About three weeks ago, I was cooking a shepherd’s pie.
I will now pause to address the concerns raised by the UK cooks every time this is mentioned. In UK, shepherd’s pie is made with minced lamb and cottage pie is made with minced beef. In US, any dish that involves layers of corn or beans, followed by ground meat/meat substitute topped with mashed potatoes and then cheese is called a shepherd’s pie.
There we go, the grand battle over minor cultural differences is avoided. Where was I?
I was making Gordon’s shepherd’s pie, opened a bag of shredded cheese, dipped my hand in there and felt something slimy. The cheese didn’t pass the smell test so I tossed it. I had just bought it a couple of days before, but what are you going to do? I opened a new bag and went on with cooking.
Three days later, I was making an egg scramble for breakfast. Nothing special, some sliced sausage browned, mushrooms, eggs, favorite seasoning with some garlic scrambled in the same pan, and a bit of cheese on top.
The new bag of cheese had gone bad.
This was not normal. Typically, the cheese doesn’t go bad in our fridge. Sometimes it dries, but we usually consume it before it goes sour. This was sour.
I open the fridge. The temperature indicator is at 35 degrees. I look at it. I touch things. They seem cold but maybe not cold enough? I get my cooking thermometer, turn it on, stick it in the fridge, and promptly forget about it.
An hour later I go in to grab something and check the thermometer. 55 F.
Any temperature above 40 degrees means we are growing bacteria at an exponential rate.
I open the crisper drawers where the produce is. Rot City. The Brussel sprouts went bad, and they never go bad. There is eggnog in this fridge. The eggnog my eggnog-fiend husband has been drinking for the past few days. There are leftovers. There are… You get the picture. I clean the fridge out.
My only refrigerator option is the small fridge in the craft room, which we use as a beverage fridge. It doesn’t hold much, but I can get new eggs, new milk, and new coffee creamer and put it in there.
The kitchen fridge is a Subzero 640, meaning it is 48 x 84 x 24 inches, and the previous owners built the kitchen around it. It is 27 years old and hideously expensive. I know this because two summers ago we paid way too much money to repair the freezer. We opted for the repair because buying a new fridge was prohibitively expensive and due to the pandemic, there were shortages, and we would have to wait months for one.
We were assured that the repair would hold, but we were warned that the lifespan of this fridge is about 20 years. The freezer is still working.
We try to get a repair. There is exactly one factory technician working on these in the area and there is a wait.
Replacing the fridge with a different, cheaper model, is not an option. Refrigerators come in two basic types – freestanding and built in. Our fridge is built in and if we replace it with the freestanding fridge, not only would it not fit into the cabinet, protrude, and have venting issues, but the island would prevent the doors from comfortably opening.
The election is coming up. The tensions are high. For reasons that I will go into below, the fridge is a pressure point for me. I have to have a working refrigerator.
On top of that, we are editing this book that needs way too much work and we are behind in our writing schedule. This adds stress, because if we don’t finish soon and write something else, we are going to have budget issues next year. I’m already stressed beyond all reason, and I need this fridge disaster like a hole in the head.
We talk about it and despite the awful cost – I’m not going to tell you how much, because I don’t want to cause a collective BDH heart attack – we decide to replace it. We can’t keep throwing $2,500 at it every year or two to repair it. This is the kind of emergency that savings are for.
I start researching and find out that SubZero has a new model with the exact same dimensions. If I can find a unit, it’s a straight swap. I call around to the local dealers. Great, we find a unit in stock and they can deliver it on Friday, election week.
The dealer sends a link to pay. I pay.
Payment pending. We will text you the receipt.
What does this mean? What do you mean, it’s pending? It should be an instant draft.
Maybe it takes a bit. I email the dealer, letting him know the payment is made, because I desperately want that fridge to be installed on Friday.
Several hours later the dealer emails back. I don’t see anything on my end.
I don’t have the receipt. I call to the bank. The bank says things like, “we don’t know anything about anything” and “what is money?”.
I can’t cancel the payment. The portal I sent it through has no customer service support. I’m rapidly approaching the limit of my ability to even.
24 hours later, the payment processes. The fridge is coming on Friday.
By this point the results of the election are out and everyone is calling me. The political ban on the blog is still in effect, so I will not go into it, but long story short, it’s stress city.
The entire Friday I can’t concentrate because the fridge is coming. Finally, I get a notification that they are 45 minutes out.
This is going to get a little bit personal. When Gordon and I were very young, we lived in a little shack in the mountains of North Carolina and we were poor. Not middle class poor, not paycheck to paycheck poor, the “not sure where the food is going to be coming from” poor. It was winter, we bought a month’s worth of meat, and then a storm hit and the power was out for 5 days. We had to get a big black garbage bag and throw it all out.
As I’m typing this, I can picture it in my head. I remember what we were wearing. It is branded on my brain. So I have a hard time cleaning out the freezer. It takes a bit of will power. But the fridge will need to come out, so I get my husband and we clean out the freezer and throw away some old food that’s been in there for far too long. Into a black garbage bag it goes. ::deep breath::
The delivery crew arrives, and then Gordon call me into the kitchen. There is a board under the fridge that was put there so there is no gap. It is mortared in. It will require a general contractor to remove. The fridge will not be installed today.
Gordon says, “I can see why they put it in there. They were like ‘this fridge will last us 20 years’.”
I don’t say anything.
Gordon starts gently rubbing my back, and I look at him and say, “I can’t.”
And he says, “It will be okay.”
And this little voice in my head says, “No, it’s not okay, and by the way, you threw out all that old fish for nothing.”
My options are very few. I can have a bitchy moment, but it will not get the fridge installed and the installers didn’t sign up for my freak out. The installers assure me that if we let them drop off the fridge, they probably will have availability to come back here on Monday. I sigh and I nod, and I bail as the new fridge, still in a giant box, is left in our garage.
I call Kid 1. The next day, Kid 1’s boyfriend and his brother who works as a contractor arrive, and the plate is removed and the top edge of the cabinet is trimmed to the installer specifications. I call back to the dealer.
We will call you on Monday.
On Monday, they call. I pick up, hoping for that Monday appointment. Some other things happened, and this fridge is now the axis upon which my stress rotates. It’s not entirely logical, but there it is. For some people, it would be no big deal. You order take out and wait. We have the small fridge for eggs and dairy. Not exactly a hardship. For me, however, not having a fridge is very difficult.
We will install it on Thursday.
This was just one hit too many.
Here is the thing. No matter how hard the circumstances are, you have to carry on. Because life doesn’t stop for us. We can take a moment to deal, but then things have to keep going. I’m not the roll-over type. When it comes down to it, very few of us are. We are biologically hardwired to survive.
I edited 110 pages between Monday and Thursday. A small win, but still a win.
Here it is. It’s in. It’s pretty much empty right now, but it has all the drawers and space you could ever want.
I’m sure that there will be another crisis life will throw my way. In fact, it did, and I will have pictures for you tomorrow. But meanwhile, this one crisis has a resolution. I have picked up and I’m moving on. And if it breaks again, I will handle that too.
Onward, to glory and full produce drawers!
First?
Certified 🥇
Ahhh, the joys of Fridge dilemas. They’re always such a mess. I’m super sorry that you guys are going through it, especially with the unfortunate timing. Hang in there, you guys are almost there! You have us here to cheer you on!!!
Why are buying new appliances so stressful. Should be happy times, you get something new, its should be an exciting time.
I just ordered a new fridge been wanting to pull the trigger for years, its getting delivered in a week and a half and just looked online and found a model I like slightly better. Then I have to tell myself they are basically the same fridge nothing different. Just let it go, and hoping all is well on delivery date. Feeling nervous and stressed.
+1
What a beautiful kitchen! Glad to hear you finally got the new refrigerator installed. Enjoy it!
+1
I wish you all the best.
Thank you for many years of wonderful stories (and improve my english reading skills).
Ingrid from Germany
I think in terms of “when we don’t live here anymore” when we do large project type things to our house. Drives my husband insane. But the “it will work for 20 years for us” is so short sighted for the next homeowner.
I am so glad your worst memory has past, and you’ve slain your collective stress demons. Time for tea and biscuits!
That’s when you pet the new fridge because it’s working!
I am SO glad to know that I am not the only one who pets a well-behaved fridge! XO
—also, Ilona I hear you! When I was midway through college my dad lost his job & the job market for his skill set had massively shrunk. I was not about to add to my parents’ stress by asking for money. There I was, out of state & broke between paychecks repeatedly because rent, textbooks, lab practicals, old car. I was theoretically working full time as a banquet server at a hotel (split shifts & a meal with each shift!), but winter is a slow period. I would be finishing the last of the milk & get a call to see if I’d cover a shift for Room Service delivery. Yes! I’d make some cash in tips & get hours on the payroll for health insurance, drive my car on its last fumes to the gas station & put a quarter tank of gas in on my way to the market for milk, mac&cheese & ground beef. That was more than 3 decades ago & while my mac & cheese now has nutmeg added to it & my gas tank stays between half & full, the extended period of not knowing if i could feed & care for myself is burned in there. So I pet my fridge now & then because I appreciate what it represents to me. Hugsx10
Best to you. I’ve had a similar last couple weeks — starting with a 1/3 failed dental surgery on November 4 that involved 3-5 times/week at the dentist from Nov 4 to yesterday. It wasn’t the fridge. But it was my stress rotation with all the add-ons. I can eat again. You can eat again. Life goes on. Until the next one.
I feel your pain, I had an implant that had to be redone because it “failed”. The only good thing about the entire event is that the dentist did NOT charge me twice for the implant. I don’t think they are allowed to.
Thank you for your sympathy. I’m very glad you weren’t charged, these things are expensive. This was two bone grafts and one implant, and one of the bone grafts failed. Also, my dear husband has no experience with me coming out of general anesthesia. I warned him that I would sound perfectly rational and coherent, and he had to ignore that and either write everything down or tell me again the next day. He had no idea HOW reasonable and coherent I would sound. As a result, I didn’t start the prescribed antibiotics for another ten days, because I had zero memory of discussing that with him. So I ended up with a hell of an infection.
They did only charge me for one bone graft, but I don’t know what they’re allowed to do or not. I live in Austria. It’s certainly bad BUSINESS, given that implants are still not covered by insurance here. I might skip off to another dentist, after all, and they’d lose all those €€. Which I’m planning to do anyway, because this guy might be the bee’s knees when it comes to technique, but I had to beg him for information on how we increase the possibility of success next time, given this failure has put off me getting teeth by 5-6 months, and this process already started in April and was estimated to end next September. My therapist handed me a card for another clinic, and other clinic does as a matter of course with all implant patients (in the steps on their website) what not only wasn’t done with my current dentist, but I had to beg him to tell me about. Wouldn’t even have come up if I hadn’t pushed. And this other clinic would have done it even before the first surgery failed. Fancy that.
By the way. I have been stunned as I have learned over the past couple years how lightly the U.S. takes vitamins and how serious they are. I need all this dental work because of my vitamin D deficiency. The bone in my jaw literally eroded. The prep work for the next surgery is all about bringing me up to par with several vitamins — D, K, and zinc especially. B12 deficiency can cause neurological and nerve damage. Pre-eclampsia is cured, even in the U.S., with IV magnesium. And yet I know from growing up American, the general attitude is that sure, vitamins are good for you, but there’s no idea how incredibly crucial they are. Knowing these kinds of deficiencies can cause this kind of damage is definitely NOT common knowledge.
