New Dishwasher!!!

Dave and I decided a while back that our big Christmas gift to each other would always be something for the house.  I know it doesn't sound romantic however, we are always happier with a home improvement item.  Truth be told I'm not big on diamonds but I am big on something that makes the house better or allows me to build more things.

This year the gift was a new dishwasher.  We've known we needed a new one for a while.  Every night I was doing double duty with the pre-rinse.  The dishwasher was loud and harboring funky smells.  Nothing a rinse of vinegar and baking soda couldn't handle but it was gross none the less.

What broke the camel's back for Dave was when he saw a dishwasher advertised at Fry's as being BPA free.  We've gone through so much effort to rid ourselves of as much BPA as possible that Dave found it frustrating to think that something as basic as a dishwasher was voiding our efforts.  That and our 6 year old friend, O, who said "why is your dishwasher so loud".  That was it!  In Dave's book dishwasher trumped couch for 2013!

And so the process began! Dave was ready to buy whatever was on Fry's Sunday sale page and I needed at least a week of reading reviews and a through search for the absolute, perfect dishwasher for our household.  I finally came to the conclusion that LG's Top Control Dishwasher in Stainless Steel, Model #LDF7551ST was it!!! And it was on sale at Home Depot for $598 down from $849!

The research should have been the hard part. But no!  There was big drama with Home Depot. I'll write about that in another post. For now I'll just say that I won't be giving them my business anymore.  In fact, I think I'm going to start going to smaller hardware stores or specialty places.  I'm done with Home Depot.

The dishwasher I love!  I love the versatility of the racks. I can load things in multiple ways.  It's super, super quiet. The cycles take a while, but I don't mind.  The only thing that bothers me is that the exterior always looks dirty. Everything shows up on it and some  fingerprint and smudge marks don't really come off. But I'm so happy with it's quiet and great cleaning that the outside is doable.  Plus, at the end of each cleaning the dishwasher sings a little tune so you know it's done. It's pretty sweet. 

Krisel's Brentwood Residence Sells for $3Million

image from the Krisel Archive of the Getty Research Institute via Modernist Architecture 

I love Curbed LA!  They're so on top of all things architecture and real-estate in Los Angeles. 

The Mid Century Modern architect, William Krisel, the man who designed our home, just sold his residence in Brentwood for $3 million.  But, it was sold as a teardown!!! The online posting didn't even have pictures of the interior of the house. Which seems crazy since Julius Shulman photographed it!!!  Modernist Architecture has some of the beautiful shots!

Even if it doesn't look like that today you would think they'd use those images or others to show how it could be restored. Maybe Krisel would rather have it torn down instead of seeing some nut job bastardize his dream home.  I don't blame him.  

I was recently ran into an Eichler neighborhood by accident when we were on our way to a new doctor in Thousand Oaks.  Holy moly! How do you screw up an Eichler?  Buy a book for the love of Pete and "copy and paste".  I don't understand why people without a MCM taste buy a MCM house? You can't change the details, like doors or lighting, to make them cottage, shaker or Mediterranean or ANYTHING. They are Mid Century from bones to details. 

Anyway, I digress.... whole other topic! Well, Mr. Krisel sold his home. I wonder where he lives now. I wonder what he would say of what we've done to our home. I hope we're not one of those nut jobs! I also wonder if Julius Shulman ever took pictures of our home. Supposedly it was the model used to sell the neighborhood so it's possible that he might have....maybe?  I must investigate.