2012 Kia Sorento!!!

Now that I am coming up on my one-year mark of owning a brand new KIA Sorento, I thought I would share with you the pro's and con's that I have come up with!!

First and foremost... I am still in love with my car as much as the first day I drove it home! It has been perfect for me. I have adored the fact that everything works! Coming from an old, dying, sputtering, sad, electrical gremlin carrying car... this base model KIA was a major step up for me! So when you read about how entranced I am with this car, you kind of have to realize than nearly anything was a step up from what I had.

That being said, this is no car to snuff at!!! It is nearly as smooth and quiet ad the day I bought it! The only thing that rattles is the license plate and that is only because I am too lazy to add the bottom bolts! I always forget because it is such a minor inconvenience!

I have averaged about 25 mpg with about 40% of my time being around town, and the rest commuting on a turnpike about 20 miles away. This is awesome considering my road trip to Colorado was even better because it was nearly all highway! The mpg gauge resets itself anytime you put gas in the car, so my estimates are purely my recollection of my ending MPG for each tank. Some weeks I averaged nearly 30, and others only 22. This was also contingent upon my kindness to my car. If I ran her a bit hard, my average was low. If I was a granny driver, I averaged high!

So speaking of the gauge cluster, everything resets itself automatically except for the mileage odometer. There are two odometers that can be independently reset. The gauge cluster also records your average speed and time elapsed per trip. So each time you turn off and restart your car, it begins a new record of how fast you have gone and how long you've been in the car. This is especially useful during car trips because I tend to lose track of time, and time zones further complicate things when I am trying to figure out destination arrival times!

Another feature in the gauge cluster is the distance to empty screen. It tells me approximately how many miles I can drive with my tank of gas. The only problem I have with this is that it is very inaccurate below about 50 miles. I have never seen that gauge read less than 20, so somewhere between 50 and 20, it bottoms out and all of a sudden the car is telling you that you will be running out of gas in a matter of moments. The redeeming factor of this is that fact that it is inaccurate.. I have driven like this for nearly 10 miles after it has bottomed out without any trouble. I hate doing that, because I prefer to gas up when the car is still about 1/4 tank... but sometimes I can't help it!

So besides the gauge cluster the cup holders are amazing! Stuff never falls out of them! I have driven cars where I have had to hold cups in the cup holder as I go around turns! Not my KIA!!! There is a standard little rubber tray in the bottom that comes out for cleaning, and in nearly all of the little nooks and crannies in this car, you can find convenient cleaning shortcuts like this.

I can't really comment on the safety stuff because I am not an expert, nor have I crashed my beautiful little car, but I can say that I love the curve of the seats because they really hold my bum in place! I do not like flat seats because I slide around on them. I wish the seats had lumbar, and I am sure they do in the upper models, but mine is just base. I also have not regretted skipping heated seats because they warm up to my bum pretty quickly and the heat and AC work AMAZINGLY!!!! I LOVE the back seat vents, and those who have ridden along with me are super happy to see them every time they get in! Those rear seat vents have also helped out during cake deliveries on hot days!

I have only taken the dogs in the car one time, and their hair vacuumed out WAY easier than I thought it would. Plus there was more than enough room for them to be back there comfortably, but not so much room that I would worry about them bouncing around back there during a crash. I have a large, and an extra large dog, so this may not be the case for those who have smaller canine friends!

Speaking of trunk space, I never have to worry about whether there is room for luggage, or groceries, or Lowes goodies. I have never had to say, "sorry it wont fit!" That is not to say that it wont happen... it just hasn't yet! The other thing I love about the cargo space is that the seats fold down super easily for extra room, the carpets clean way easy, there are hooks for grocery bags, AND there is a secret compartment!

The secret compartment is the best thing about the car  --  by far! It is under the floor in the trunk. This space is apparently for when a third row seat is installed, but I don't have one yet, so I get to use it as secret storage! It is my favorite feature because I like to have emergency packs for inclement weather with me at all times. Oklahoma weather can get crazy and I am not interested in being stuck in the snow freezing myself to death. I store blankets, extra clothes, and sturdy shoes in the secret compartment all winter long. During the summer it has towels and a swim suit! (Hey, you have to be ready for everything, right??)

So moving on to the outside! The paint still looks beautiful and shiny. I wash it every single week... rain or shine... freeze or hot... The black panels on the front and back have a couple of scratches in them from someone bumping me in a parking lot, but are only noticeable if you really try looking for them. Ummm what else other than the fact that it is just such a pretty car!?!!?