Ugh. Anyway, the important bit is it’s OVER. For now. And I’ll have a new dentist soon.
I work as a general practitioner in Germany and I totally support the importance of vitamins. Most vitamins and trace elements you can get easily enough with a balanced diet. Whether you have that or not…that’s for you to decide 🙂 Vitamin B12 can be a problem with a vegan diet. With Vitamin D we find a deficiency very often. This is especially important for postmenopausal women. They have a high risk of osteoporosis. I usually advice my patients to do the lab work once and then substitute – usually about 25-50 µg per day. More if there is a severe deficiency.
Actually, ADHD is associated with deficiencies in ferritin, d3, magnesium, and zinc. I know from my yearly bloodwork about the iron and D, I started magnesium & calcium on my own for muscle cramping with amazing results, and the zinc I just discovered and will be in my next bloodwork (or the vitamin panel from the new dentist). D is tested along with everything else yearly here. The standard prescription is incredibly annoying drops — which I stopped taking a few years ago because they were too frustrating and my ADHD was still undiagnosed. Hence the eroding jawbone. My shrink is an ADHD specialist who I’m lucky to have found — he prescribed a different brand where the drops are twice as strong and come out from the bottle much more easily, and follows vitamin information closely, so that I take a few drops/day instead of a huge amount twice/week.
The b12 intrinsic resistance factor is all me. But no amount of balanced diet will give me the iron, d3, or b12 I need.
The worst part is my current dentist knows all of this (my deficiencies), and yet I had to beg, plead, and wrestle to get him to say “oh, you’ll need to do a vitamin workup.” WTH?
Siobhan-I am also in Austria and would love to connect in all things dentists and ADHD
I had a friend who had a SubZero refrigerator and I asked her if she would buy a new one if necessary (we were redesigning our kitchen at the time). She said she loved it until it got old and then she hated it. Like you she was locked into it because it was built in. We bought a counter depth KitchenAid.
We had the exact same thing happen last year. A built-in Sub-Zero fridge from 1999 stopped working and we couldn’t get it repaired. We ended up re-designing the kitchen around a standard non built-in fridge instead. We had been thinking of renovating the kitchen for other reasons, but this moved our timeline up considerably because we felt like the difference in cost was better put toward changing the kitchen layout. Those built-ins are insanely expensive!!
It sounds like a great week for your I cant even mugs. Also all I could think about seeing subzero is the mortal combat character. All the fridge drama is reminding me of my grandparents Zil fridge. It was the size of the fridge in Indiana Jones, worked for 50 years and I think we only replaced it because the handle broke
Ok, this is weird. Same thing happened with our 15 year old refrigerator -turns out it was out of Freon. It would cost over $1000 to refill and they needed to send a special technician to handle it. Lucky we have a ‘garage/beer fridge’ so we were able to salvage at least some of the items and shove them in there. I’ve been living without ice for two weeks. For someone who lives on ice water (since thanks diabetes, no more lemonade or sweet tea), it has been rough.
New refrigerator comes tomorrow though, I can’t wait.
I am sending so much love and understanding. I have been in that same spot where you are now, one thin hairs breadth from breaking. I wish I could hug the stuffing out of you, wrap you in a blanket, and tuck you on a couch with tea and a book. I hope you allow yourself some grace and rest.
+1
Beautiful Kitchen
came here to say just that, so i’ll +1 your comment instead 🙂
🤞there are no more fridge issues. btw, it’s so pretty even if it’s crazy expensive. lucky that Kid 1’s boyfriend’s brother is a contractor and you didn’t have to wait to for that. sucks not having a fridge for many reasons. glad it didn’t take weeks.
You sound like Kate in those last paragraphs. No surprise I suppose, but as someone prone to the “roll over and wait for the world to end” mentality, you sound like a hero to me. Hang in there.
I’m so sorry this happened and so thankful that you got your fridge installed. If some happy news will help, my cat finished her radiation treatment today for a benign tumor in her spine!!
Yay! Happy healthy kitties ftw!
Yay!!! So happy for you and your kitty!
Hugs….
As a kid, when we moved across states, we were shocked that our rental did not come with a refrigerator. A new fridge, even a cheap one, was out of the question, so we saved up for six months and lived out of an igloo cooler that also functioned as a dining room table (because the furniture money was also going to have to go to the fridge fund) I remember it through funny memories of everyone having to lift their plates when somebody forgot they wanted milk, and going to the port every week with my dad to get a block of ice. Because I was six. It’s a lot more stressful memory for my mom, who also had to figure out how to fit groceries for a family of four into a couple cubic feet.
I get this. There’s always the one thing that is the hinge upon which your ability to handle stuff rests, and it makes no sense to anyone else, but it does to you, and this is yours. All the hugs. So glad it is installed!!!
Yes. For me it’s break pads that made me look and realize my tires are bald. And inspection is coming up along with what will probably be a Thanksgiving that will break my soul.
I’m making sure my tablet is charged up with books to drown in when I’m all out of evens.
I really like that fridge. I have one of the biggest fridges available for the home market and it isn’t big enough. I live with a chef. And I’m a baker. No spice cabinet is big enough, no refrigerator is big enough. I have occasionally thought about putting a commercial restaurant fridge and freezer in the basement. Probably make more sense to just buy a restaurant.
good luck.
You have a very lovely and clean kitchen. To me, that is a crisis averted! My kitchen, to coin a Scottish phrase, looks like you could stir it with a stick…..
Ah… I feel for you. Our garage frig died 2 days ago and we had to toss the 1/3 of the freezer food…. this a few months after the power went out to the same frig and we had to toss a full, stuffed, can barely close freezer amount of food.
It is so weird what will finally break us. If I could’ve replaced your stove the way you did my mug, I would’ve!
I hear you on the fear of something that may not seem realistic to others. My whole family has that “one thing”. All I can say is embrace it – you do not have to justify it to others – I actually make light of it and I found a person who has the same fear and we connected. *BTW its bridges cannot be stopped on a bridge – freaks me out beyond words – breathing intensifies, hyper focus – no fear paralysis YET.
I wish you much happiness with your new fridge and yeah there will be another crisis and you will zag instead of zigging!!\
Thank you for sharing!
Hear you on the bridge fear. Sending hugs! 💖
I hear you about the bridge fear. If it’s a bridge I haven’t travelled on before, I get the same symptoms. I just look ahead when driving over and not look on either side of me.
If it’s a bridge I’ve travelled over and over again, I don’t get them.
Sending lots of hugs. 🙂
Thank you for the non-fiction story. I’m forwarding to my husband because we are dealing with a built in oven saga that is similar. Contractor ordered the wrong size built-in oven cabinet. Now we wait. I have no countertops, no kitchen sink. The cabinet for the slide out trash cans is wrong. I do have a refrigerator.
oh for the love of Pete!
What part of measure twice, cut once do they not understand?!?
And it’s a CONTRACTOR?!?
I am so sorry for your past trauma. I am going home for Thanksgiving and already armoring up and taking extra care of myself in preparation. trauma is hard in all its forms.
you are allowed to freak out, and I love the reveling in your beautiful shiny new fridge that will not break and holds all the foods. I will be sure to come home and glory in my beautiful home with all its touches of peace and safety after Thanksgiving too.
onward to the next battle indeed!
I can relate. Last year my daughter and her family came to visit and while they were here our fridge quit working. We had house guests including two preteens and no refrigerator. We ordered a new one. It didn’t cool properly. We ordered a second one. It didn’t fit even though it was supposedly the same size. Third time was the charm but the stress almost drove me around the bend. However, I have now discovered that the milk doesn’t go bad as fast. Who knew ? By the way, the following month my dryer went out and the month after that it was the dishwasher.
Every house I grew up in, we had a second fridge and freezer or fridge/freezer combo, either in the mud room, or more often the garage. Mostly, I think, because there were 4 kids, 3 of them boys. Fast forward, we’re all grown up, and we all have a spare somewhere, usually the garage, too. Might be something to consider if it gives you a lot of anxiety. Doesn’t have to be a fancy or expensive one, but it’ll be handy for drinks and big frozen stuff you don’t access often.
plus 1. We live in the middle of nowhere and also have a generator–solely to be able to run freezers, fridges and possibly the heater if we get truly desperate. But dad had a small cattle ranch his whole life so we always had a beef or half a beef in a freezer. And after all that goes into raising your own beef, you do not want to lose said meat. Oh, no you do not and the anxiety that occurs when the electricity goes off or the freezer blips…so we have a backup freezer. It’s not a perfect solution, but it does help. A few people I know have a fridge/freezer in the garage for the same backup reasons.
When we were re-doing the kitchen I insisted on NG appliances because of the power outages. They do not have all the fancy doo-dads but they work wonderfully.
Our extra fridge was in the basement. They are useful for families.
Today the inlet filters on my new washer appear to be clogged. I am not happy about this.
However I have successfully signed up for Medicare parts A and B, and as soon as my card arrives, will sign up for part D and a Medigap policy. This will save me roughly $600/month. So yeah, onward! to glory and a positive cash flow.
Extra fridge/freezer was especially useful during the holidays with all the extra dishes that had to be prepared, extra gallons of milk and orange juice for breakfast, ingredients for all the dishes, etc. One of my brothers actually had 3 fridges and we would use all 3 around Christmas.
The day we cleaned out our dead deep freezer of the THOUSANDS of dollars of meat we had in there will HAUNT me. We still haven’t been in a position financially to replace it and having only the freezer space of our kitchen fridge to rely on stresses me out more than I’m comfortable admitting to.
I hope u got the warranty.
That was very, very similar to my whole week, although my stress points are not fridge related. And last night, I could feel the flu coming on, the one Husband has been fighting for 4 days. And all any of us can do is put our head down and try to move past it, but egads. It is not easy. I’m glad you managed to hang on, even if it was by your fingernails.
If it helps I love the way your kitchen looks.
I am sorry you had trials and tribulations with the fridge. I am glad it is in and you have one less source of stress. Good luck with the book edits.
I totally get it. The election was a few weeks out. My anxiety level was unspeakable and my car got hit. I was sitting still at a light. The dude hit and ran. It was too much. I breathe as my insurance says you have all the insurance and it’s covered. It is at the shop. Days later they total it and I curl into a ball. Then I go buy a new car. Buying a new car is sooo stressful. I hate it. At the end of it I had a massive anxiety attack again and had to learn to breath again. All over now. I’m ok. But I totally get it.
So glad you’re ok now! 🤗
when ‘life’ happens in our house the first thing we all say to each other is ‘This too, shall pass’
sending much love and support in this time of stress. ‘This too, shall pass’ ❤️
Thank you for sharing and as always, you have a storytelling gift. I want to go back in time and give young Ilona a hug.
Glad everything happened and could be resolved before your holidays could be affected. I highly recommend decorating early. There is so much gloom and doom so I bought a new and improved tree and love every bit of it.
