appliance shopping

Yesterday we had to venture out for some much needed appliance shopping. These are the things that make life much easier. One of the main goals for this trip was to find a new vacuum cleaner or at least a new part to replace the broken part of our current vacuum. Here in Riyadh, most houses have tile flooring. Why? Because it's gets very dusty, very fast. Carpet traps in that dust and can cause breathing problems. So most people opt for tile flooring. There are times that I miss the comfy feeling of carpet. I really missed it when my son was learning to sit, crawl, walk and climb (carpet=cushion, tiles=more ouchies). And I miss it in the cold weather months when tile flooring becomes very cold. But for the most part, I really like tile flooring. It's much easier to clean. And, you get to decorate with pretty rugs around the house. For tile flooring, this type of vacuum works best:

Although mine is not as nice looking as this one and upon seeing this I may look into a similar model. ;-) Anyway, the hose on mine is broken. So we need to replace it. Unfortunately we didn't find the part at the store we went to. They also didn't have a good selection to buy a whole new one. Currently, we have taped the broken area so that we can still vacuum everyday. It's not pretty but so far, so good.

I did, however, find a nice handheld vacuum. Something like this:

The one we got is a "Wet Dry" vacuum. Supposedly, I can vacuum up all messes, including liquids? This has already come in handy with the little guy. Any little crumbs that may fall to the floor I just vacuum right up. I have to look into this liquid business though...where is that manual?

I also got a new toaster oven. My oven seems to take forever to heat up. It also seems to heat up the house with it. And in Riyadh, especially in summer, we don't need anymore heat. So a toaster oven is great for things like mini pizzas, or reheating foods (it won't give you that microwave taste or rubbery feeling that we all hate). The one I found is similar to this model below except mine is black. I love how it has a toaster on the side. Believe it or not, this is the first toaster I've had in like over 6 years! Crazy, I know.

If you don't have a sandwich maker, I highly recommend getting one. I was introduced to these once I moved here. They are so awesome. You can make a really quick grilled cheese sandwich (which is probably a healthier version because you can skip the butter/greasy part). If you're familiar with mountain pies, then just think of the possibilities. The one I bought is half the size of the one below. It also has a second set of irons that I can switch to make waffles...yummy! P.S. Mom or Heidi, if you have a waffle batter recipe, please share! :-)

I won't bore you with pictures of everything else we got, but I will share this one last item, well items actually. My hubby found these glasses that were on sale. They're actually pretty cool and I'm glad we got them. We needed glasses anyway. I found the ones below on Target's website so you can take a look:

Shopping for appliances is not as fun as shoe shopping, but we made out really well, so it's worth it. We found some great deals and had coupons. We saved more than we expected so that's always a good thing.

Bye for now...:-)

All pictures taken from Yahoo Images, except the glasses which are from Target.