The Fridge is Here!

As I mentioned on Monday, the fridge was delivered this weekend and I’m here to share all the gory details. As you’ll recall (because you follow every word we ever write, right?), the previous weekend we kicked off the kitchen renovation by taking out the buffet to make room where the new fridge will go.

It was very satisfying, but I still had a nagging worry in the back of my head that the fridge would fall through somehow. I bought it at the beginning of January and scheduled delivery as far out as I could to buy us some time, and I was imagining them getting in touch to say they had no more in stock or something. (More about the fridge we picked and why in last week’s post about the buffet.)

But instead, I got a call on Friday to confirm my delivery window of 12:15 – 4:15pm on Saturday. Woohoo! Saturday morning we did our final prep work. First I built a little platform for the fridge, since I knew the front would be sitting on the tile and the back would be sitting lower where the tile didn’t reach:

The tile was about as thick as some plywood I had in the basement. I didn’t have enough plywood for both sides, but I did have some scrap MDF that stacked two-thick was the right depth. I just cut them down to length on my table saw and nailed them in place where I measured the edges of the fridge would sit according to my plans for the space:

None of this will show at the end of the day, fortunately.

At 11:45am I got a call from the delivery guys saying they were about 30 minutes away — awesome news, since it meant we didn’t have to wait all afternoon. That was our signal that it was time to clean out our very well-organized fridge:

We used it as a chance to throw away some old stuff, and then put what we wanted to keep into plastic tubs. We do have a fridge in the basement where we temporarily housed stuff from the freezer, but we weren’t worried about fridge items spoiling in such a short period.

We’d briefly considered trying to sell our old fridge on craigslist, but the benefit of having the delivery guys take it away for us — without us having to clean it or deal with anything — far outweighed the few bucks we maybe could have made (not to mention all the logistics of trying to help craigslist buyer get the fridge out of the house).

Soon a giant truck was lumbering up the hill by our house, and I flagged them down hoping it was them (because our driveway is the next street over from our main street address, delivery people often drive around confused trying to find us).

The guys were awesome. One started unloading:

And the other came in to see the space and take some measurements. They decided they should take the sunroom door off, which they made very quick work of:

Before we knew it, they were carting out the old fridge. The uncovered detritus was quite a sight.

We also discovered that the former owner hadn’t even bothered to put an outlet cover over the outlet behind the fridge. How lovely.

With the fridge gone, it suddenly became easier to imagine how much more open it will feel when the wall comes down.

Next they brought in the new fridge, being really careful not to scratch it. It was so cool to see how they carried the fridge, using these straps that go under the fridge and let them both lift from their hips. I didn’t get any good photos of that because it felt rude to be snapping away while they were carrying a super heavy fridge, but you can see it in action here. The fridge just looks like it’s floating.

They got it into place on its platform, and then it was time for the true test: hooking up the water line that I’d run across the basement and up through a new hole in the floor. I couldn’t help but tell them that I’d done it myself, even though we didn’t even know if it would work yet.

I went down to turn the water back on, but we quickly discovered a leak. It was as simple as replacing the nut at the end of the hose with a new one, though — it had just gotten a little stripped after being used on the previous fridge.

So basically my water line experiment was a total success and I’m extraordinarily self-satisfied.

The guys helped finish installing the fridge by attaching the handles and removing packaging, gave us some operating tips, and put the sunroom door back on.

I suddenly realized I didn’t know whether we should tip them — these are the moments when I realize I’m an adult and I need to do the things I never used to think of like leaving a tip for the cleaning staff at a hotel. I did a quick google search to confirm that tipping appliance delivery people is a thing (I didn’t want to offend them by offering a tip inappropriately), and they accepted it graciously. So now we know, and I figured I’d share in case others weren’t sure — though everyone else probably has this way more figured out than I do. I was just really impressed by their work, and since the delivery service is free for customers, a tip seems like the right thing.

Then they left, and we were all alone with our lovely new fridge! We loaded it back up pretty quickly and adjusted the shelves to fit our needs.

The kitchen still has a long way to go, but we’re making progress and I can start to imagine it all coming together!

I roped my dad into coming to visit in a few weeks to help make the custom cabinetry I want to build on this wall. We were an awesome team on the workbench he designed and we assembled in the summer, so I’m looking forward to working together again! You know I’ll keep you posted!