Don't Make 'em Like They Used To

We've been in our house for 10 years. "They" say that after ten years, that's when everything starts to go. By the way things have been going, I'm starting to believe there's some truth to that...

Our refrigerator is 10 years old. It's still running pretty well, but it's not "energy star" efficient, and two of the shelves have broken. Plus, my sister-in-law could use one, so we decided to take the plunge. After watching my wife agonize for an hour over which one to pick, and watching her exceed the "budget" I gave her ever-so-slightly (as usual), we picked one last Tuesday. It was delivered on Friday, and then I got "the call" at work...

The first problem was that the new refrigerator is about 3 cubic feet bigger than our last one. Even though I measured ahead of time, it didn't quite fit in for two reasons: our walls are not perfectly square (that seems to be pretty common for the mass-produced "cookie cutter" homes in our area), and new refrigerators bulge out a bit at the sides due to the added insulation. It's not a major deal, but we have to move an upper and a lower cabinet over a few inches. Correction: that's a major deal for a hack around the house like me, but fortunately, my dad and my father-in-law are both pretty handy...

The bigger problem was that less than 24 hours after we had it installed, it flat out died. No functionality at all. We checked the breaker, and nothing tripped. We checked the outlet; it worked fine. The thing is simply DOA. Then the fun started... You just can't pack up a refrigerator and exchange it for a new one. Plus, there's the issue of keeping the food cold. After a bazillion calls to the manufacturer and Home Depot, we finally have a resolution. To their credit, HD came and got the dud today, and gave us a loaner. We're having another one delivered next Friday, hopefully with better results. That's a fine solution, but it's still a pain in the butt to move the food from place to place each time, and to have the door removed to get the big one in the kitchen, and so forth. Plus, we have a ton of family coming in during next week...

Yep, it was another successful home improvement project for the Mosley's...