After ordering new appliances for the kitchen at the beginning of the year, they finally arrived in late spring and were ready to be installed. The new Cove dishwasher and Wolf induction range came first:
That install went without a hitch. I love both of them, and the induction top is truly life changing. The speed at which it can boil water and then immediately reduce to a simmer is incredible. It forced me to relocate some old pots and pans to the lake house kitchen, since they weren’t compatible with induction heating. I replaced them with a brand new set of All Clad:
The next appliance to arrive was the microwave, which is a Kitchenaid that matches the double wall oven. This installation was more complicated; the installers came when I was stuck in Dallas due to flight delays, and they weren’t able to do the installation because the new microwave was slightly taller than the old one and they thought that they would have had to cut tile. I was able to get them to just leave the microwave, and then I did the installation myself. Instead of cutting tile, I installed plywood on the back wall to match the depth of the plywood, and the installed the rear microwave clips overtop of the plywood and tile (still anchored into the studs). This worked very well.
The last appliance was the big kahuna, the Sub Zero refrigerator. Because I ordered it from a different vendor that doesn’t do installations, I took delivery of the fridge and parked it in the garage temporarily:
Then, I had a team of movers come and relocate the old fridge to the garage, and then install the new refrigerator and hook up the water supply lines. It took a long time, but worked with zero issues.
Once the new refrigerator was in place, I stained some maple trim to match the existing cabinetry and fill the gap between the top of the refrigerator and the crown molding:
At that point, I thought I was done, but life had other ideas. The water heater started leaking, and needed to be replaced. I took the opportunity to also replace the water softener at the same time, since it was the last appliance original to the house.
Six appliances later, I’m very happy with how everything turned out, but I’m also glad to be done with new installs for the time being.