Hooray for fridge resolution! And, omg, I swear we have the same flooring.
Sorry for the saga of the refrigerator. I’m glad it’s in and hopefully will last for generations and be the BEST REFRIGERATOR EVER!
Something like this happens and for all the time and money and stress you endure, you want that *%$!@# appliance to serve you breakfast in bed.
Or maybe that’s just me.
It seems to be the year of replacing refrigerators. We had to replace one of ours a few months ago, not as extreme a situation as yours but still an unplanned for expense. I would like to say that I am in love with your ovens. I so miss having two ovens.
This feels very familiar. I am so sorry you had to deal with that stress.
My 5 yo+ fridge stopped cooling, 3 months out of its warranty period (because of course). My mother is dying. Family drama has reached a hysterical pitch and to say emotions are running high is a criminal understatement. I am just making ends meet and am in the middle of a legal battle to retain caregiving hours for my Kid2 because his new caseworker thinks, despite mountains of documentation from medical and other better informed sources, that there is not THAT much of a disability that requires 24/7 caregiving. Kid1 is in need of extra support. Ex decides this is the best time to basically take care of himself abroad and dump some more abandonment issues on Kid2.
There is one qualified technician in our area to deal with this. It’s winter and some roads are still flooded and power out. Of course he is slammed. I am at my mother’s house during the day and on-call for emergencies at night, on top of caregiving at home. I run errands for my mom’s caregiver.
I tried cleaning the vents and trouble shooting the issue, but ordering the correct compressor and replacing it are beyond me. I opt for replacing the compressor because moving fridges in or out will be an awful PIA due to custom built-in of inconvenient center counter island. As it is, the stainless steel fridge gets dinged. Whatever. I threw out way too much food and said goodbye to the budget for over a week.
I finally had a working fridge. It did not break me, but oh how I did not need that.
I hope you have months of calm after this.
True nightmare! I hope some calm is headed your way too!
We own a subzero fridge, its the best fridge I’ve ever owned. It is hideously expensive though!
You were lucky to get the exact fridge so quickly. One of my friends had to wait a year before she got her subzero. This was a couple of years ago shortly after Covid with all the supply chain issues.
It looks lovely in your kitchen. Glad you were able to get it so soon!
we had similar problems with getting the broken oven replaced during covid… we waited 11 months… but it was worth waiting…
Bought a new fridge this summer and we are absolutely fascinated with the way it freezes everything…
BTW: what a beautiful kitchen!
I just went on that journey with you and it was painful. I’m very glad it was resolved, but I know how it can build up to this monumental thing.
The fridge and kitchen do look great.
Yowch!
What a beautiful kitchen!
I think appliances speak to each other through the electrical lines. My refrigerator had a water line issue, ok, call the appliance guy for repair and keep moving forward. Two days later… The freezer in the garage decides to go to the big freezer in the sky. Ay-Ay-Ay, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.
Your patience is amazing
Congratulations on coping so well, given everything! How wonderful that Kid1’s BF and his brother were able to help! And, last but certainly not least, the new fridge looks awesome and I hope it doesn’t give you a lick of trouble for a very loooooooong time🤞🤞🤞
Oh dear
Reminds me of the day before Christmas some years ago when our fridge went unstable -filled with food for the whole family and me filled with the whole amount of conflicted emotions towards some of the family members.
Fortunately we got a new one before the food were spoiled.
The schopenhauer inspired saying we use in this kind of situations is “remeber, in can easily get much worse than it is now”
Hope for an uneventfull couple of weeks for you.
I know that feeling. Only with my ac. The buyers on my house being a**holes and the list goes on. I vent, I breathe I move on. Right there with ya sister!!
I totally understand and got anxiety just reading this. I’m glad you got it all settled. Sending calming, positive thoughts.
I want to give you a big hug and that’s it. because I empathize so much. maybe I need it too. that’s all, a big hug and say nothing
Yikes! Anything contractor/home repair related is a no go zone in our house. Our last house we lived in for over a decade and put a lot of sweat and tears into fixing it up ourselves which helped when the listing sold under 2 hours of going live online. Our next house is a house flip by a contractor and we were pinching ourselves with my brother in law pointed out how all kitchen appliances were the ones used and standard to the America’s Test Kitchen people. The only thing we didn’t redo in our old house was the fridge which we never had water hooked up to the ice maker part. But that’s the new own’ers problem. The new house, all those shiny “top of the line” appliances that were all coordinated? turned out they were sold refurbished in lots by the contractor so long story short, the freezer part that makes the ice didn’t work among other things. To this day, year 7 into the house, we never got that part fixed (life , 2020, other big house projects, took precedence). I still do not have ice in my life. I have small children and they subconsciously are very particular to bottled spring water and cold beverages. I’m teaching my next generation my behaviors. arghhhh
But thank you for posting and being so honest about everything especially about what you went through. It all adds up the little things. and talking openly about it and owning it is really helpful.
I totally get the anxiety caused by “the fridge broke, we must toss the food”. In my first solo apartment, my fridge broke the day after my shopping day, while I was at work. In Arizona in the height of summer, suffice it to say that I was very very sad when I got home.
I was “eat or pay rent” poor at that time, so I lived on half a box of Saltines and the couple of soups in my pantry for two weeks. I literally could not afford to buy anything else, and I refused to ask my family for help (they would have, but I was too ashamed at the time).
Twenty years later, when my fridge died and we had to toss things out, I had to go on a drive so my husband didn’t see me cry. And that’s now, when I can afford to replace what I lost.
We truck on, but dang is it hard sometimes. 🙂
I am drooling over your kitchen. Double ovens!!! Not that I need them everyday, but when I do need them I really need them!
Glad the fridge problem got solved!
This fridge is beautiful, congratulations you are doing great. Also your kitchen is absolutely lovely 🥰
All hail small victories, they get us all going
Hugs, Ilona! So glad you made it through this stressful situation. There definitely are times when too much stress comes into our lives and we need to step back from anything that is not an immediate issue, and put blinders on or not actively engage with others causing other stress. I definitely did that over the last two weeks myself. Keep yourself healthy, mentally and physically.
Enjoy the new refrigerator and the mental relief of knowing it shouldn’t cause you stress anytime soon! Hopefully the potential financial stress is resolved soon.
Sending you so much love. I am so sorry that you are dealing with everything all at once. Hugs!
Sending much love your way. This is a stressful time. I’m glad at least this part was eventually resolved. Hugs.
Last time we had to buy a new fridge we realized after buying that it might not fit in the space. It slides under the little upper cabinets and has about a quarter inch clearance. The installers also dinged it on the side. We were so glad to have a working fridge that did fit in the space that we didn’t care! My condolences on the demise of your fridge. I hope the coming weeks and holidays go smoothly for you and your family.
We all have our “stress points”, and our “do not push this” buttons. I’m glad you have your fridge, and I’m sorry for the stress. Hang in there 🙂
Wow, so that is your real kitchen? Not a model!? So nice! Here’s to 25 years of stress-free chilling!
That’s a great looking kitchen!
Beautiful kitchen. Great fridge.
We bought a new 4-door/drawer refrigerator a few years ago. It wouldn’t thru the front door. The delivery guys took the doors and drawers off, it still didn’t go. We had to take the front door off then take the very expensive security door off to get it in the house.
We are in the planning stage of a kitchen remodel. The designer left a 3-foot gap around the island. I keep looking at that and thinking that my appliances will never get thru and I will bump it every time I walk by. I’m trying to decide between not having an island at all and just having a movable work top that is small enough to not knock into. And I want a new refrigerator so the front doors will have to be removed again for that.
It does remind me of people planting spruce trees 6 feet away from their new home. It looks great for 10-15 years before it grows taller than the house and 15 feet wide and brushing against the house. Didn’t they ever see what those trees look like in some of the older neighborhoods? They are huge trees and need a truly large amount of space to grow. Not to mention what the cost of removing a big tree or what happens when it blows over in a high wind because the root system is 3 feet deep and the top of the tree is a big sail.
About trees. In our 60+ year old neighborhood the original planners planted trees directly over the sewer lines to the street. A few months after we moved in we had our yard dug up to replace clay pipes with blue PVC pipes. That was 20 years ago and no further problems. The tree died some years ago. It pays to know where the clean out is for your sewer line. Also how to turn off the gas, water and where all the air filters are for your furnace and air conditioner. Our house has separate filters for the furnace and the air intake.
That fridge needs some magnets and kiddie drawings😉
Right now I am making a pot of chicken soup, wish I could send some to you😊
It must be that time of year that the appliances go kerplunk. Just this week we replaced our clothes washer and crockpot🙄
Right there with you. Our beautiful, pristinely maintained dream foal of an investment, Top of the Line refrigerator failed DURING the pandemic, while my husband was recovering from face-ruining cancer surgery. One tiny little expletive deleted computer part which the manufacturer stopped making a year after our purchase was no longer available anywhere and my gorgeous, lovingly maintained fridge had to be scrapped.
Because of surgical complications and general crappy timing, I had to replace it with a miserable excuse of a fridge from Costco because it was all that could be obtained within a 10 day window.
Glad that you had a mini-fridge to use during that transition period, and very happy to hear that the new fridge is what you wanted!
Hopefully, all is back to normal now.
And I LOVE your kitchen!
We just replaced our chest freezer with a glorious upright freezer. I understand cleaning it out. Yesterday, the plumber finally came to install the new dishwasher – 3 weeks this new one had been in my dining room waiting! Argh!! Today, the appliance repair person is coming to tell me why my dryer smells like fish and rubber sometimes when it’s working. I’m praying we can repair rather than replace.
😭🫂😭🫂 This is all I have right now. I’ve had similar one thing after the other. Since the beginning of November. Im carrying on but still crying because thats all I can do right now.
I hope things get better for you soon. Try to remember to take care of yourself.
So sorry to hear this. What Bev said.
It’s so pretty!!!!
I am actually stress-crying over this story because it is too real and too personal and too current for my life. I am so sorry you had to muster yourselves to work through this. That you did, and that you shared it, is really meaningful to me. Oddly, hopeful? Thank you for sharing this, and I am sending good vibes for smoother sailing. Keep surviving – it matters.
It’s a hopeful story 🫂. We don’t give up!
I feel your pain. In the depths of the pandemic (the era when everything was Bad and going to the grocery was a risky activity) we had six people living in the house. The fridge died. We stored food and cooked out of a mini fridge that lived in the garage for the 2 months that it took to get a new fridge installed. Being able to cook was one of the very few things that I felt I could control at the time, so when the ability to easily do that went away, I went a bit crazy.
There are times I wish whatever divinity exists would Stop With The Freaking Stress Tests. I can avoid a lot of things I know will stress me out, but still need to know what is coming to be ready for the impact.
I feel for you and Gordon, your family, your pets, the rest of the horde…everyone basically that will be dealing with what is to come.
Be safe, take care, and try to be kind to others, but do not forget to be kind to yourselves as well.
My late husband and his first wife were starving in graduate school in the 70s due to delayed grant payments. They kept the kids well fed, but the adults were both down to about 900 calories a day. At the 2 week mark one of the other starving grad students contacted everyone with the news that the big agriculture farms had harvested and the grads students had permission to gleen the fields.
