Abt-titude Check

Dearest Rachel –

As promised, I went to this appliance showroom this morning to figure out what to get for the to-be remodeled kitchen and laundry room.

And I took pictures.

When we got inside, dad went to the main desk, and asked for Joe K, the representative that generally works with Detail on their projects. Turns out, he was on vacation, and supposedly had assigned our case to an associate, but that person wasn’t available either. And in any event, Lisa from Detail wasn’t here yet either.

While dad sat and waited, I went to take a look around, since Erin had spoken so highly of the place, and everything in it. Quite honestly, some parts of it looked more like a mall than an appliance store.

One of the things that caught my attention (not that it was something that I can do with our house) were the home theater set ups. One of them was a full size, I’ll say 20 x 30 foot room with surround sound and a multi panel movie screen dominating the back wall, with plush leather seating for a dozen or so people. The price tag? Just a hair below half a million dollars. Well, when price is no object, this is the place to go.

Even as I was taking that last photo, my phone began to ring; Dad was calling me from elsewhere in the showroom, as Lisa had arrived, and it was time to get down to business.

Lisa had suggested that it would take something like two hours to go over everything; deciding on brands and sizes and colors and all. But it turned out to be a lot less involved than that. A lot of it had to do with the fact that we’d lived with what had come with the house for so long (well, they are called durable goods, after all), that I wasn’t all that picky about what I was purchasing. That, and the fact that I wasn’t making any desperate attempt to find the absolutely most economical assortment of appliances made it easy, since then, it was just a matter of deferring to the ‘experts’: Lisa and the associate, a fellow named Peter.

For the kitchen, he recommended GE – which gnawed a bit in the back of my head, since it’s one of the few investments we have that hasn’t been doing well from the moment we were aware that it was in the portfolio. Then again, the fact that a company is poorly managed isn’t necessarily a reflection of the quality of the goods they make or sell; consider Sears, with their Craftsman tools (which they’ve since spun off – at least those will still be made after the ship goes down) and Kenmore appliances – not that that brand name ever came up here, I should point out.

The associate pointed out that most manufacturers offered bundles, or package deals, that encouraged purchasing multiple items; and since I was in the market for everything, that was a perfect arrangement. So, we ordered a GE Profile model of refrigerator, dishwasher, overhead microwave, and oven. The oven might strike you as interesting, as it’s like the one at your folks’ place, with the smaller over on top and a larger one beneath. This way, if Daniel and I want to make a pizza, we’ll not have to run the full-size one to do it. And should we decide to hold next year’s Thanksgiving at our place, we can fix casseroles in the one at one temperature, and the bird below at another. Granted, Peter warned me that retrieving the bird would be a dead lift, but I’m sure I could handle the exercise.

As for the washing machine and dryer, it seems there aren’t any American models to compare with the Korean manufacturers. And while Samsung may have gotten Mr. Abt his place on the Olympic relay, Peter steered us toward LG instead; in particular, a dryer where the door opens the usual sideways manner, and from the top, so one can throw in something that may have been forgotten without spilling the contents already in the machine.

The whole process, including the wandering around, took barely an hour, and we were done. So everything is on order, just before all the price increases take effect, for all that’s worth. It’ll be nice to see what it all looks like once it’s in; pity that you’re missing out.

Still, I wish I could see what your place up there looks like. Wonder if you even need appliance up there…