This year, we decided to try something different for leaf removal and bought a John Deere Power Flow bagger for our lawn mower.  They come in 7 and 14 bushel models and we decided on the larger of the two.  So far, it’s done a good job of picking up the leaves and grass clippings and we’re pretty happy with the purchase.

New Power Flow Bagger

The power flow piece is a fan powered by the mower deck and helps to blow the clippings into the three mesh bags.  To empty the bags, the hopper is hinged and the bags slide out.  There’s even a gauge to show when bagger is getting full.

Power Flow

Open Hopper and Mesh Bags

Air Flow Indicator

Last week, we decided we’d finally had enough of the nastiness that was our old dishwasher and concluded it was time to upgrade.  Our old dishwasher was a KitchenAid that really didn’t look all

The Old Dishwasher

that old or particularly abused and we’d had pretty good luck with a KitchenAid that we’d installed in our old house, so we were a little reluctant to give in to the fact that it just wasn’t working right.  After using it for a little more than a year, though, the dishes were still coming out with food particles stuck to them … glasses had always been a challenge, but it was even to the point where the plates weren’t getting clean any more.  So, we decided it was time to give up on the KitchenAid and try something different.

We started our research with the Consumer Reports Buying Guide, which recommended the Kenmore 1374x and the Bosch SHE33M0xUC as “CR Best Buys” under $1000.  Since we’d had problems with the old KitchenAid dishwasher and also because Consumer Reports listed them as a brand more likely to need repairs, we decided to not consider any models of that brand.  Between the Kenmore and Bosch models, we really liked the fact that the Bosch had a stainless steel interior at a much lower price than it was available in the Kenmore models.  It also seemed that the Bosch dishwashers consistently got good reviews and high marks for their ability to clean dishes efficiently and quietly, so we decided to go with a Bosch for our next dishwasher.

Although the SHE33M0xUC model (part of Bosch’s Evolution line) was the model reviewed and recommended by Consumer Reports, we had trouble finding one at Lowe’s or Sears and there weren’t any other local retailers that carried the Bosch brand.  After looking at the models in stores, though, we also decided that we liked the controls being hidden on the top of the dishwasher panel instead of the front, so even if we could have found the exact model reviewed by Consumer Reports, we probably would have purchased something a little different …

We had a little trouble identifying the differences between all of the models in the Bosch product line, but the best we could tell was that the higher priced models were a little quieter, came with more flexible rack configurations, and maybe added a cycle or two.  Otherwise, they all appeared to be about the same dishwasher.  We wound up buying the SHX43M0xUC dishwasher, which is part of the Integra line (with hidden controls) in black.  It’s rated at 54 decibels and is significantly quieter than our old dishwasher (which I didn’t think was loud).  The Bosch has also done a great job of cleaning the dishes so far.  It’s definitely an improvement overwhat we were working with before – I haven’t had to re-wash anything!  One negative I read in a lot of reviews of the dishwasher was with respect to the “Condensation Drying” feature, which others felt left the dishes too wet when the cycle completed.  For us, the drying of the Bosch dishwasher seems as good or better than the “Energy Saving Dry” feature of our KitchenAid and we’ve got no complaints.

The New Dishwasher

The only couple of places where we see room for improvement are the fact that there’s no light on the front of the dishwasher to indicate whether or not the cycle is complete (which is hard to tell since it’s silent during the drying cycle) and that the silverware basket is positioned in the middle of the bottom rack and can’t be relocated, which makes loading the dishwasher a little more challenging.  Both of these gripes, however, are addressed in the upper models of the Bosch line if we’d been willing to pay a little more.

All-in-all, we’re really happy with the decision to purchase the Bosch so far.  It’s an amazing improvement over the old dishwasher, for sure!

After all the frustrations of dealing with a tarp cover for the pool last winter, we decided it was time to try something different.  This summer, we researched and ordered a new mesh safety cover for the pool.  We’ve only had it for a few weeks, but so far, it’s a big improvement over what we were dealing with last year.  It also looks a lot cleaner … here are pictures of the old tarp cover and the new mesh cover:

The old tarp cover

The new mesh cover

One of the things we like a lot better about this cover is the fact that it’s a safety cover that’s anchored into the concrete all around the edges of the pool.  We like the piece of mind knowing that the cover would support the weight of anything that might otherwise accidentally fall into the pool.  The cover seems pretty sturdy, but we’ve already noticed a lot of muddy footprints on it, which makes us sort of nervous that the raccoons will attempt to do the same thing to it that they did to the water bags last fall.  So far, so good, though.

