I'm so excited! We finally bought a new fridge. Its been 3 years of frozen lettuce and unfrozen ice cream. We chose one of those newfangled side by sides with an icemaker in the door. I think I annoyed the salesman. He tried to show us the newest gadgets in refrigeration and I wouldn't have none of that. I explained to him that the fewer moving parts the less there is to break down. If they made a refrigerator with a toggle switch for the ice maker I would have chosen that one. The whole process took about an hour and we left the store with a delivery date for Thursday the 8th. And then came the fun part. I decided that we would install the ice maker line ourselves. No, I wasn't being cheap. I live in a run down farmhouse on a swamp. The whole thing is being held together with rusty nails and prayer. I don't want some delivery guy full of youthful exuberance to knock something loose that will take a full remodel to fix. While the salesman was giving me the 'you will be sorry for being cheap" look, I was having a panic attack over what was under the dishwasher that hasn't been moved in 20 years. Was there ever a leak? Is the floor rotten behind it? Are vermin nesting back there? Is that where they stashed the bodies ? I was also wondering if we pulled out the dishwasher to run a line behind it....would it still work when we pushed it back in place? Would I now be forced to buy a new dishwasher? How much could a base model fridge end up costing me? With all that in mind, the decision was made to plumb it ourselves...gently.... and a week before the new appliance arrives. We calculated that a week would give us enough time to make any repairs on anything horrible we found. Any repair that takes more than a week? Well if that is the case then hooking up an icemaker is the least of our problems! Four days ago we moved the old fridge out of the alcove that was built for it. (Should the scorch marks on the wall behind it scare me?) We put it on a far wall directly in front of the door (attractive!) and proceeded to plumb the line. While we did inspect the floor under the dishwasher and discovered no hydras to slay, we found we could run the line under the machine and did not have to move it. Big relief there. We only had to drill two new holes because the previous owners had other hoses and things running under the cabinets. It took all day but the line is run and ready for attachment. It went better than expected. And it only took a mere 24 hours for Jimmy and I to stop glaring daggers at each other and begin talking again. Seriously... we simply cannot work together without fighting. But I decided to forgive his transgressions when he came in to the house yesterday morning and told me that he had installed my Christmas gift from DD's squeeze. This was no easy task since he had climb up to the top of the rickety barn to install the solar panel for my brand new solar powered, motion-sensor, light. No more stumbling down a half acre in the dark with nothing but a flashlight to guide me when I need to lock up the chicken coop or do other backyard things after the sun goes down. We spent about 20 minutes playing with the light last night to see what would set it off and from what direction. When we returned to the house, we had an armload of firewood and we were in accord with one another again. So goes life at Mystic Cedars!
