been one long weekend but very much needed! Thanksgiving was this Thursday and my favorite "holiday" of all, was Friday! I spent Thursday from 8:00pm- 10:00am shopping and the rest of Saturday sleeping! I planned on knocking out Christmas shopping for our entire family, as well as getting some items for the house. Unfortunately with the newly implemented mall hours (closing at midnight) I was only able to wrap up all the shopping for our two girls.

As for the house, walls were poured Wednesday and the molds were removed Thursday morning. We have beautiful basement walls which made it easy to begin picturing the layout of our home. The garage, mudroom, porch, and laundry room footings will be poured on Thursday instead of Tuesday; provided, we continue to expect rain almost all week (just our luck). The trusses and lumber will be delivered Thursday and rough framing was supposed to begin Thursday. Realistically the rough framing will be pushed back until the following Monday because of rain (thank you Michigan weather).

Wednesday I made the decision to head down to the Sears Outlet and take advantage of the Black Friday sales that were going on. Thankfully my boss understands my undying devotion to sales and allowed me the day off. He recently finished building a home and has been a huge help with suggestions on things to do and not to do.With the stove being the focal point of the kitchen it was important to me that we purchase a nice stove. After looking around I decided to go ahead and order the same stove we owned at our previous house. It was a beautiful appliance that I had a very hard time leaving behind. Sticker price is $2,099.00 but with the Black Friday deals I was able to snag it for $1496.00.

Next feat was the refrigerator. The Kitchen Aid fridge, I fell in love with was $3,999.00. It was marked down to $2,799 and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I purchased a $3,000 fridge. Story time: I am a coupon-er, sale seeking, bargain hunter. I do not give in until I have reached the peak deal. I have found that if you are able to pitch your point the manager will always take it, within reason. Jeff hates when I whip out and lay my bargaining skills on the table and that is why I tend to leave him home, when I know I am going with a mission. After walking around the store I was able to locate a Fridge that was exactly the same just a darker stainless color for $1,599. After talking with the Store Manager he agreed that the item I wanted was identical, minus the color,  and gave it to me for the $1599 price. SOLD!

Next mission: Washer and dryer. I hate front loading machines. I do not like the way they begin to smell if you do not leave the door open and the issues that many of the seals have. I was also firm on not purchasing Kenmore appliances. We had plenty of problems with the ones we owned prior to selling our house and constant service calls was not something we wanted the headache of dealing with . Since LG is new to the appliance industry we decided to stick with one of the other, more reputable brands. We went with a top loading Maytag Bravo 5.3 XL washer and dryer. Sticker price is $899 and the washer was marked down to $599.93; however the manager gave me $100 off since I was purchasing all my appliances at once. I walked with the washer for $499.93 and the matching dryer for $494.93. Which was a steal if you ask me. I decided to venture away from the Stainless and go with a bright white set. My reasoning behind this is because we plan to tile the floors with a darker slate to blend the sage cupboards. Having a clean white appliance will help add a pop of light and most importantly will show less scratches. Our last set we purchased in stainless, showed every scratch, from laundry baskets to belt buckles it was easily noticed right on top.

At this point I felt like I was committing deal catcher robbery and went in for the kill with the dishwasher. They did not have a Kitchen Aid dishwasher in stock but, the manager ordered one and charged me $499. This dishwasher comes with a sticker price of $899, but is on sale at Home depot with the black Friday sales for $598. If you can not tell by now, Sears outlet is the way to go. They are really reasonable and although sometimes their products may have small dings 9/10 times you are able to purchase brand new in box items straight from the factory for much cheaper than what the big box stores retail them at. 

Today, Saturday November 26, Jeff and I went to inspect the sales Menards ran on a 3 day special. We found that doors were priced substantially lower than what we would regularly be able to purchase them for. We needed 5- 32'', 2- 36'', and 1- 30'' door. Now be sure you are sitting down when you read this: Doors are regularly $174 each, for the solid Knotty alder 2 panel's we wanted. With the Black Friday sale we were able to walk with each door only costing $104.00 for the 32 & 36'' and $99 for the 30''!!!! Yes, that is black Friday steals at their finest! We will still need a pantry door (that I would like to be frosted glass), french doors for our bathroom, bi-fold doors for the girls bedrooms and pocket doors for their bathroom. We did not purchase those today, since they were not on sale and could be in a week. Needless to say we are extremely happy about the savings we made this weekend with a total amount of $4,946.14 SAVED!!! Now that is skills!

We are now debating on whether to stain the doors a dark walnut or paint them white/cream to match the trim. With the advice of grandpa this is something we will wait to make a decision on until paint is on the walls. 

While at Menards we also priced out the brick panels we will be using for the back splash, in the kitchen. We decided to go with the Vintage White wash but unfortunately they are pricey. After talking it over the kitchen is not something we can or want to change now, so it appears we will be splurging on the back splash. A 2x3 panel comes in costing $45/ per panel, yes it was an ouch moment! The manager suggested we wait a few weeks before purchasing since they usually go on special, as you can see we love a good deal, so we will wait it  out. 

Everything is going great and if the weather could just work with us for another two weeks our house will be completely framed in and shingled. But we will not hold our breath since this is Michigan and last week it went from 70 degrees one day to snow flying the next. Looks like at this point we are at the day to day mercy of Michigan weather!