Each of the straps that connects the cover to the anchors in the concrete has a spring attached to it, so the cover will have a little give as the snow starts to pile on it this winter.  Right now, we’ve got the cover on pretty loosely, but the recommendation is to put it on so that the springs aren’t more than half-way compressed when there’s no weight on the cover.  This will allow enough give for the cover to stretch and rest on top of the water left in the pool when there’s snow on it.

Anchors for the new cover

It’s also a mesh cover, so the water will be allowed to drain through it into the pool over the course of the winter as the snow melts or when it rains in the spring.  We’re not sure yet if this will be a good thing or not.  We think it will make opening the pool much less work because we won’t have to pump water off the top of the cover (which was the most time consuming part of opening the pool with a tarp cover), but it does mean that we need to periodically keep an eye on the water level in the pool and use a submersible pump to lower it if the level gets too high over the winter.  The guys at the pool store thought we wouldn’t have to worry about it until the middle of March or so, but we’ll probably plan to check it more frequently than that, at least to start with.  We’re also not sure what letting all of that water into the pool will do to the pool water when we open it in the spring.  The pool was pretty much clear this spring when we opened it after having a tarp cover on all winter, but letting all of that water into the pool over the course of the winter seems to almost guarantee that it will be pretty murky come spring.  Everything we’ve read says the trick is to close late and open early so that the water temperature stays at or below 60 degrees during the time that the pool is closed to prevent the algae from growing.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.  For now, though, it’s sure nice to not have to deal with leaking water bags!

… is just about the coolest thing ever!

We’d been researching pool robots for a while and we finally broke down and bought one a couple of weeks ago. We wound up purchasing the Aquabot Turbo T “Bearbot” and it seems to do a pretty good job. It crawls the bottom and sides of the pool, scrubbing them and vacuuming up any debris and also filters about 5000 gallons of water an hour in addition to what the normal pool filter is doing, so it helps the pool water feel cleaner overall in addition to making sure that the bottom stays clean.

For our 17′ x 34′, approximately 25,000 gallon pool, it takes about 2 hours for the Aquabot to cover the whole pool in a pretty random pattern that can be fairly frustrating to watch, but it seems to eventually cover all of the dirty spots. We don’t really have any problems with the robot getting hung up on anything, although we have a pretty simple oval pool with no ladders or anything, so it’s probably one of the simpler pools for the robot to clean.

Before purchasing the Aquabot, we did some research online for a bunch of different pool cleaners. We were between the Aquabot Turbo T, Aquabot Turbo T2, and the Blue Diamond robots and we wound up purchasing the Turbo T mostly because it was the one that we found in stock at one of the local pool stores. According to the salespeople at a couple of the stores we looked at and also according to what we’d read online, it sounds like it’s normal for all three models of robots to need maintenance relatively frequently, which is covered by warranty for the first few years, depending on the model. So, we decided that we would rather spend a little more purchasing a robot locally from a dealer that also services them rather than having to worry about shipping it back and forth to the manufacturer for service if we purchased it online.

So far, we’re pretty happy with the purchase. It’s saving a lot of time that we would be spending vacuuming the pool otherwise and it does a lot better job than what we were ever able to figure out how to do manually.

Fabric samples for the furniture we ordered for our sun room came in the mail today. It’s funny how differently we remembered our selections. Both of us thought we’d picked way too light of a shade for the new couch, but when the samples came, we were happy to see it is a nice shade of tan.

I tried scanning the fabrics they sent and the textures came out a little stronger than they really look, but the colors are pretty accurate. The tan color on the left is a textured microfiber that’ll go on the couch and matching chair. The lighter fabric on the upper right is a more heavily textured microfiber that’ll go on the over-sized ottoman we’ll be using as a coffee table. The fabric in the bottom right will be used on throw pillows. We’ll also have a brown leather recliner that they didn’t send a sample for.

Our designer mentioned in her note that some of the furniture is in already. None of the custom pieces are done yet, but some of the tables, lamps, and artwork are in. They should hopefully be delivered sometime in the next week or so. I’m so excited to see them in our house!