Oh yeah... my two beefs.... The center console melted a checkbook and a pair of sunglasses... I drove to Dallas from Oklahoma City and when I drove back after the weekend I found them melted in there. My other beef is that the super awesome looking running boards that I got with my car are not very sturdy... I would not have allowed them to put them on my car if I had known they would be such an irritation!!! I am too tall to reasonably step on them to get into the car, and so is everyone in my family... So the first time it ever got stepped on, other than my by 4 year old nephew, one of the screws holding it on broke... Seriously... ONE time... and they broke... My husband stepped up onto the rear portion of them to dry my roof after he hand washed the car.... My husband is an average guy.... tall... less than 200 lbs. It would be nearly impossible to jump on them from the angle he had... and why would he??? Anyway I keep forgetting to say something to the dealership when I go in for my oil changes... I kind of want them taken off... I didn't really want them in the first place.


So thats it... I love it despite two minor irritations. I will probably drive it until I have either paid it off, or the warranty runs out, at which point I'll trade it for a new one! If KIA keeps up their great customer service, amazing warranty plan, and affordable prices, then I'll be hooked for life.

I Underestimated Myself

I am SO wowed by what I did today.

It all started a month or so ago when a friend of mine was looking through a kids magazine or something. She saw a wooden step stool that had custom writing puzzle, pieced into the top step. I thought that it looked ridiculously cute but that it was kind of pricey.

Today I got a wild hair when I saw the pile of extra wood from the drawers. I went online and looked at a bunch of other stools since I couldn't find the original, and set to work creating my own.

I just whipped out my circular saw and jerry rigged a workbench using the bumper of our Jeep. After cutting the shapes for the sides,  I sanded the edges and took a little off the bottom in the middle to make it look like legs. That just made me think of the Leg lamp from A Christmas Story.

The only things I had to purchase for this project (since the wood was technically leftover) was a pack of special screws and some new blades for my coping saw. I learned how to use a coping saw one time in the seventh grade. Our school required all seventh graders to take a two week sample course of each elective that was offered at our school. So for two weeks I immersed myself in safety goggles and the intellectual droning of Mr Wynn. The toughest piece of equipment we were allowed to use was the router. It was SO cool. So cool in fact: that about two months ago I was at an estate sale, and the highlight of the day for me was walking home with my new(used) router!! Wow I definitely get sidetracked...

The one on the left isn't sanded yet.

Anyway, I learned in one day how to use a coping saw and for some reason it was one of the things that stuck. I used it today to cut the letters, and the frame for the letters. I used a sharpie to trace some letters I printed from the computer. No freestyle sawing for me! That would have turned out HORRIBLE. I broke my first "R" but after that, I kind of got the swing of things again.

The clamp was a MUST.

After I cut out the letters, they were in dire need of some sanding because there were funky edges all over the place! Enter: sand paper and file/rasp thingy.

After that, I arranged the letters on the piece I was going to use for the frame, and traced an outline so I would have a guide. Again, NO freestyle cutting for me! Disasters can be averted by learning from MANY past mistakes!! *oops!*

The blade is on the inside. No edges were cut.

I got the coping saw on the inside of the frame by taking it apart and putting it back together with the blade on the inside. To start it out, you just have to drill a hole in the wood big enough for the blade to pass through. I didn't do that great of a job making clean lines on the frame either, so I employed the temporary services of the file/rasp thingy again!

The file/rasp thingy!

Then the sandpapering began. I sanded all the pieces of the step stool until they were baby soft. It took FOREVER. The "E"'s were the worst; So many tiny areas to cram sandpaper into!! All edges and corners were sanded down because I don't want my Godbaby, Rylee, hurting herself on a sharp edge!!

The letters, of course, did not fit their little puzzle frame, so I begged the file/rasp thingy to give me one more hour of its precious time. I paired it with some 80 grit sandpaper to make sure there was enough room around each puzzle piece to wiggle. I ended up using a huge drill bit to make a hole for the "R" because I didn't think it was a big enough space to risk ruining it with my crummy coping saw skills. I might have taken the chance, except that I knew I wouldn't be able to get any sandpaper into such a tiny hole to fix it!

As an afterthought I put some wooden wedges on the underside for support.  Now, even fatty me can stand on this thing without worrying!

They fit!!

Support triangles! Do you also see the leg effect?

Frame on top of top step.

Well I hope you like my wild hair! I was extremely excited about how good it turned out!! When Rylee is old enough to stand on stuff, this should be a real helpful item. I love her so much, and hope she has this thing forever! She comes from a family of shorties, so she may still need it when she grows up ;) For now I think it will probably be used as a puzzle and just a nice furniture piece haha. Its a good present for an infant, right?? lol


-S

The grain of the wood is in a different direction for the letters than the surrounding frame. This makes the letters stand out better in good lighting.

Update - Peppermint Bark Fudge

K I figured it out...

Do not use Hersheys white chocolate chips for the white layer. Nestle's chocolate chips make the white layer more firm. Use two whole bags!

Hersheys: becomes slightly soft and gooey.

Nestle: Holds shape and doesn't get too gooey!

SOOOOOOOO YUMMMMERS!!

 Here is the updated Recipe card!!

-S