Shiny New Things

We have new kitchen appliances and a new look to our "vintage" small orange pine kitchen. The new appliances are so shiny that I can't find a way to photograph them that doesn't glare.

Despite the bright gleam, stainless steel is much classier and an easier neutral to look at with the orange of the cabinets and walls.

The discolored old white appliances were not so shiny but their color was more distracting. One of the pitfalls of modern open floorpans is that the kitchen is seen from every angle, and our big white side by side refrigerator was the thing you saw from the front door. The kitchen is at the far end of the house, but visible as you walk in.

The new refrigerator is counter depth, so it doesn't stick out so far, and the few inches of shallower depth means you can see what's on the back of the shelves that you left there two years ago.

Jim doesn't care about aesthetics or how appliances look or fit their spaces. He's just happy to have updated, efficient tools to cook with, a quiet dishwasher, and a refrigerator that is easy to get into. I'm sure there are side by side fridge fans out there, but we never liked that design.

The only thing I dislike is the microwave. It's too big, too black, too much. But it was impossible to find a smaller one, all microwaves are exactly the same dimensions and none fit our shallow opening in the cabinets above the range. I researched other options -- a hood vent, no microwave at all, different microwave models, even hiring someone to move the upper cabinets -- but this is what we could afford and what we got. It sticks out too far forward and too much below the cabinets, but it works.

Despite that black microwave hogging space above the stove, I like my new appliances. We knew we'd have to replace them when we moved in, and finally we did, over two years later.

Now I have to learn how to work them. I think there is wi-fi connectivity, and temperature probing, and appointment scheduling, maybe recipe retrievals, two options for self-cleaning, an array of calibrated beeping buttons, and other wonders of technology that we are never ever, ever going to use.

But. Shiny and new.