Momma's Day!

We had a really nice low-key and relaxing Mother's Day this weekend.  Saturday morning, we went to the St. Jacob's market but stayed inside the whole time because it was a really crappy, cold and wet day, then drove to the old stomping grounds, Baden, to pick up some meat at Egli's Meat Market (Aunt Dagmar's store) and to purchase another car seat from an old neighbour for the new baby.  The one we had expired shortly after Violet outgrew it, so we couldn't use that one again.
After that, we were back home and started preparing for Mom to come over for dinner. Just before we were about to start the power went out!  We thought we were going to have to go out for dinner because it was out from about 3pm to 5pm and Mom was supposed to be coming for 5:30.  Luckily Mom lost track of time, and wouldn't be coming until 6 or 6:30, so we decided to start making dinner at 5.  It was a nice dinner and visit as we sat by the fire and had tea before Mom left at about 9:30pm.

Sunday morning was spent at Marn's mom's house for brunch.  Violet gave Marn (and me!) the best present by sleeping in until 9am!!  (I'll forgive her that she was up 3 times through the night).
After brunch, we sat and chatted by their fireplace and drank coffee/tea again, then headed home for naps (Marn and Vi) while I went outside with Echo and did yard work.  Nice!  After the naps, we decided that we wanted to go out and look for a new washer and dryer because ours aren't cutting it.  The washer is probably 30 years old, and we have a decent sized tax return coming, so we started looking....  We stopped in a store where I saw some good prices on a Whirlpool Duet Steam set.  They were last years model and this particular one was a floor model that had only been out for about 2 weeks, so basically new.  We liked it, but decided not to buy as we hadn't done much research on that particular model and hadn't price compared at all to see if it actually was a good deal (it was).  In my looking around, I noticed that Bad Boy Furniture had the same models on the same clearance as the other store for $100 less, and they were new in box - not floor models, so the plan was on Monday we were going to go and check that out.  I normally wouldn't buy from Bad Boy, but $100 is $100.  Especially for the exact same model.
Anyway, the day ended after dinner and when Violet went to sleep around the fireplace again, drinking tea, and watching the end of the movie Sherlock Holmes.  Which, if you haven't seen yet, you must. It's great!
That seemed to be the theme this weekend.  Fire and Tea.  I could get used to that!  I would have preferred Fire and Wine, but tea is good too...  :)

So on Monday evening we head out to look at appliances again with the thought of going to Bad Boy to check out the same set we saw on Sunday, and then going to the other place and seeing if they'll match the price - they have a price guarantee on their website, so why not?
On the way we stopped in another place, just to peak in because that's where Candace bought their set (which was close to the same as the one we're looking at) and they said they had the best prices.  Well, the sales guy comes across as a total sleaze and 2 minutes in we both know he's not getting our money....  They didn't have what we were looking for anyway.  But before we leave we told him what we found at Bad Boy, and right away his face says, don't buy from there and goes on to tell us to look into the BBB on them because they have a lot of complaints, and shady sales tactics, etc.  I've heard that before about Bad Boy.... Anyway, on to the next place, just down the road and before hitting Bad Boy.  The sales guy was nice, and they had a lot of sales on, but not the model we were looking at.  He gave his opinions on a few different brands and why one is better than the other.  We didn't tell him right away that we had a scoped a Whirlpool set at another store.  Before he knew, he compared LG as better than Whirlpool for a few reasons. (better warranty, stainless dryer drum, direct driven vs. belt, cheaper parts if something breaks, bigger capacity, better steam function, etc).  If you recall, we bought LG's at our old place, and LOVED them, so the push on LG didn't take much.  This store also had a big clearance sale on last years LG models, and in fact, the biggest sale was on the highest (priced) model from LG.  We ended up telling this guy what we were looking at and at what price, and he said they also had an opportunity to get that offer from Whirlpool, but passed on it and instead went with the LG offer.

Anyway, long story short, we never made it to Bad Boy, and spent $300 more than we planned on this awesome LG Steam pair.  The $300 was justified because we felt they were a better machine; warranty, stainless, bigger (4.4 vs. 4.0 cu ft.), etc.  And while the Whirlpool was $1100 "off" (MSRP), the LG's were $1600 off.  Which is just ridiculous.  I said that to the sales guy and he said, "well, it's MSRP.... they normally sell for less, but even on sale, never this low."  So either way, I think this is a great deal, even if we spent more than planning on.

These are the new additions to the dungeon.  And it doesn't feel so bad since we're still "ahead" with the tax return coming.  Although that amount would feel nice coming off the mortgage right about now...

Happy Mother's Day!