Forty-five years later my sweet heart still loved peas and he would get nervous and not sleep if the fridge and 2 freezers were a little under stocked. He enjoyed grocery shopping in the store almost every day.
I am glad the fridge is in and working. You get to go shopping!
Thank you for all the wonderful stories.
Everyone says buy a house. I had my fridge (in the apartment) go out last year, called management, and a new one installed within a couple of days. Fortunately, I was mostly drinking protein drinks that summer so not much food to move.
I think it is great that Ilona and Gordon have that lovely house, but the irritants happen. Are any of the other appliances approaching loss of function? Btw, isn’t 110 pages about 1/3 of the manuscript?
Lovely kitchen! Once you’ve experienced food insecurity, it’s really hard to shake that feeling. I’m sad to hear that you went through hard times, I’m glad to know that things are better now, and I wish you and your family many happy days ahead! Thank you for your work!
this makes me glad I am a poor bookseller, because my basic no frills frig costs way to much now and mine is almost 20 so I am looking at having to spend for another, my upstairs bathroom is bigger than my kitchen so it is a nope for a big frig
Our fridge went out last year, and we chose a gut job-type repair, replaced the controller, thermostat (thermocouple in this case), the compressor and coolant. It works now, but for some reason all the repair folks in our area are Ukrainian and Russian, and the main guy that kept coming to our house to do the job, arrived here recently and spoke very little English. No shade, these guys were pros and got it done, but it was difficult to understand what the process was because we had no languages in common. Hopefully, our refurbished fridge will last for another 20 years.
I understand your trauma. We grew up “farm poor”. We lived on the family farm, had a huge garden which was good because that’s what kept us fed. My dad had a job outside of the farm and that’s what kept us clothed. One year he was in a horrible accident. No work for about 3 months. We ate corn meal mush for dinner every night for 3 months. To this day ( this happened in the 70’s) I can’t make corn bread or anything else with cornmeal without having an anxiety attack. Even though I can buy anything I want, the first reaction is an anxiety attack.
You did well to handle your crisis as calmly as you did. We just keep on keeping on.
I haven’t lived the crisises you have, but I can understand having a trigger for anxiety. It may sound silly, but I’m so relieved you have the new fridge installed. Have fun filling it! Hugs!! 💕💕
My Mum was really worried that her ancient (25+ yrs old) freezer was going to die just before Christmas ie when she needed it most. My parents bought a new one and I, in a fit of genius, suggested that she plug in the old one in the shed down the garden so she could use it for any extra Christmas food. My dad didn’t really like the idea because the shed was perfectly organised and arranged and he didn’t want the freezer blocking everything even for a month but because Mum thought it was a great idea he gave in.
My poor Dad – the freezer lived in the shed for a further 6 or 7 years, working perfectly.
I have a subzero 48 inches with ice and water on the door. When I went to replace it, I had the same issue you did I needed something built in. there was a waiting list at the time and then all of a sudden I found a dealer who had one available. They delivered it and managed to get it in like yours and it fit perfectly, but it was defective and several times it malfunctioned and I was extremely disappointed and returned it. I was fortunate that I kept my old one in the garage and reinstalled it in the kitchen and it is still working.
I so feel your pain. our stove went kaput. Off we go to buy a stove. we go, we order one. 5 weeks later, still no stove & I’m dealing with a terrible client service person. I cancel the whole order. Off to another retailer who assures us that the new stove will be here November 9th. spoiler alert: no , it was not in fact here November 9th. we got the stove today. November 19th. I am in Canada and sometimes I wonder if we just get shorted on stuff because we aren’t a huge population.
It was incredibly frustrating.
Oh, a double oven….sighs wistfully. We built our house 30 years ago and I had a spot framed out for a built-in refrigerator. For 25 years the spot held small refrigerators with space all around them. Finally, we felt that the money was there to do it. Only to find out sizes had changed and we had to get a carpenter to enlarge the space up and down and bring in the sides a little bit. Totally worth it.
I am so sorry for this. Small story. My Kid 2 lives with us. Eats cereal with milk. Mentions the milk is wonky. Go to kitchen, sniff milk. It’s gone. Go to store. Buy milk. Kid 2 has cereal. Milk is wonky. Sniff milk. Yes, this milk, still within its lifespan is bad. Go to another store. Get milk. Wonky. Two bad milks from two different stores. Was clearly an omen. Had election. Yep, was omen
Sorry for your refrigerator issues. Please persevere. Your mental health is very important to us
In the 1950s, my parents bought a Frigidaire refrigerator. They used to joke that it was the same age as my older sister. They had that fridge until 200O. It had served as my dad’s beer fridge for a few decades, but it still ran. Meanwhile our KitchenAid fridge is basically on life support after 5 years. Planned obscelesence really sucks. I hope your new Subzero lasts a very long time.
That fridge is gorgeous! Replacing major appliances is so stressful. Every single time. Even when things work out. Add that to all the other stressors and yikes!
You poor lovely lady! I am so sorry this happened and brought all that past trauma to bear. Thank you so much for continuing to work through it. Life sometimes just keeps shoveling it onto you. Prayers for y’all. I mean, I realize you just have to keep moving forward but sometimes you just want to stop right there and quit. Spectacularly! It may help me to do so but everyone else is uncomfortable, so I don’t share when others are near.
Our fridge died 4 days before my DH hip surgery. It got delivered the day he came home from hospital. Thank the gods for sons and brothers because they handled it for me.
I feel your stress. I too remember being young and playing “pay the bills” poker. What can I put off to buy groceries to feed my family? Always catching up and just sick when something unexpected came up. I am so grateful now to have plenty but those memories run deep. I do sometimes have to remind myself that I have 1st world problems (like this week when my contractor to update my hideous laundry room messed up the flooring re-do and then ghosted me with his deposit) and take a breath. Thank goodness for grown up kiddos; one of mine rescued me too. Hope your editing goes quickly from here on out and that you take a holiday break to refresh. We are all grateful for your work and mad skills!
I felt resonance-stress as I read this. I can relate to SO many of these feelings. I’m sorry things have been so stressful.
I feel your pain. I needed a new washer dryer during Covid. I started looking in February and it went in June 25th. When it was delivered June 1, it did not fit. Finally, I got a contractor to fix the problems, then the hook up was wrong. I decided washing clothes on a rock was ok. My friend told me, it could have gone worse. Grrrr
hugs to you and *pat pat pat* to the new fridge.
Weird stuff happens…sigh…. Went to dentist for a cleaning. Had decay under a crown, needed it replaced. While waiting for that appointment the tooth just below it broke. Went in for emergency appointment. Needed a crown there too.
I’m sure you can imagine the price and the stress.
So, I feel for you. Crap occurs and there’s nothing we can do to prevent it. But, somehow, we survive.
YES! Someone is like ME. I stressed just like that over a fence removed (okay demolished) by Helene and Milton. So my neighbors doggies could see INTO my yard and ACCESS it. (poor neighbor control of doggies). My cat got treed by the dog (minus) and was too scared to go out for weeks. I had bid on a replacement fence signed contract etc before Milton. I had to wait and wait and wait on a permit. okay got permit! Then gotta get miss utility out to make SURE no buried lines yah, no… Finally the day of fence installation, and they call.. no fence on Saturday we will come on Monday to do it. google eyes. But but I planned so I wouldn’t have to miss work! No dice. Okay. I’ll be there. Fence comes, the people build a lovely fence. But. It must be INSPECTED by the city! Inspector comes by today at lunch …. lovely silver fox with Scottish accent. So nice. Until he tells me I have a lovely fence BUT there is a problem. Hum. I bite. What would that be I asked? Well, the fence smooth side is facing you and the way we permit fences the rough side should face you. Face palm. Does it matter? I’m happy I paid the contractor and I have a nice fence, my neighbor is delighted with it. Oh, well you will have to have the contractor ask for a variance or come back and re do….. the fence. Seriously. I so get your frustration with the fridge. I feel it right now. Likely will till a) the contractor contacts me and gets it solved OR I have to have them back out to ‘redo’ maybe at additional cost? Argh.
Oh that’s like my sub zero fridge! Also built in when we bought the house. And mine is 26 years old, and I know how much you had to spend on it because I’ve had to look into replacement. I’ve gotta win the lottery for this thing. So glad you were able to get it in and you got a bunch of work done to boot.
The thing is that every repair person we’ve had in to work on our fridge has said our oldy is better than the new models so keep it as long as we can. So now it’s just sort of looming menacingly over the kitchen, waiting to break when we can least afford it. 😅
I am so sorry you had to go through that, and it is stressful! /hugs
I do want to say wow, that is a gorgeous fridge and kitchen!
Beautiful kitchen though……
Tea – tea always helps (and scones!)
We all have That One Thing that represents security to the more primitive part of our brains. You did amazingly well under super stressful circumstances. Barsa!
I get it. I just bought a house and moved in on a Sunday. Planned ahead and bought a washer and dryer a few weeks before and scheduled for them to delivered the next day, Monday. They email and text to verify on Sunday. I get a call first thing Monday morning thinking it would be the we are on our way call, nope… we over booked your washer and dryer aren’t on the van we can’t deliver today. They agree to deliver on Tuesday and I get an extended warranty for the inconvenience. Meanwhile my cat is being super annoying but I chalk it up to cats while moving. Then she peed in the tub… it’s pink. Call the vet first appointment is Tuesday afternoon. She proceeds to start peeing on everything particularly any thing of the dogs.
Tuesday the delivery comes. The guy looks at the hookup and notices it’s leaking. Won’t install until I get it fixed. Get a plumber to come out Thursday. Take cat to the vet… it’s a UTI. Start giving cat meds they make her throw up and give her diarrhea and she starts pooping on things she shouldn’t in addition to peeing all over. So no washer and dryer and a mess everywhere.
Thursday plumber comes out and fixed the leaky pipe. Friday the washer and dryer are installed. Immediately start washing the items my cat used as a litter box.
I’ve never been so happy to have a washer and dryer. Ended up having to take the cat back to the vet as she wasn’t getting better. Turns out she has bladder stones too. Now on a new diet. Using the litter box as she should and everything is clean.
I’m glad you have your new fridge. It’s gorgeous and I hope it lasts for 20+ years. Sorry it was so stressful. I completely understand that being the last straw.
oh god, I am so sorry this happened to you (and your cat), but I also had to laugh a little because of the timing. 🙈 thank you for sharing. 💕 happy to hear that your cat is better!
Your kitchen is beautiful!
I have considered writing a memoir titled either “Unsuccessfully Adulting” or “Things I Didn’t Plan for When I Decided to But a House.” I could include the squirrels who chewed through my house-in 3 places! And the other critters who were previously living in my attic. The fridge at 60 degrees. The oven that decided to quit. The month plus and multiple attempts to deliver and install appliances, which were then determined to be in-installable. And then the delay in my refund.
When people ask what I am going to replace or upgrade next, my reply is whatever breaks first.
Best wishes and happy thoughts for all of your editing efforts!!
Awesome fridge and I’m so envious of your double oven!
Oh the baking at two different temperatures you can do all winter! Stress baking ftw!
