Fridge Fiasco

Few things first:

1)  So sorry for being away so long. I promise never to do it again until next Christmas vacation.

B)  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

C) I am so far behind on reading all of your blogs and I am very, very sorry! I plan to rectify the situation as quickly as possible but don’t be surprised if you are getting random comments from me in like 2 weeks!

4) I was going to make this a Thought Vomit post but the Fridge Fiasco is so long-winded that I think I’ll have to save the rest of my stories for another post.

Without further ado, the Fridge Fiasco…

During the weeks leading up to Christmas (in which I was hosting 17 people for a 4 day period and 27 on Christmas day) I started to, umm, let’s just say, freak the frick out about our fridge situation. Our fridge wasn’t necessarily small but it stays pretty well stocked with moldy food when it’s just the four of us. Add in ALL the people that were coming, all bringing their contributions to the food orgy, and I knew my fridge was not going to handle the load! We started talking about getting a new fridge but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to convince Ebenezer Scrooge my husband to splurge for it. Like any good husband and wife team, we debated the issue for many days without actually coming to a decision. Thankfully (for me) my husband mentioned it at work and one of the guys in his training class used to be a manager at Lowe’s and still works there part-time. He told my husband to come down and he’d see what he could do for us, so we did. We found one that we really liked and the display model was the only one left and they weren’t getting any more in so he told us we could have it for cost! For cost!!! (That sound you hear is the angels singing.)

However, we still weren’t sure if we should even get a fridge so we didn’t buy it that night. The guy told us we could call him the next day (Saturday) if we decided to get it. On Saturday afternoon we finally came to the decision to get it and my husband called him. I’ll save you the play by play on this part and just tell you that the sale wasn’t finalized until Tuesday so delivery was scheduled for Thursday. Being that both me and my husband work until 4:30 we asked for evening delivery and they assured us that wasn’t a problem.

So at 6:30am (that’s in the morning, just in case you didn’t catch the little “am” tacked onto the 6:30) on Thursday morning we got a phone call from the truck driver saying that the truck was packed and they were coming to our house right then. Ok, so much for evening delivery. The store is about 20 minutes from our house so they should get to our house a little before 7. I had to run Bud up to my in-law’s so they could bring him to school when the time came and I would bring Babe up later (my father-in-law babysits for us) on my way to work. By the time I got back from dropping him off the guys were there and getting the fridge out of the truck. They had to bring it in through the back door so they started to bring it around and my husband ran out to help them. As he did he realized they were wheeling around a black fridge. We did not buy a black fridge. It turns out they packed the truck wrong so our fridge was in the very back of the truck. They had to completely unpack the truck to get ours, then repack the truck before bringing it in.

At this point, my husband HAD to get going to work so he tells me if they have trouble with the cabinets (since our old fridge was not as wide) that they could just push over the bottom one (it was never bolted down in anticipation of getting a new fridge since we moved in) and the top one they could just take down. No problem. Right? Yeah.

So after removing the back door so the fridge could fit in they start to slide the fridge into place. The cabinets are not far enough apart so I tell them to push the lower one out of the way and tell them the screw gun is on the counter and they can take the upper cabinet down. Oh no! No, they can’t (for liability reasons) so I asked if they would help me, which they did. Thankfully my father taught me how to use power tools so I was able to work the screw gun while they supported the cabinet. Eventually (after stripping a screw…which I do NOT blame on my power tool-using ability…it was the screw’s fault) we got the cabinet down. They started to push the fridge back but they couldn’t get the lower cabinet far enough aside (we have a heater underneath it and the cord was caught). I asked if they could just push it back far enough to plug in so it could cool down while we were at work and we’d be able to switch all the food over when we got home. Perfect plan!

Oh, did I mention, the entire time we were fumbling with that Babe was in the living room watching cartoons and eating Cocoa Puffs? Yeah, so I went to check on her and there she is, sitting very comatose nicely in front of the TV, with the bowl of Cocoa Puffs dumped on my carpet…chocolatey milk and gooey puffs all over the floor. Awesome! So I ran into the kitchen to grab paper towels, only to be stopped by one of the guys. He held up the cord for the fridge and one of the prongs was laying at a 90 degree angle to the other. Now, I’m no electrician but I was pretty sure that that wasn’t a good thing. Sometime between unplugging it at the store (because it was working at the store) and being put into my kitchen the cord was damaged and, despite the delivery guys best efforts, it would not work when it was plugged in. Sigh.

Soooo, now what? “Well, we’ll take this one back to the store because it’s just a giant paper weight now.” according to the delivery guy. Awesome. Oh, I don’t think I mentioned that my aunt (aka. FAS – Favorite Aunt Sue) was scheduled to arrive at about 8pm that night. Yeah. Awesome!

They told me to call the store and they would send another fridge (which I knew they didn’t have since we bought the very last one) or they could help me find another option.

At this point I am VERY late for work, I have no new fridge, I have cabinets off the wall and the contents of said cabinet strewn all over my kitchen. I HAD to work until 4:30, do my food shopping after that, and get my house put back together before FAS arrived at 8. I’m not able to get in touch with my husband at work (unless it’s an extreme emergency, but somehow I didn’t think the fridge qualified) but I did text him so he’d find out eventually and I just left everything the way it was and went to work.

I called the store on the way to work and they guy was very helpful, but long story short, I didn’t like any other fridge so I was going to have to suck it up with my old one. All my other guests were arriving on Friday so we wouldn’t have time to go and look in person so it just wasn’t going to happen.

Fast-forward to 5:30, I’m almost done with my food shopping when my husband calls and said they fixed the cord on the fridge and if we want it he has to go pick it up at the store right away. I had to hurry home so I could relieve him of kid duty and he went and picked it up. I wasn’t quite sure how we were going to get the fridge into our house (we don’t have a hand truck and his dad’s is missing a wheel…not the most helpful) but thankfully my husband came thru and borrowed one.

What I didn’t know was that they didn’t actually fix the cord, they just gave him another one that he could splice on to the existing cord. Awesome. (Thankfully, my husband can do that sort of thing.)

He also called in reinforcements so his dad and friend came to help move the fridge into the house and into place.

Luckily for FAS, she arrived just in time to help me move all of my food from the old fridge to the new fridge. (Thankfully, she and my uncle were able to squeeze past the old fridge which was sitting smack in the middle of the kitchen.)

So, it all worked out but it was definitely a fiasco. Thank goodness we had the second fridge (we put the old one in the garage so we could use that one too) because we filled up BOTH fridges by the time everyone got there.

Christmas itself and the 4-day orgy of food went fabulous. I have many stories (including one that involves handcuffs, lost handcuff keys, and my 13 year old cousin) but they will have to wait for next post because if you made it this far already I know you are ready for a break.

Next post…Though Vomit! Yay!

Lily