I'M GETTING A REFRIGERATOR FOR CHRISTMAS
Cindy Maddera
"We each get two and half beans"
My fridge is original to this house. Not that this is a bad thing. It's nice to not have to buy appliances when you move into a house. When we moved in, the bottom shelf on the door was held in place with tape. That shelf is gone now. The light inside the fridge, even after replacing the bulb, doesn't come on when you open the door. The crisper drawers may not be the original drawers because they don't fit in the tracks, but just sit in the bottom of the refrigerator. The doors do not seal well and there have been mornings when I've walked into the kitchen to find either the freezer door or the fridge door open. My parents had a fridge where the bottom corner never sealed unless you sort of kicked it closed in that corner. Dad was always hollering "Make sure you push the door closed!" I have become my Dad. Now I am the one yelling about shutting the refrigerator. You can hear water trickling somewhere in the back and occasionally a large orange puddle of liquid seeps out onto the floor.
The refrigerator is gross. Michael's been complaining about it since day one. He's constantly talking about how we need to replace it and that we should replace it before we actually have to and blah blah blah. Every time he mentions it, I nod my head and mumble a half hearted agreement. But again, I am my father's daughter. I cringe at the idea of spending money, particularly large sums of money. Also, my kitchen is small. Finding the right refrigerator for that space requires lots of research. Online research isn't going to cut it either. I need to open up the doors and slide around the shelves. We need to measure the space multiple times and discuss what it's going to look like in that space.
Yesterday, we walked into Home Depot to get extension cords. We've moved the chicken coop to the very back of the yard and we needed an extension cord that would reach out that far to plug in their heating lamp. We woke up to winter temperatures on Saturday, so that lamp thing is pretty important. After putting extension cords into a shopping cart and a few other impulse buys like hooks for stockings and a new baby gate to keep Josephine in the kitchen, Michael said "What else do they have here?" That's when we found ourselves in the appliance section, opening up all the refrigerator doors. Then we found it. We found the refrigerator that would fit our kitchen with all the features that we both have wanted in a new fridge. Plus it was on sale. I'm not good at large impulse buys, so we had to go home and remeasure the space and talk about running a water line to the basement because there's an ice maker and water dispenser. Of course we also needed to make sure that there wasn't a better deal happening somewhere else. Finally, around 10:30 last night Michael looked at me and said "We are not going to get a better deal. We need to order that refrigerator."
So, this morning while watching CBS Sunday Morning (their food edition, of all things), I ordered us a new refrigerator. It will be delivered on the 28th. We have to run a water line to the basement before that happens and possibly replace the glass in the door to the garage. The new fridge sticks out just far enough to cause some concern that we'd hit that window with the fridge door. We've been told that the water line thing is easy. Michael looked up replacing the window and thinks that will be easy too. All that's left for me to do now is to breathe into a paper bag and stress about what I'm going to have to clean up behind the old fridge before moving in the new one. But hey! We'll finally have fridge with a light that comes on when you open the door!