With every word I read I could feel the stress getting heavier and heavier. I’m glad that’s over for you.
Little things when you are stressed can throw you over so something big just feels insurmountable somethings. Sorry you guys are dealing with this.
Our crisis is one of our sweet dogs. We think he ruptured a disk. After two ER visits and a vet appt. our vet called in a consult to A&M’s vet clinic but it was going to take 2.5 weeks to be seen. My dog stopped eating and drinking and was not going to make it to the appointment. So we packed up and went into Houston for an ER that has access to the specialists we need. This allowed us to give him fluids and shore him up until he can be seen tomorrow by their specialist. So the day we come home from the Houston ER one of our cats has a swollen eye from a fight with my daughter’s boyfriend’s cat (that we are currently housing). Thought we were going to have to take him into the vet the next day. It was one thing too many and I thought I would break.
But of course, as you say, life goes on. So luckily the next morning the swelling is going down and we can see his eye was not actually affected just the skin outside was cut and there aren’t signs of infection. Thank goodness because right now we have to save every penny for a likely upcoming surgery. I also didn’t want to leave my injured dog. I’ve researched it and the surgery is likely the price of a car. But we love our baby and will find a way. I hope 2025 is a better year for us all.
Hang in there and hug you kids and furry kids tight!
This is the time that you need a screaming room. Because cops will likely be called if you start screaming in the yard.
the election results were results. my heart goes out to you and I understand when you hit the straw that breaks the camel’s back it is that one thing and I’m sorry that you went through this and that other things have still happened. and I’m so glad Gordon was there to help with that burden.
I’ve been coping in the most creative ways.
I’ve been intensely in prayer and Bible study.
I’ve discovered threads.
I used be a writer. I had a couple of short stories and some poetry published years and years ago. I started writing again sewing and crocheting. All in the span of a few days at the rate this is going I’ll have a new wardrobe for my children, blankets, scarves and a whole novel written up very shortly.🤣🤣🤣 I might take up drawing and calligraphy again too.
Anything to keep the despair at bay and the rage in check
Maybe I should find a dance class…
I understand why axe throwing, tennis ball machines and baseball batting machines are really popular now in the US… if golf isn’t an option for you maybe they could help you?
Having to throw away everything from a fridge that goes bad is always such a traumatizing experience, I’m sorry yours was made worse by the delayed installation.
this last couple weeks has just been reminding me of an old German saying that translates to: “And out of the chaos a voice spoke to me: “Smile and be happy, it could be worse!”, and I smiled and was happy, and it got worse…!”
Hopefully things will get better and someone will cage the chaos monkeys that are running rampant right now.
I feel your pain! We lost our (MY!) beloved subzero under somewhat different circumstances. However, we were not able to replace as there was no longer a subzero dealer within delivering distance (ah Maine, how I love you). I now have a Samsung that functions well enough, but still quietly mourn my Subzero which still worked perfectly, but was rusting away to the point where it was starting to cant.
I’m glad it all eventually resolved. Sometimes life is so challenging and those old stresses feed the current ones and that’s when I go to bed early and pull the covers up over my head, read a book (right now I’m rereading innkeeper!). The next day I grab the reins and start again.
We are supposed to have a big windstorm tonight, which is one of my stress points, but so far it is quiet as can be. I hope it stays that way!
Thanks for sharing! Glad you got some editing done amid all the chaos!
Enjoy your new frig!
oh man, felt that journey. congratulations on getting it in.
PSA: I live in rural California where the power can get taken out by weather, rolling blackouts & (true story) a tractor taking out a power pole or three. There are some inexpensive little gadgets online that you put in your fridge or freezer & program it to alert your phone if the temp goes outside of your selected ‘safe’ range. It will also keep the data for at least a week. So much peace of mind for me now! I can open its app on my phone & see if & for how long my food may have been in unsafe temps. I have been able to save more food than in the past just having that info-without getting food poisoning
Sense of humour fail over a fridge? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt… first gift my parents got for me when I left home was an esky (kiwis call it a chilly-bin, think US folks call it a cooler) !
Live in the tropics here power outages are so predictable you could set your watch by them. My parents knew I was buying my own fridge and helped me be prepared!
That fridge is long dead but some 25 years later I still have that esky. Looks a bit more yellow and faded denim than bright white and cobalt blue now though.
Keeps stuff cold yes but I loved its extra seating at barbies, and it even floats. No fridge was ever so multi-purpose. I store my emergency supplies in it for bushfire bugouts now I live down south. My parents still live in the tropics- for them cyclones beat bushfires any day.
I also sympathise, feel your pain etc Why is it that appliances always go at the worst times like Christmas day? It was my washing machine in my case. To this day 30 years later I still dread appliance breakages during holidays!
I live in a rental, the appliances (stove and fridge) are the company’s. Mine starts leaking about two months ago, I put a towel down and leave a message. A week later the repair guy looks at it, tells me to empty it and defrost it and he’ll come back later and see if it is still leaking. Good neighbor allows me room in her fridge to put perishables, the rest sit out on the balcony. Guy comes. Looks okay. Put things back in fridge. A month later step into a puddle of water with socks on. Leave message on web site (nobody calls these days, you won’t get an answer). guy comes out. Okay new fridge coming, he’ll order it. A month later I send another e mail reminding them about new fridge. Towel is now underfoot. Guy calls, fridge coming tomorrow. I hastily clean everything out. New fridge is installed! Crisis and Victory!!
That sounds like what happened to me with my air conditioner in the middle of summer. Summers in Texas are not to be messed with temps that can go into the 100s and night temps in the 80s.
Right after I moved into the apartment I’m in the freon leaked out of the condenser outside. Put in the work order and got freon into the unit. Worked well for a month, then no more freon. I didn’t have the temperature that low in the apartment for the freon to go that fast. Put in another work order. Got told there was a leak in the freon line. Where the leak was the maintenance person couldn’t fix it. Then the maintenance manager came out, looked at the unit, and told me they would have to replace the entire air conditioner unit. Took over a month to finally get a new air conditioner.
Right after the new unit was in, I started seeing a leak in my upstairs hallway next to the bathroom. Put in another work order. Apparently when the new unit was installed they kinked the condensation line to take the water out of the apartment. Finally got all that fixed.
Thank goodness for the air purifier fans I have all over my apartment. They got me through a lot of hot nights.
I hear you. I have been staring uncomfortably at my fridge for a while, aware that at possibly more than 25 years old it doesn’t owe me anything, if I turned it upside down I would probably see rust in the underpart somewhere, and I really Really REALLY need to be proactive. But it represents – a lot for me. It was the first time I bought a new fridge – I remember it seemed an unearthly amount to spend at the time. And it’s what at the time was called a ‘Slimline’, meaning it’s narrower than the standard (I’m a single person household), and that size is no longer available. So whatever I buy will be wider and won’t fit as well. And – the whole project just feels very Very big – much bigger than it really is, my mind tells me, but my heart just won’t listen. Thank you for sharing. Congratulations on making it through such a challenge with your sanity still intact – the end result is VERY pretty, and your example of courage and fortitude is inspiring, as always. Nothing lasts forever – a thought I find very comforting in difficult or unwelcome contexts. 😉
My daughter’s kitchen looks a lot like yours, with a Subzero fridge and a Viking range and double oven.
She fitted the inside of her fridge with little see-through acrylic drawers, so its contents are hyper-organized and a wonder to behold.
Now I’m wondering just how old the work of art and technology is…
My fridge also died! And also took me a few days to figure it out – I still feel guilty that I blamed the bad smell on a new soup recipe and threw that out. Things were still cold but not so cold for a full week until Sunday (when everything is closed in this entire country, Switzerland), when things are not cold anymore. And everything in the freezer is mush. And I’m leaving the next day on a work mission so can’t even really sort this out. So Sunday turned stressful, cleaning out gross fridge (and did I mention I was out of garbage bags, and see above re entire country closed, could not buy new ones?), ordering a new fridge online with delivery in two weeks but that’s ok because I’ll be gone for one of those weeks so I only have to survive ~5 more days without a fridge, and also hope that they don’t try to call me when I’m on a different continent where my phone doesn’t work. Still waiting for my new fridge but so far, surviving…and now feel even closer to you guys for having gone through similar stress at the same time!
Sendings hugs.
I hear you on the proverbial last straw. Two months ago, my 78 year old mother was in the hospital with pneumonia. About the same time, a colleague was promoted and I “temporarily” assumed his full-time, highly visible project in addition to my highly-visible project. After six weeks, mom is better and Toby the way, the backfill position is not coming, so you get both permanently. Then Mom fell and broke her hip right before Halloween, and she was so out of it after the anesthesia they thought she’d had a stroke. Nope, she has vascular dementia and is 1,000 miles away. I am remotely steering her hip care and organizing dementia care while I plan for a permanent plan. Oh, and the major project I inherited is now even worse after the election because it deals with the outgoing administration. Too much is too much and each of us have our own limits.
Take care and hope you get to enjoy the new fridge.
78 year old mother, not moved. Autocorrect 😩
Fixed 🙂
Oh man! Hugs and deepest sympathy!
You deserve a break. Not that you’ll necessarily get one, but I’m putting that out there. I hope things go as smoothly as possible for you and your mom.
Bless you! (and not, “Bless your heart” – Southern style.) I get it – most likely, most of us get it. These days, that one hit too many may be an appliance, a natural disaster, an uncertain future in our beautiful democracy, or more difficulty organizing critical medical appointments than it should be. I’m not catatonic, but I am sad, lonely (even while surrounded by people I love,) angry, hurting.
Please don’t think I am being critical or downplaying anyone’s situation. I truly empathize. But I am sitting in Baptist Hospital ICU with my husband on a ventilator after a brutal cancer surgery, so the loneliness is because I can’t have a conversation with my person with whom I have spent 43 years married to. We WILL have conversations again, the vent may be able to be removed today, the surgery was considered successful, and we had 7 family members who sat in surgical waiting on Monday with me for 12+ hours.
I have been asking for prayers and positive thoughts for Steve’s surgery for weeks from our community, but I forgot to ask for that from a large community of which I am not just a part, but am very fond: the BDH!
So please, add us to your positive thoughts and prayers list for a good, as-pain-free-as-possible recovery for my partner in life. He equals or exceeds any of the best male characters in our favorite novels.
God bless us everyone, my gratitude for being a stellar bunch of folks, and apologies for any typos from a bleary brain.
Hi Regina,
Sending good thoughts your way and hope to read about your cosy talks with Steve soon in a comment!
STELLAR group of folks❣️
🙏💜🖖
Oh, honey!! I can only imagine how painful and stressful that is. I wish I could give you a hug!
My husband and I have been married 40 years. We went through a bad scare with him before Covid when he caught the flu on a plane ride to a law enforcement conference.
I spent days in the room with him — until I came down with the flu myself— while he was on a massive BPAP mask that forced air into his lungs. He was delirious at points. I was so scared!
I’ll pray for you.
Regina, sending prayers and thoughts your way. (And to send the thought ‘YOUR’ Steve is probably NOT based on the one in Ilona’s fictional asides, just to give you a smile)
All the prayers that there are no complications, and Steve comes home to have lots more conversations with you.
