Oh how times change...

I remember when I was little, the Toys are Us or JCPenny catalog would come in the mail and my brother, sisters and I would circle all the toys we couldn't live without. When I was 8 I could NOT live with out the Go Go my Walkin Pup. It was a white dog with a pink leash that was set on a pair of wheels. When you pushed the button on the leash it would roll around as if it was walking.

Now that I am kinda a grown up I am just as excited when the Best Buy and Bed Bath and Beyond catalogs come in the mail/email. Ry and I could spend all day in Home Depot or Lowe's coming up with new home projects. Our latest project... a new refrigerator/freezer and dishwasher. I felt the same joy when the new appliances arrived at the condo a few days ago as when I opened the Walkin Pup on Christmas morning (but hopefully I will enjoy them a little longer than the white fuzzy pooch)

A little over a week ago our refrigerator decided to stop running so, Ry and I had to go through the trouble finding an acceptable replacement. Let me tell you, there is almost a ridiculous amount of choices. From the standard freezer on top, fridge on the bottom to the double door freezer/fridge and finally the fridge on top and the freezer on the bottom. Once you decide the model you then have to choose a color and size. It is like trying to decide what type of coffee to order at a Starbucks!Our old fridge... plain and boring

Ry and I measured the size of our old refrigerator and figured we could find one that matched pretty easily... we were wrong. Just about EVERY model we looked at was about 1.5 inches too big. Luckily the only thing stopping us from buying a new fridge was a set of cabinets that were empty. After a few calls to some pretty crafty folks (thanks Uncle Kevin and dad!!!) Ry's confidence was built up enough to attempt to take the cabinets out himself. It was actually a whole lot easier to take them out than we thought. Just a few screws held the cabinets up. Piece of cake.My handy man :)

Now we had to try and match the color of our walls. The space behind the cabinets was white and marked up from installing the old cabinets. Luckily, Ry had taken a few days off of work earlier so he had plenty of time to find the paint and make the wall look beautiful.

Time for the fun part: picking the appliances out! Best Buy was having a sale: Buy 2 get 10% off, buy 3 get 20% off, buy 4 or more and get 30% off. We decided to just stick with buying 2 appliances to get the 10% off. We desperately wanted a new dishwasher (notice I said wanted but not needed) our old one was soooo loud we had to run it when we left the condo. We ended up buying a new fridge/freezer and a dishwasher and we LOVE them!

We decided to go with the fridge on top and freezer on the bottom after reading a bunch of reviews and talking to people with the different models. Everyone I talked to said they either love the fridge on top or wanted the fridge on top. That was easy. Now what color and size? Obviously we would want the biggest size for the buck and the color we decided on was..... black.

We have only had them a few days now but we both LOVE the new appliances! The refrigerator is so much bigger than our old one and our dishwasher is amazing! The best thing so far is that Ry is actually helping with the dishes :) I just wonder how long it will last...New HUGE fridge

Fridge decorations