PanningForGold

Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis know that every 10^th post is more about me and what I’ve learned in my previous posts or at least something to that effect.  Unfortunately I’ve got nothing, nada, zip.

So let us discuss the new fridge.

Our fridge is 30 years old and runs constantly. Our electric bills are getting higher and higher. It is time!

My wife has been looking for quite some time and now it was time to go shopping for real.  The issue is the old one is so small.  A new one, complete with bottom freezer and an on the door water/ice dispenser placed where the old one stood would mean a 10 thousand dollar re-model.  We do intend to re-model we are just not there yet.

My wife suggests that, at least for now we place the new fridge on the opposite wall where the microwave is and place the microwave where the old fridge stands.  The fridge would be free standing size would not be a limitation and we would not have to re-model the entire kitchen at this time.  Sounds like a perfect plan, doesn’t it?

Just as we find the fridge we want, we learn that Lowes is offering 18 months same as cash financing. A quick trip to Lowes is in order.  They do carry the fridge but it is almost $500.00 more.  The sales guy investigates and finds that the other store had the older model.  This one actually has two icemakers one in the door and one in the freezer the other only had the one in the door.  Was this worth $500.00? Nope!  This salesman however is determined not to lose the sale.  He gives us the new model at the price of the old one.  Delivery and installation is free, and the 5 year warranty was cheaper than the other guys.

Installation does not mean they will install a water line for you.  It means they will hook it up to an existing water line.  Did you know they have a do it yourself ice machine water line kits?  The do, no tools needed.  I love tools. I hate pipes.  How can you hook up a water line to a brass pipe without tools, without cutting into the pipe adding a valve?  I’ve done this before, sometimes it goes easily enough. Other times we have to break out the rain gear. Tools or not, I do have to crawl under the house, in the crawl space, with the spiders. I’m no fan of spiders.  

If we go under the house then there is the added issue of freezing water lines.  We would have to insulate around it and add heat tape all of which means more time under the house.  We could call a plumber and there goes $200.00 dollars when the ‘no tools DIY installation kit is less than $25.00!  Hello spiders, here I come.

My wife suggested we don’t bother going under the house.  We can tap into the water line under the sink and snake the water line behind the oven, dishwasher, and counters and come out the other side a few feet along the baseboard and voila, no spiders, no insulation, no heat tape, and bonus I get to use tools for the no tool hookup.  I get to cut through the counters.

Our dishwaser and oven are side by side, I installed the dishwasher so I know the last thing I want to do is pull it away from the wall. I figured I could pull out the oven and it would be an easy thing to snake the water line behind the dishwasher.  I didn’t remember the wall between the dishwasher and the oven, but there it was. Now I had to somehow snake a water line through a ¼ inch hole in a wall maneuver it blindly behind the dishwasher and feed it through a ¼ inch hole on the other side.  What should have taken moments took a few hours and many swear words.  Victory however was mine!

I was sweating as I hooked up the no tools valve to the water line.   I was holding my breath as I turned the screw and felt the pin pierce the copper pipe.  I almost cried when I backed the pin out of the hole and heard the water fill the line.  I jumped for joy when there were no leaks and water flowed. All the while my wife was comfortably asleep in front of the TV, my helper for this endeavor was Floyd and as wonderful as Floyd is, he does not have opposable thumbs and therefore was not really any help at all.

As the Lowes truck pulled up to the door I began to wonder.  Will the fridge get through the door?  We probably should have measured!  It was really close there was no room to spare, if the wires on the back of the fridge were any thicker we would have had to remove the front door.

Both my wife and I are guilty of shooting first and asking questions later.  Yes we knew it was taller, yes we knew it was wider what we really didn’t realize is that it is a foot deeper.  As we sat in our living room and looked into the kitchen we both wondered the same thing.  Holy shit! There is a monolith in our kitchen.  We both really liked the fridge and were really excited by it, but it is now the focal point of the kitchen.  It is a behemoth that cannot be missed! 

It took a good hour before we got used to it.  Before we saw how it really does fit into the kitchen. Yes it is big, yes it dominates but somehow the kitchen looks better, cleaner more functional.  In an odd way there is more space.  We had to move the table so our chandelier is now off centered at the moment. (There is a fix for this and it probably requires tools).  

In the end we are very happy with the new addition to the family.  The water tastes better so we don’t have to buy bottles and jugs of water anymore.  We have two ice makers so buying ice is a thing of the past.  The power company will give us $35.00 and remove the old fridge and the government will give us $50.00 as the new one meets the energy star requirements.  And our electricity bills should go down.

Of course for the next 18 months I am working for the fridge, but the beer is cold and we have hard ice cream again.  And the constant hum in the kitchen is gone.

fridge, not yet settled in