Out with the old fridge

We bought a fridge. I blame the salsa.

A week or so ago, my husband participated in the monthly ritualistic cleansing of the coils on our refrigerator. The ritual involves first emptying every item in the freezer, and dismantling a panel inside. Then he applies heat from a hairdryer, thus manually performing the “defrosting” step that our auto-defrosting unit can’t be bothered with. After re-assembling the freezer, we check the contents of the fridge for spoilage. That day, I threw out a huge bowl of homemade salsa, only about 3-4 days old, that had fuzz on the top.

And, if you want to get ice or water from the filtered in-door dispenser, make sure you have an extra empty cup and a towel on hand. Because our fridge is overly generous with ice and water. Kind of like me and chocolate, it just doesn’t know when to quit. I mop up the (new, laminate, non-water-proof) floor in front of the fridge on average twice a day.

Yes, I’ve spent quite a lot of time hemming and hawing over the decision. And, despite my earlier resolve that we don’t need a French-door fridge, that is exactly what we bought. There isn’t an ideal option in our kitchen, unless we could live with less food-storage space, and thus, a smaller fridge. We can’t. The fridge hole has plenty of room for a large refrigerator, if you don’t care about opening the doors. A right-opening door will never open fully thanks to a wall, and a full-width door that opens to the left could smack the corner of the island.

The French-door is a compromise. It’s one of the larger ones on the market at 25 cubic feet. We pack that thing full with milk, fruit, and veggies every week. I just can’t justify a smaller one. And I ought to be able to one of the top doors all the way, so I ought to have enough access to store wide plates or even cake boxes, unlike our side-by-side.

We bought a stainless steel one. And, if hubby and I weren’t about to be late picking Char up from school, we *might* have purchased a new stove and dishwasher to match. I was apparently in a money-spending mood that day. We got a bargain, though, I hope. We’re buying a scratch-n-dent model, saving 50% off of the list price. I don’t mind dings. We have a 2-year old. We’re going to scratch-n-dent whatever we buy anyway. We’ve had mixed luck in the past with scratch-n-dent appliances—we bought a lemon of a washing machine and a gem of a dryer that way when we moved into the house. But the brand-new-unblemished fridge was also a lemon that we’ve been squeezing for the past 6 or 7 years. So, I’m willing to take the chance, and on a brand (Kenmore) that we’ve had better luck with than our lemons (Maytags, both of them).

Maybe towards Christmas we'll go back after that stove and dishwasher. We'll talk about some minor cabinet changes and possible refacing and countertops after the new year :)