*Not to be confused with the Steve the one who was in the short story about Nav.* 🙂
The Horde looks after one another.
Best of luck to your husband for a quick recovery.
All the well wishes I have are yours. I am so sorry you are going through this and hope for the quick and complete recovery.
So glad to hear the surgery was successful, and that you have so much family support. Best wishes to all of you.
Sending all the virtual hugs.🫂
This sounds incredibly stressful and I am having a meltdown on your behalf! Seriously, have all the hugs. 🫂
Rita (avid fan from BC, Canada) (also I will wait patiently for any and everything you write. No pressure from me, because rereading is a joy and you have already provided me with lots of it!)
So, I have a Sub Zero of a similar vintage. It has custom mahogany trim to match the cabinets. Five years ago, just before Christmas, just after my divorce, I take the milk out and it is cool and not cold. The thermometer says it is in the 50s. I call the dealer who does repair, but it will be after Christmas. The good news is I live in Indiana, and it is cold outside. I grab a couple of coolers and put them on my back deck.
A month and a half later, I have learned to lock the coolers because of raccoons. I have hosted Christmas. I know Pete the repairman quite well, and he has completely replaced almost the entire guts of the frig for what is astronomical but less than a new one.
A couple of years later, I again have an issue. Pete returns. There is a leak in the Freon system. He orders the parts, but Freon is now different, and what I need is expensive as are the parts. Pete installs everything. The next day, it is still not cold. Pete orders new parts because the tubing and welds sometimes have a pin size hole…A month and a half later, and lots of ice because it is warmer outside, the frig is fixed.
Last year, the frig starts leaking water on my hard wood floor. I call Pete directly because he gave me his direct number. He has been out three times, the most recent last month.
I feel your pain!
I love all your books! I can’t wait for the next one, so I hope all the home ownership issues are over for the foreseeable future!
Hugs, Ilona. I spent a certain night feeling like the skin on my arms had been parboiled. They actually throbbed. I have never felt physical pain from anxiety. I wound up asking my Dr. for anxiety meds.
The best thing about being a writer is you have a great imagination about what can happen in your book.
The worst thing about being a writer is you have a great imagination about what can happen in your life.
The second worst thing is that many other people lack that ability.
Sympathies about your fridge. Unfortunately I read this within earshot of my kitchen appliances before embarking on a massive wedding cake bake (2 tiers 11″ and 9″, double height). I’m talking 3 dozen eggs, 4kg sugar, 2.5kg butter, 15 lemons. My mum’s 45 year old Kenwood Chef (affectionately know as Kenny) stand mixer (which she inherited from her mother) is now dining in the hall of its ancestors. Rather inconveniently on on the first set of cakes between creaming the butter and adding the eggs. In the words of my generation… I killed Kenny!
While I muscled through the next 2 cake batches with the hand-held mixer, my mum bolted to town (30 mins away) to buy a new stand mixer (not doing that much buttercream with the hand held mixer). Thank you Mother! All I can say is thank you Black Friday sales!
Kenny 2.0 made an appearance just in time for the last cake batch, and handled it like a boss.
We’ll see how he goes tomorrow- 1.5 kg Italian buttercream frosting.
Hope you’re as happy with your new fridge as I am with my new mixer!
It’s beautiful! And I love your kitchen! Hooray for working appliances.
It must be something in the aether.
Our dishwasher and stove decided to hare off into the great beyond Sunday.
I’m taking an online writing class, and have zoom calls I can’t miss.
Monday Hubby stated he found replacements for the appliances, they’d be here on Tuesday or Wednesday. (I assumed next week.)
Both arrive Tuesday, and Hubby, who had refused to have them installed, starts doing it himself. He cuts the power and water off. I remind him my class is at 3pm, I can’t miss it.
I hear a blood curdling scream around 2:45. He’s wrenched his shoulder and cut his arm. The cut doesn’t need stitches, so he does that stoic bandage thing and keeps going. He repeatedly refuses to stop or call for an install, even though I HEARD the delivery guys tell him they’d come back the same day.
3pm comes and goes. The power was still off and didn’t get returned until well after 8pm when Hubby finally got the dishwasher installed. (The stove was apparently much easier.)
I had to email my writing coach about missing class around 8:15. He was understanding and I still have time to catch up.
After 30+ years together, I’ve learned to roll with the setbacks.
Having been in your young Ilona’s place, I can relate deeply and whole heartedly. I know in my brain that the challenges that came before builds the strength to handle the challenges that come after, but it doesn’t stop my heart from wishing for a fairy god-mother who can fix the current challenge, even if it means I’ve lost the opportunity to grow stronger from the experience. The “can’t even” tipping point is real. A virtual hug for you and I think I’ll go hug my family who I’m blessed with being able to “even” when I’m struggling. Thank you for sharing. It’s a relief to know one isn’t alone in tribulations. 🙂
The First world problems related to lack of refrigeration. Ah yes. After six months of living out of a plug-in car cooler while GE tried to fix a lying motherboard in an 18 month old, still under warranty, refrigerator, I’m keenly aware of keeping my cold purchases to the minimum required. When the replacement fridge was installed the cold water/ice maker wasn’t connected (per my direction) to try to keep the previous problem from happening again. Your anxiety and my frustration could be pen pals.
thank you for this blog entry. 🙏
and a big hooray to resilience!
Your kitchen is GORGEOUS! I’m glad you got the fridge installed finally. I’ve never commented before, but thought I finally should. I’ve recommended your books as my “all time favorites” in 3 separate online book groups I belong to over the last week. Hopefully you’ll get some new readers. 🙂
So, not that this will make you feel better but we have a refrigerator story too — we came home from a vacation to the same type of instance. Fridge not cold, freezer appeared to be way above suitable temperatures. Being close to a holiday weekend with limited options, we went to a dealer we had used before and bought a fridge that would fit in the space we had and had the options we wanted. It was a GE product. Once installed, it never worked correctly. Three technicians, multiple phone calls and a refusal by the dealer we bought it from to make it good. GE said they would replace — multiple phone calls, time off from work waiting for delivery, no-shows for replacement. We ended up buying another new fridge (different brand, different dealer, needless to say) and disputing the original charge based on bad product — we no longer have that credit card company because they didn’t back us and we ended up paying for two refrigerators. So, hopefully, all works out for you 🙂
hugs to you both! 🤗
Been there. This summer. In the winter we can use the porch as a fridge, if necessary. In the summer, not so much. I feel your nightmare. At least our new fridge actually fits the space. And yours looks beautiful!
We haven’t had a dishwasher for months and we have the whole family for Thanksgiving. That doesn’t mean we haven’t had one delivered and removed. That doesn’t mean we haven’t tracked sales. It also doesn’t mean that the microwave quit last night.
I am still dealing with insurance regarding Beryl damage.
Tossing and cleaning out the fridge and freezer this summer has left me with mild “food disaster panic.” And those appliances have lots of air space now.
You really resonate with me today, Ilona.
… And I keep waiting for our current fridge to die. I hate appliance shopping. I can never find one I want with the dimensions I need!
Thanks for sharing. It is reassuring. Some “things” are just disproportionally hard. We don’t always talk about it.
99% of life is just showing up and then making conscious decisions about whether to freak out or not.
Well handled, I would say.
Life disruptions in the heart of the home are wretched. May your fridge always function optimally forever after.
We had a very similar experience where we were without a fridge for 2 months. I think I’m similar in that having a stocked pantry and fridge gives me great comfort and security. Cooking is my happy place. I completely empathize about freaking out on the whole experience. After getting our main fridge replaced we have since purchased a cheapo 17 cu ft fridge off marketplace for our garage, mainly for my sanity. So glad things are resolved. I have fridge envy 😀
I am so sorry for your stress and am glad everything worked out. My favorite part of your whole story was the moral… “No matter how hard the circumstances are, you have to carry on. Because life doesn’t stop for us. We can take a moment to deal, but then things have to keep going.” I’ve said this over and over to my kids because it is absolutely true. Thank you for sharing.
That’s a beautiful kitchen and a lovely fridge.
And I totally and completely understand the stress around food insecurity. Mine stems from childhood. And to this day, when I have extra money, I fill my freezer.
As to the cost of the fridge, at the high end of pricing I saw, it looks like it probably ended up costing about .59/day to purchase. That’s not bad for something that lasted 27 years.
We share a floor! Callooh callay! Sorry about the fridge. I don’t think I’ve EVER had a major appliance replacement go smoothly. Not once, and I’m 69.
I’m in the PNW, and we had a Big Fat Wind Storm hit us last night. I’m out in the boonies of the foothills of the northern Cascades, and I’m far enough from the shore that the hills and the trees protected ME. My power flickered several times but never went out. I know this because none of my dumb electric clock things had to be reset this morning, and my cpap never tried to kill me overnight. But Kid #2 lives in Seattle, and her power went out with 600,000 other peoples.
I commiserate. We’ve had fridges that have died and have had power outages. Throwing out food really sucks. The first week in November sucked. We changed to daylight savings time, and the big etc… There are great things, though. You had food to throw out. Solstice is only a month away…longer days! You made editing progress. Your kitchen is beautiful!
Life is always full of battles. This time of year always seems to full of stress. Hope you’re doing well! Your kitchen is gorgeous, by the way! 😊
I understand. My first husband would say, “Ooh, I want that,” and then go buy it. Surprise, surprise, bankruptcy eventually followed, and then divorce. It has taken almost 25 years with DH#2 for me to not have a stress response when he wants something.
Once divorced, I was paycheck to paycheck as a single mom, and food anxiety was very real. Thank goodness for federal assistance like WIC. As a teacher with four small children, two under the age of two, and no child support coming in, I desperately needed it. My eldest still refers to those years as “the bean years.”
On the upside, your story reminds us all that we are not alone in our struggles, in our concerns about the next four years, and that even when down, none of us should be counted out. Plus, your hoard loves your kitchen, and this hoard member thinks she may have spied a CHICKEN on your counter.
CHICKENS make the world a better place, whether on the counter or speaking philosophically to the hoard.
Those are insanely expensive. They are nice though. 10K+ is out of our budget lol dang it. I’ve priced them before.
👍🏼
It’s a beautiful kitchen! I have double oven envy at this time of year. It was smart to break down and replace that expensive creature, and will be cheaper in the long run.
I had a builtin kitchen aid delivered from Lowe’s years ago. Delivery men were not happy.
I understand completely! Our house flooded in 2012 and I purchased a subzero. We also had much drama and pain with finally getting it installed. I love this refrigerator and hope to die before having to replace. Since then our house has flooded twice more and the last was the end of this October 2024. We are still cleaning out but subzero still works.
I wish I had your kitchen, it’s gorgeous!
Hello all, well we sorta had to dc the same thing. Previous owners purchased all new in 2018, GE, worst brand period (Samsung is fine if live in large city, parts are impossible to get-LG are garbage, bad compressors,etc). The door sensor quit and then that prevents water in door from operating. Went fridge looking, Lowes, new one, delivered on 4 July. OK since then been working fine, but now a days, fridges (read environmental regulations) cause new ones to only last about 5 years, about the life of extended warranty, go figure. New one is not nearly as good as the ones of years ago, workers just seem to not have the same level of care as one drawer was not assembled correctly, tech came out to fix it. Old one in garage, told tech, he could have it, fix it and donate to someone in NC, has not come back to get it yet, been month. We talked about Subzero, because they are supposed to last 20 years, but, they are megabucks, and I more than likely will not live 20 more years, why waste the money. But I totally understand your delima, and feel for you.