We also heard from the painter recently and he thinks he’ll be able to start sometime next week, so now we’re just working on finalizing our paint color selections. Here’s what we’re thinking about. The trim is already painted the lightest color. We’re thinking we’ll paint most of the room the darker of the other two colors and use the middle shade as an accent color. We’re still a little undecided about what to paint the accent color. One option is to paint the entire wall where the TV will go the. The other option is to just paint the portion of the wall that’s directly behind the TV, which is built out about a half inch due to the fireplace on the other side of the wall. We’re not sure if that will look nice to accent that or if it’ll look weird. Either way, though, we’re excited to see the room come together soon.

We finally figured out how to get rid of the lingering smell of our new stove! After two excruciatingly smelly hours of running the self-clean cycle, the oven no longer reeks while baking!

The owner’s manual recommends making sure the room is well ventilated during the first cycle and warns that the odor may be harmful to birds, so I’m guessing that means the smell is fairly common among new stoves. I’m just glad it appears to have fixed it!

We just placed the order with the furniture store for our family room furniture! I’m so excited to see what it’s going to look like in our sun room, but they said to expect that it will take 6 to 8 weeks before it’ll be delivered. It sounds like pieces will be trickling in as they arrive during that time, so we’re hoping we’ll get to see some of it in our room sooner …

Here’s a floor plan for the room that was put together by the store’s design service. It basically matches the plan we had made ourselves earlier.

With much help from our very patient designer, we finally settled on purchasing most of the items in the floor plan. Here are pictures of some of the things we picked out:

The recliner will be covered in the same color leather as in the picture. We’re really excited about it since it’s so incredibly comfortable. The couch and matching chair (minus the ottoman shown in the photo) will be covered in a tan microfiber fabric. Instead of a coffee table, we decided to go with a large storage ottoman (so we won’t feel so bad about it when we put our feet on our new furniture). It’ll be covered in a textured, off-white microfiber fabric and won’t have the skirt that’s shown in the photo. The rest of the tables, lamps, and artwork will be pretty much exactly like they are in the picture. There’s also a variegated, plush brown area rug that will cover a good portion of the floor and a couple of patterned accent pillows to pull it all together. For a paint color, we’re debating between the 2nd and 3rd darkest shades on the paint chip (the other, lighter colors are the palette for the rest of the house).

I’m just so horrible at visualizing what the room will look like with everything in it and I really can’t wait for all of the furniture to arrive so we can see it all together and covered in the right fabrics. Hopefully the next couple of months will go quickly!

We bought a new Kenmore stove shortly after moving into the house and we’re really happy with it for the most part. The only downside is the smell. I expected that we’d smell something the first couple of times we used it, but it’s now three months later and it still reeks every time I turn the oven on. Even the sweet smell of Christmas cookies wasn’t enough to cover it up. Not sure what the deal is.

Has anyone else had anything like this happen? Any idea how long we can expect to continue “enjoying” the smell of our new stove or what we could do to get it to stop?

After a week of scheduling (and rescheduling) the delivery and installation times, Sears finally delivered our new stove and installed our new microwave/hood today. Chad’s successfully made some macaroni and cheese on the stove tonight, but other than that, we haven’t had a chance to use it much yet, so it’s a little early to comment on how well it does or doesn’t work.

I am pretty pleased with the aesthetic improvement over the old one-piece stove/microwave combination that was there, although we weren’t as pleased to discover that the tiled back splash was not continued behind the previous stove, so we have a small spot between the microwave and stove that’s a somewhat dented, painted wall. Eventually, we’ll get around to fixing that … once we figure out what the best approach might be. We also have a small project ahead of us to install an outlet in the cabinet above the microwave. Despite what the Sears salesperson told us, the installer doesn’t do electrical work, so he hung the microwave for us, but it’s currently powered by an extension cord that comes out of the cabinet and plugs into the wall outlet. Hopefully that should be an easy fix …

Here are some pictures of our new John Deere X720 riding lawn mower that was delivered today:

We selected the X720 model because it has the direct shaft drive mower deck as well as fuel injection, which we’re hoping will help with winter starting. So far, we’ve noticed that it runs smoothly and seems to handle the hills well. We got the 54″ mower deck and purchased a blade for the front for snow removal. Chad is also excited about the opportunity to add the tractor shovel attachment at some point in the future.