A Fridge In Time

It all began early one Saturday morning the beginning of October. . .

I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to take my dogs out for their morning constitutional.
Chicken: Bright-eyed, really?  Let's be honest here Bo.

Bo: Fine.
I stumbled out of bed, without my glasses, and my hair creating a look I like to call the "Morning Fro" to take my dogs. Chloe was still mostly asleep and Rosie was full of an insane amount of energy out for their morning constitutional.

When I all of a sudden I walked,

or I guess I should say water skied,

through the kitchen.

Upon further inspection,  

I discovered the refrigerator was not working. . .

and my small chocolate sundae was one of it's many victims.

My kitchen looked like this on that
terribly horrid and soggy Saturday morning. . . 

 but to me it really felt like this . . .

Since I've never had to shell-out a grand for a large appliance, 

I consider myself an extremely lucky 30 year old.  

But, since I recently had to purchase a new car- 

I really didn't have the money to buy a new fridge.

A fridge is one of those things you just can do without,

it's a need and not a want;

so one thing was for sure

I was going to have to buy a fridge and soon.

After an appropriate bereavement period (about 45 minutes). . .

Chicken and I made a list of our fridge must haves.

It was a pretty short list

but it was more difficult than you would have thought to full fill.

So off we set, on the Great Fridge Finding Adventure!

It didn't take long for us to figure out

how expensive fridges are and

how out of date our old fridge really was.

Chicken: Wait, you mean they aren't steam powered anymore.

Bo: I mean, my kitchen was totally redone about 12 years ago and that's when the old fridge was purchased, but a LOT of things have changed in the world of large appliances.  I'm going to break it down into 4 big changes.

1. Stupidly-Sized Freezer Drawers/Holders
Seriously, people I mean seriously?!?!  Manufacturers of refrigerators should know the types of foods that people are going to put in the freezer compartments- you would think anyway.  But so many of them have these stupidly-sized freezer compartments that absolutely nothing will actually fit in.
Why?

I mean what do they think people will actually put in there?

          Tic-Tacs?                                                A single icee popsicle?

     Napkins?                                         A sentimental uplifting photo?

Anyway, there were a LOT of fridges that had stupidly-sized 

holders and drawers.

What would you put in there?

2. There are 3 kinds of refrigerators and I hate 2 of the 3.
After much shopping around we figured out there are basically 3 kind of refrigerators and it took me about 2 minutes to decide I hate 2 of the 3 kinds.

Fridge #1 has a freezer drawer at the bottom- which doesn't make sense when you  buy meat in bulk like I do.  I save a bunch of money by only buying meat every couple of months, splitting it up into usable portions, and freezing it.  I like being able to see what I have and split it up by shelf, so the freezer drawer thing just doesn't work for me.

Fridge #2 is what I consider the "Ol' Timer".  It has a plain freezer top and fridge bottom.  No water or ice in the door and you're going to spend a lot of time bending over to get your much needed things out of the fridge.  I mean think about it, which do you open more the fridge or the freezer.  Fridge right?  So why shouldn't the things you need most be at the top?

Fridge Fun Fact!  Well, I learned that refrigerators cool from the bottom up so it would be easier for the freezer to be at the bottom.  I guess that's why they made freezer style #1, but I still hate that model so let's move on shall we . . .

Fridge #3 is the only one I really like.  It's fancy fridge name is a 'side by side'.  I like having all the shelves to separate all of our foods and beverages to make them easy to find and use.


3. Fridges are crazy expensive.

You know it's a bad sign when you walk in the appliance department and the smallest price you see on the displays is in the 4 digit range.  Yeah.  All of the display fridges were at least 1,000+.

4. Fridges are now larger than they were 12 years ago.
Refrigerators are about an 1 and 1/2 inches larger than they used to be.
How do I know this?
Well, as you know, my house used to be my parents house before they moved to the country and I into the city.  We basically switched neighborhoods.  Anywho... my parents did a complete remodel on my kitchen about 12 years ago and the cabinets were custom built around a standard sized fridge in 2001.

What did that mean for me?
Well, I was either going to have to special order a refrigerator or cut a little of the decorative molding off of the cabinets that were above the fridge area.

Actual conversation with my parents...
Bo:  Dad, there's a problem with the new fridge.
Dad: Hmm?

Bo: It's not going to fit.  I need to cut about and inch off the decorative hanging down part of the cabinet to get it to fit.
Dad: You can't cut that!! It's custom done oak!
(Meanwhile outside)
Chicken: Yeah, so we're going to have to cut a little bit of the decorative wood off the top cabinets to get the fridge to fit.
Mom: Huh, well, if that's what you've got to do.
Chicken:  Dad says we can't because it's oak.
Mom: Well it is oak.  Maybe you shouldn't cut it.