Im happy that you are no longer poor as that cabin in the woods, but I must say that I’ve never felt so seen as that first Edge book in fantasy. I live in south america, Im college educated and strugling paycheck to paycheck eith rampant inflation and the knolegde that I wont be able to ever own a house.
So what i was trying to say its that you transfered your sufering into a transformative art, maybe in the future books there’s a fridge aventure.
Hugs
You have a beautiful kitchen! I wish mine had that much space.
Oh, I’m so sorry this happened to you, and with such bad timing. I’m so glad it worked out though! I love being in my kitchen and cooking, so I can imagine how unsettling this was for you. Virtual hugs!!💕💕
This isn’t nearly as bad, but I kind of know how you feel. Long story (sorry!) but here goes…
Five months ago I decided to stop being a dedicated couch potato and get healthy again. I joined a fitness center and hit the treadmill. At first, I was barely able to finish 1 mile (at 2.5 mph, REALLY slow!) but I improved quickly enough that I decided to enter a 5k race. It takes place on Friday.
I’m hoping to finish in under an hour (the last and only 5k I entered was 10 years ago, at age 55, and I finished in 45 minutes. No records broken other than my own!) I know I can go the distance because I recently did it in the gym: it took 53 minutes, so fingers crossed!
So, the weather: in NJ we have had NO rain for what feels like years and years 😉 and it’s been unseasonably warm (but not horribly hot.) Perfect for a 5k, right?
Friday predictions?
Yup: 41 degrees (sorry, not sure Celsius) and 71% chance of rain/snow showers. Yippee!!!!
But I’m not the roll-over type either, especially when some of my relatives are saying “oh, you can just stay home now, you don’t have to race.” (Just wait until they hear I already signed up for another 5k on January 1!!)
You know what? I’m only ‘racing’ myself and my own desire to wildly enter my senior years out of breath, red in the face, laughing hysterically, shocking my stodgy relatives, and (most important of all) setting an awesome example for my daughter!
It may not be overly pleasant, this may not be a big deal to anyone but me, and if any turtles enter the 5k they will most likely pass me on the way to the finish line 😉, but gosh darn it, I WILL finish!!!!!!
Please send some good luck wishes my way on Friday? (And I will keep hoping for continued refrigerator happiness for you!) 😁
All the best! Keep putting one foot in front of the other. To quote Gimly in the Lord of the Rings – Two Towers “keep breathing. That’s the key. Breathe!” 😀
Thank you! 😁
You go! Have a great time, and I’m not talking about your race time. You definitely have the winning attitude. My brother was hit by a car as a young man, while training for a triathlon. Long story short, many weeks of intensive care and months of rehab; walked his first post-injury 5K six months later, did his first-ever Iron Man a couple of years after that. He’s downshifted in late middle age to shorter distances. Due to permanent muscle and nerve damage, he’s never a contender, but over 35 years later he still loves every race morning, and every finish.
Thank you! Your brother sounds absolutely amazing…I will be sure to think of him for inspiration! 😁
First, your kitchen is flat-out GORGEOUS.
Secondly, I can’t stress enough how much stationing in the garage a cheap $300-$500 fridge from the “ding and dent” store can reduce anxiety; both overall as a backup, and during holidays when there’s SO much more food that demands fridge space.
During normal times, it makes a great “drink fridge”, holding all the sodas, tea, gatorade and whatnot that frees up tons of room in the main fridge; as well as helping to organize things (putting the ice cream in the little garage freezer that takes slightly more effort to walk to is a simple way to keep an ADHD person from binging Ben & Jerry’s on a whim).
During power-outage emergencies, they’re incredibly easy to keep at safe temps with a small gas-powered generator, so no food needs to be tossed even though the “main” fridge is sitting dead.
What you said!
Ilona, it’s a beautiful fridge and a beautiful kitchen. If this happens again, consider renting a refrigerator to relieve some of the pressure or buying one that can be moved once you get the built-in fixed or replaced. A backup fridge in the garage or a spare room can be a wonderful thing. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
I love the layout of your kitchen. The refrigerator is so well placed for snack attacks to occur during meal prep and not get in the cook’s way.
Kudos for your maturity and self restraint. I would have been sobbing and attacking the mortared thing with whatever hammer-adjacent thing I could find and begging the installers to wait. “Five minutes! I can get this out! Please! Please don’t go!”
Oh I absolutely asked if we could hit it with a hammer. The answer was a resounding no. When three men refuse to hit something with a hammer, it is truly a bad idea.
I hate it when “where there’s a will, there’s a way” runs into “been there, done that, no t-shirt.”
LOL, too right.
((HUGS)) there is a reason the phrase “the straw that broke the camel’s back” exists. we all have limits, and when external aspects are too much we have to sometimes acknowledge we dont have enough spoons to “even”
good luck with the edits
I could so cook in that kitchen! Glad the fridge woes have passed into Nav. 🙂 yes re-reading Sanctuary, seemed appropriate somehow.
I had something similar happen to my fridge – the de-icing on the freezer condenser coils stopped working, so they’d get covered in ice, and the ice would block the cold air inlet to the fridge, and the fridge would be ~50deg. I limped along for 3 years manually removing the back panel of the freezer, and using a heat gun to de-ice the coils. Usually that fix would work for 8-12 months, and by then everything would be iced over again, but this summer it started filling up with ice within 2-3 days of being de-iced. My problem for replacement: the width of the original fridge is only 28″ wide, with cabinets built around it, which is extremely narrow as fridges go. I did eventually find a replacement fridge. Hopefully this new fridge will last you as long as the first one did!
That is an amazing kitchen! My dream kitchen. I can’t live without my double oven.
“It will be okay” said Klaus, Maud and Dina’s mom…this was going through my head the whole time I read this…glad you got your new fridge and it is all really ok… I know how this feels…and it is time for me to clean out my fridge…THANK YOU
Oh dear, so sorry!! Frankly given the cost of subzeroes, 20 years is a ridiculously short life span. Kitchen looks great by the way!
As the aphorism goes, they don’t make them like they used to. When I bought my house 26 years ago I didn’t have anything left for a new fridge. I bought a used whirlpool for $250 thinking it would last a few years and I’d get a new one. Damned electricity guzzler is still running as the extra fridge in the laundry room. In the meantime my 20 year old Samsung has needed repairs and I’ve been looking at new ones heh.
So sorry you all had to go through that. Sending hugs your way. Your kitchen is beautiful (really enjoyed the photos).
Hopefully you’ll get a break from future emergencies for a while.
My fridge saga from last month. I ordered a new fridge, but I remeasure the area as there are cabinets above and it is bracketed by a wall and more cabinets on the other side. To my dismay the fridge is too tall. My current fridge is old and came with the house when we bought it and an unconventional height of roughly 64″ most modern fridges are far taller and any model nearing the 64″ fridge are considered “mini” and I will loose width and height and desperately needed cubic footage to store food. So I search for hours and hours and after picking apart the dimensions I decide the current fridge on order is the only one that 1. isn’t out of budget 2. isn’t significantly smaller than our current petite fridge and 3. the hinges that jutt out past the cabinets were included in the height so it may indeed fit.
Delivery day comes and it is within an inch of fitting but it is too tall. I wanted to weep but I cannot redo my cabinets so I went to fix this any way possible mode. I ended up hand carving with some wood working chisels and scrappers to remove the bottom lip of the cabinets just enough to slide the fridge in. It took an hour or 2 but with the fridge under you can’t see it and there’s enough clearance on the sides for ventilation.
All is fixed then right? Nope. I’m so focused on the fridge fitting I did not open the thing to realize that the door is hard to open and shut and makes a grinding noise to boot.
I call customer service but the team is out of our area and he can not put a service order in until they complete the route for the day so I need to call back the next day.
Next day I am informed that if it is an installation issue they can fix it for free but if it is a defect I will need to wait for a replacement part or fridge which I am not prepared to do. They did a door reversal upon delivery so fingers crossed it can be fixed. We believe the problem was installer used a rounded screw instead of a flathead and the screw is rubbing at the hinge causing the issue. Apparently there is a small plastic piece that was lost during installation that slightly elevates the door and keeps this from happening. They fix it as best they can and it is much better but it still makes a little noise and has slight resistance but no where near as badly.
So yeah. Stressful. Money, time, elbow grease, more time, and eventually a kind of solution but we keep marching on. What else is there to do? 😞
I get it. For us it was the transmission on a car that is less than 3 years old. It took over a week to determine if it would be covered under the warranty. It got approved! That meant we finally got a rental car yesterday. A seemingly small thing was a big weight to carry for that time. During that time my kid 1 had a milestone birthday,and I was offered & accepted a new job.
They are magnificent beasts, but this is why I will never purchase a Subzero built in fridge.
Hugs!
I just want to reach through the internet and give you a big hug.
So glad you got your new fridge in!
We had someone similar happen to a deep freezer FULL of venison, wild pig, and fish. It all went bad, so I do feel your pain. I now obsessively check the lights on the new ones to make sure they are working. Nothing like cleaning out rotting meat – UGH
You have a beautiful kitchen. I understand the food waste trauma. I had a box freezer in my basement. It was full of meat. It died.
My parents were from Ireland. My mother, the eldest, was half a foot shorter than her sisters because the food just wasn’t there. Her feet were badly deformed because she had to wear shoes that were too small when growing up.
Most Americans just don’t understand that wasting food is a mortal sin in a number of cultures. America has always been wealthy, and its history is short.
I myself would have felt compelled to try to do something with the fish, Smoke dry it perhaps. I have as much trouble driving past ripe blackberries along the side ot the road or wild apples. My hind brain says that I might need that food later. I can make backberry syrup from those side of the road berries, and applesauce with the wild apples.
I myself have never been hungry except by choice, which is all the difference in the world.
Congratulations on the freezer shopping victory. May life give you no more equipment failures.
My Mom had a subzero that died in the middle of the pandemic. I feel your pain and understand that it is real.
Sorry I missed this earlier. I want to state clearly that I hear you,I get you, you did great( in that you made it thru and didn’t burn the kitchen down), and yes, life will throw many many things at us and sometimes we can cope and sometimes we can’t but we get thru( usually)
Comfort reading? Eating? Crying?
Me, I’m thinking of going to Ikea. I’m not sure if that will make things better or worse but it will make them different, and there is that
Giant virtual hugs and many cups of tea
Your kitchen is gorgeous. I love it and the floors. The kitchen and the floors are pretty much the only parts of the house I geek out about. Although a really nice bathroom might get some attention. LOL
I was one week out of shoulder replacement surgery. The fridge dies. At this time, our shower remodel to remove the tub was behind schedule. Workmen were in and out, and I’m recovering. When we first got this fridge, we had to remove door jams to get it into the kitchen. How are we going to get it out? We also threw out bags of spoiled food (me with one arm tied in front of my back).
