Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Columbus Day is for the purchase of large appliances.



Sometime on Friday my refrigerator failed. Of course, the only time you realize this is when you see a puddle forming around the bottom of the machine. I noticed it about 7-8:00 in the evening, and spent the next hour cleaning up the mess, and throwing away food. At least anything I thought might kill me if it wasn't properly refrigerated.

Since we realized we'd have to buy a new one, we decided to measure the size of the machine that night. It wasn't until we started trying to see how we'd get it out of the kitchen that the problems started. The kitchen is U shaped, and the machine came with the house. We actually had a big fight with the guy who owned this place. I tried and tried to force him to remove it. He refused. I finally gave up.

On Friday we found out why he refused.

We spent the next 2 hours trying to figure out how to get it out of the kitchen. It seems like they stuck the counter tops in after the refrigerator was there. After taking the doors off, we had an 8th of an inch clearance. And, only if it was spun in the right direction because of machine tilt. I've never hated a homeowner more. Normally there are lots of times you say "I wonder why the hell they did that. Asshole!" Not this time though. I came very close to having to remove a whole door frame to get that thing out of there.Made he hate that guy oh so much.

We spent several hours of hunting for a new machine on Sat. Because now - I have these very specific requirements to get a machine back in there. We finally find one and had one delivered on Monday.

The guys who came out were monsters. No more dollies. Two dudes with furniture straps tied to their bodies. Good backs only need apply. In and out. After we tipped them. They wanted to make sure that when the bosses called we would give them a good rating. Which we assured them we would. We'd told the guy it took us 2 hours to get the other one out. To which he replied "oh no - I have 12 stops a day".

It would suck to have to lift 12 refrigerators a day. Not roll them out on a dolly, but actually lift them and carry them out. Old school style.

At any rate - the new model has this read out that tells me how cold my freezer is. Which I never cared about before. As long as stuff was frozen - I'm good. Now, somehow I feel reassured to walk by and see it sits at 8 degrees. Hey - how excited can you get about a refrigerator? 8 degrees Yo!

At least I'm contributing to those durable goods numbers I guess.

6 comments:

  1. Haha!
    This is exactly the reason my brother hopes his refrigerator never breaks! He lives in our family home, and my parents redid the kitchen some 12 years ago, and put in an island AFTER installing the fridge.

    They would have to LIFT it over the island to get it out.

    Looking at your banner picture, I though you bought a new DVD player or something.

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  2. Oooooh! That would suck Yo. I think I'd probably punch a hole in the wall before lifting a fridge over an island. A little drywall. A 2x4 - and you're good.

    Oddly the fridge is made from Samsung. I don't know when they branched out from making monitors. And no! No internet. I knew you were thinking it. I think the fridge companies are over that whole monitor in the door thing. It was stupid. Who wants to watch tv on the fridge door?! Now a product scanner hooked up to the internet. Now we are talking.

    This one doesn't even have a door handle for the upper door. Blissfully minimal.

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  3. He wishes. Everything is either cabinets, load bearing or windows.
    Totally out of luck, that fridge better last forever.

    Right now I have a basic fridge that the government provided since we could not live with the German fridge that was in our home, basically a slightly larger mini-fridge.

    We used to have a bottom freezer one when we were in MD. I loved it until it broke.

    What I will never ever get is the side by side. I hate those.

    What I think I want is the GE armoire style ones.
    http://www.geappliances.com/products/introductions/double_drawer_bottom_freezer/
    That thing looks like a dream.

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  4. Oh! I don't think I've never seen the double bottom drawer. I see someone has been trawling the appliance blogs. That's a pretty cool one.

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  5. It's sad, but this is the other thing giving me kitchen design wet dreams:
    http://dvice.com/archives/2009/07/delta-touch-fau.php
    And it's not as if I'm planning on remodeling a kitchen in the near future, or would ever have $434 to spend on a faucet!

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  6. Yeah. If people would get some jobs I'd do a remodel. Of something.

    Hey - have you seen this site ?

    I do love the idea of IR faucets though. I wonder how much they break down.

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