That 1 and a 1/2 inches cost me an additional 300 dollars.  Because I had found my dream fridge and it was on sale.

Chicken: Plus it could make up to 10 pounds of ice and had the option of having both cold, cool, or warm water.

Bo: I mean, it's not like I dream about refrigerators or anything.  But this thing was absolutely perfect except it was an 1 and a 1/2 inches taller than my cabinets would allow.

I finally ended up finding a fridge I could live with, but it had to be special ordered because of the size issue.

Checking out was a total disaster.

Chicken: It takes a LOT to get Bo upset, but when she does, it's like a volcano erupting.  You start seeing the signs early on, and. . .yet. . .it's still seems to be a surprise when it ends up exploding lava and hot ashes everywhere.

Everything started out fine, yeah it's true the nice elderly appliance gentleman setting up our order wasn't entirely computer savvy, but he was very nice, apologetic, and hey- respect your elders people!

Chicken: So despite the fact that he had to enter the order twice. . .
Bo: He accidentally deleted it twice.
Chicken: The third times the charm!
Bo: We headed to Customer Service to check out because they were going to have to look up my card.

Okay, no big deal, I can walk a few feet down to register 2.

Walk.
          Walk.
                    Walk.
                              Walk.

Bo: Wow, register 2 is really busy and there is absolutely no one at Customer Service right now, but that's okay because we are getting a nice working refrigerator today.

Chicken: And 2 pumpkins!  Don't forget!  We picked out these cute pumpkins to bedazzle!

Bo: Right, we're leaving here with a fridge and 2 pumpkins.  Oh, now it's our turn.

Bo: But, we were just there and she sent us to you.  

Chicken: Oh well sometimes computer glitches happen.  Let's go back to Customer Service.

Walk.
          Walk.
                    Walk.
                              Walk.

Bo: Oh, look, she's still just standing there helping no one.

Bo: The lady at register 2 sent us to you, she's having computer problems.

Bo: But she just sent me over here. (Breathe Bo, Breathe)

Chicken: Aren't these pumpkins just perfect!  They are going to be SOOOO sparkly when we get done with them!

Bo: Think on the bright side.  I'm leaving with a piece of paper that says I will soon have a working  refrigerator and 2 pumpkins.  Think positive.  Think positive.

Walk.
          Walk.
                    Walk.
                              Walk.

 Chicken:  There's no waiting at register 4!
**After 18 minutes of searching (and yes, I kept track of the time since there was nothing else to do). . .

 Bo: Well this outta be interesting, because she keeps refusing to help us at Customer Service and keeps sending me out here to the registers.  Will you tell her that she needs to actually check me out instead of making me play musical registers?
Ridiculously Happy Orange Aproned Lady: Why sure!
Walk.
          Walk.
                    Walk.
                              Walk.

The horribly lazy (and I'm only saying that because everyone else was working up front except her) Customer Service Lady had my card looked up and my order found in about a minute.  A minute!

I was ready to check out when. . .

Chicken:  It's been a week and a half since The Great Fridge Search and I know you're all wondering. . .

HOW DID THE PUMPKINS TURN OUT?

Chicken:  Well, the suspense is no more!

Here's Chicken's Pumpkin

Here's Bo's Pumpkin

Bo: I tried to go for a Starry Night kind of them with mine.  It took about a week for the fridge to come in and it is perfect!  I mean, it's not that I'm a food addict or anything, but it's just such a relief to have a nice WORKING refrigerator and freezer.

Chicken: Plus all the filtered water and ice you can drink!
Bo: There's also a child safety lock. (Glance toward Chicken)
Chicken: You wouldn't!?!
Bo: All in all, I love my new fridge.

Bo: It's just so new!  Shiny!  Amazing!

Chicken: And it looks almost identical to our old one, except the interior temperature controls are on the outside of the fridge and the handles are super sleek.  Also, it's slightly smaller.

Bo: But it's a side by side, it didn't cost a million dollars, and it doesn't have any stupidly sized holders/drawers in the freezer section. I am so happy!

Bo: It's just so beautiful!  Thank you for getting it all installed and hooked up!

Installer Guy: Yep, you're good to go.  But. . . they sent you the wrong ice maker cover.  This one is about 6 inches too wide for your freezer.  Guess that means someone out there has got one about 6 inches too small for their fridge.  Huh?  You'll have to go back to the Customer Service desk at the Home Deportment's and Repair shop to get the right one.

Update:  

Bo: Yes, I really had to go back and get a new ice cover ordered.  I'm still waiting for it to arrive.  It could be here in anywhere from 7 to 28 days.  People sometimes ask me if whether the things I blog about are true and the answer is yes.  I just could not make this stuff up.  Sometimes life likes to throw you a curve ball and my life, well, my life is never boring.