Within one more week, our hot water heater and stovetop died, and, I was down for the count. In the middle of this, my contractor for the shower came over on the day before the new fridge was to be delivered. He somehow broke down the huge old fridge to get it out of the kitchen, and then he took it to the dump. No charge. Good deeds matter. Enjoy your new fridge for at least another 26 years!
Ilona, if no one else has said it, you’re amazing. ♥
💙💙💙💙💙💙
Ditto
aw man, having your fridge die on you and having to throw away food (and thus money) is a HUGE stressor! much sympathies.
It has certainly been a year of “what next” hasn’t it. Every single month something has happened that has cost me money, lost work, or simply fixable aggravation. I have one more month to get through this year and hopefully my karma will right itself! Blessings to everyone and a wish for everyone’s issues to settle down to just minor hassles. 😊
I’m really sorry this happened at such a bad time. Not that there is a good time. Appliances seem to have a 6th sense as to the worst time to die. I grew up extremely poor as well. My husband was just complaining to me about how I have to squeeze the very last drop out of everything. My heart hurt for you throwing away the food. The past does stick with us. I will try to send some Zen vibes to you so you can relax a bit!
When crazy stuff starts to stress me out I would say,”Not a thing, it could be worse “. After a few years of marriage my husband finally told me to stop saying that because things would inevitably get worse. Now it’s,” no one is dead or actively dying “. The bar is low. I love your kitchen and fridge. Congrats
The metaphor here is powerful. Thank you! We ARE built to persevere. At times, it’s hard to remember that. But I’m grateful that a refrigerator story can remind me.
Fridges are awful and needed and can we all go back in time to the people who BUILD around a specific unit and just…shake them? We had to replace ours and while it was nowhere near the trauma this one was, all the measuring and shopping and more measuring and shopping and finally pulling the trigger, and then a RENTED TRUCK pulls up in my driveway. It did not inspire confidence that they were paid delivery people and they didn’t even have a vehicle for this. Then doors came off the house and they took the old one out, put the new one in and it STUCK. I had this moment of fear, certain they’d just LEAVE it here, half into the slot. But one guy tilted it up, wiggled it a bit, and slid the whole thing into place (apparently they built the cabinets crooked).
Fridges and any other fitted-in appliance are HORRIBLE.
Whew!!! What a close call!
We haven’t had to replace ours yet but it is in a similar cubby.😱😱😱
Fortunately? The repairman we hired to look at our dryer (unreplaceable part, new dryer 🤑) said our fridge was 👍👍. Well I hope so because I don’t want to hire a contractor any time soon.
Oh my goodness! You poor thing. I fully understand and agree to all you have said. The mighty Sub-Zero. I always salivate when I see one until I look up the price. Your kitchen makes me greeeeeeen with envy. I am so glad it is in and functioning. Looks great too. Wow what a stressful episode. I know you’ll never forget it. That’s a kick-ass kitchen my girl. Man could I cook in that one. Again so glad that this too has passed. Be well you all. You are heroes once again!
Dear Hecate, the feelings I am feeling reading this. It is not just empathy, it is remembered stress from similar situations (we too lived in a shack in the country, and were food insecure- not just my childhood, but my adulthood with a kid.)
I know survival is in our DNA but sometimes it is hard and that is all there is to it. We can talk about starving people in war zones but the truth is when the stress is overwhelming it doesn’t matter where you live.
Recently my darling pupper fell down with an autoimmune disease that attacks her red blood cells. Her red blood cells and her white blood cells were having a fight and overnight she went from happy perky to can’t move, won’t eat. Yes right after the election, right after some other things, and of course I had a (quiet, desperate) autistic meltdown in St. Vinnie’s on the way home from one of her check-ups.
She is responding well to the steroids, we are very thankful.
Thank you for sharing. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.
So, I was looking at your pretty kitchen; and something stuck out to me. Whoever designed the kitchen, why did they put double ovens up against something that needs to stay cold? That seems like a really bad idea. Did you have a hard time keeping the frig at an even temp when using the ovens? (Prior to when it totally went out.)
I was wondering the same thing. Even with insulation it doesn’t seem right. I never use my self- cleaning part of my oven because of how high the temp gets and worrying about my cheap cabinets catching on fire.
Oh, I’d have needed to be committed about the time they found that board. Tell ’em drop the fridge off the two-wheeler, strap me into a straitjacket and wheel me out on it.
The fan in my 20-year-old Sub Zero Freezer stopped working. I called everyone without success. Two years ago, we finally found the only authorized repairman in Maine. I feel your pain. We have not had a problem since. I love this refrigerator and freezer.
Thank heavens it was winter. We had a ready-made outdoor refrigerator. This was still a hassle. Take care and enjoy the new refrigerator.
my grandfather always would tell me, Dying is easy, but getting up every day to face life is a struggle.
it seems he was right, just trying to face the everyday trials and tribulations is hard.
We can relate. It is a very trying situation. We are glad it got resolved! Now you can write more books for the BDH!
I was talking to my mom yesterday and we both agree we will never buy stainless steel appliances again as long as we live. They are so hard to keep shiny, we have given up. I’ve been as poor as the North Carolina story and have a similar story myself. Thank goodness I’m not in that situation anymore. I wonder if Texas has changed it’s requirements. When I met my husband, he lived in Austin and was doing all kinds of stuff himself to his house. Woulda had that board removed tout de suite.
I’ve had a hole in the roof of my house from an oak tree dropping on it during Hurricane Helene since the end of September. A friend in Asheville just got water back this week. While we were thankfully able to get a tree service to come get the trees off house and driveway with a crane, and gotten money from the insurance company, we haven’t gotten anyone to do the repair. One company is booked 6 months out. I have a hole in my roof and winter is coming. At least I have a working refrigerator. PLUS the other stressful thing Ilona alluded to.
Your kitchen is beautiful. I’ve been looking at fridges for a couple of months cause I can’t make up my mind. My fridge is 33 years old and making new noises that don’t sound too good. I think my main block is worrying that the new one will last only a couple of years and I’ll end up going through all this again. Also, for them to take the old one I have to have it emptied out and I have nowhere to put the food until the new fridge gets up to temp.
Man, this was a hard read. Too many shudders of like-feeling.
On the other side of things–what a GORGEOUS kitchen. Cabinets galore!!
Congratulations on the pages! and your beautiful new fridge! 🙂
I forget the year but one Christmas Eve our refrigerator died and as usual we were hosting the Christmas dinner. We managed to get an extremely compassionate repairman to come out(on Christmas Eve!) only to inform us that it wasn’t worth fixing, the compressor had gone belly up. The only thing that saved me from having a meltdown was the fact our outside temperature was refrigerator temp and colder. We stored the entire Christmas feast on the front porch. The day after Christmas we went appliance shopping with a Nor’easter quickly bearing down on us. We managed to find an open store with something suitable in stock and while we were finishing up the financing paperwork, their delivery guys deployed from their warehouse(in the blizzard!). I kid you not, they were waiting in our driveway when we got back to our house.
I just want to give you a hug! Keep on swimming, keep on swimmikng
I feel for you. My oven needs to be replaced or repaired. Still have to research which option is more cost effective. The top heating element is not working and it’s an 11 year old drop-in. We have been limping along for months now and thankfully we are not hosting holidays this year. Looking to see if sales will be on our favor.
I’m so sorry this happened to you.
I don’t think some of us who have never had to face an “I’m not sure where we will get food” time in our lives really get how terrifying that is. I have a close friend who grew up with a lot of food insecurity through a good portion of her childhood and I can see how it affects her even now and she, thankfully, has not had worries like that since she was a child. She is in her 50s.
My friend got very upset at her adult daughter (who is a good kid, but still a kid) because she didn’t come home when she is supposed to in order to feed the animals while my friend was working. These are well-fed animals who may have been feed a few hours later than usual but really took no harm from it, but for her it was terrible to think of them being hungry and worried about not having food.
I always wondered how you could make us so clearly feel Rose’s anxiety over feeding herself and her brothers in the first Edge book. You knew just how she felt and you are masters of your craft, so you could make us feel it, too.
I’m glad your fancy new fridge is installed and ready for duty! God bless!
Why do fridges go out when you just went shopping and spent your grocery money for the next two weeks? So very stressful but you have a beautiful kitchen and you now have a working fridge. Time for the water heater to go out.🤪. Or at least that is how my life seems to work.
Chin up
oof. I can so feel this. our fridge has been slowly dying over the last year. the last fix has left the bottom part of the fridge freezing things and the bottom of the freezer freezing things to an ice age freeze 🤣. so half the fridge and freezer work.
every time I have to throw food out hurts.
I’m glad you were able to get a new fridge! it’s the little stresses that push you over your own personal limit that really suck.
I have a similar, though not quite as bad, situation waiting to happen. We bought our house 18 years ago. It was 6 years old. The fridge’s doors are covered with wood that matches the Kitchen’s cabinetry. We’ve had several problems with it and so far have been able to get it fixed. I dread the day I can’t get this 24 year old fridge fixed. I don’t know if I can get one that the cabinet style doors can be put on. I should look into that in my spare time!
Late (due to work travel) but I feel this SOOOOO HARD but I have absolutely refused to compromise in this house.
The fridge went – I was able to get a replacement fairly quickly (and it was the water line so we were able to cut the water off and still use it – not a hardship but I’ve ALSO previously gone without a fully functioning refrigerator for SIX WEEKS fighting with LG).
The water heater went. We went about 10 days without hot water because I absolutely REFUSED to put in another tank and by all that’s holy I was getting the tankless I wanted (which ended up cutting our propane bill D-R-A-S-T-I-C-L-Y like after the summer fill they swung by last week and we were still full).
The dishwasher went – I hated that thing (never, EVER buy a Samsung dishwasher – it was here when we moved in) and although I live rural where takeout isn’t an option, we went 10 days hand washing dishes for a household with 5 adults because by golly was I getting that Bosch I wanted (also – if you need a new dishwasher, get a Bosch – did you know a good dishwasher actually cleans your dishes and even pans? Who knew?).
Right now I’m dealing with septic at the workshop which apparently isn’t septic but just a 300gallon “bin” where the toilet out there empties into – and now realized the previous owner never pulled a permit and I can only assume a perc test was done at some point as the house septic appears to be professionally installed – and I can’t even right now either) but I have zero records so to properly fix I have to get a NEW perc test and put in new septic down there – assuming I can put in a drain field.
Add in the results of the election (and I’ll stop there) – and I’m kinda done myself.
Hang in there – I’m rereading your books to get through – but I can re read until you get new stuff.
So, we moved four years ago in August, from our previous home of 31 years. We had intended to rent, since this was in the housing bubble/covid timeline of August 2024. The kitchen (and steps) were one of the deciding factors in moving here. Now I want YOUR kitchen!! Love it!
Thank you for the sub zero saga. About a week ago I decided I wanted a new November, nothing was going right at work, and home is full of a HS senior doing college applications before the deadlines. The saga reminded me that our remodeled kitchen is built around our fridge and what ever fits thru the doors of a house built in 1897. For us the saga started 2 weeks after it was delivered, suffice it to say 3 weeks of replacing every possible reachable part the only option was a new fridge as the issue was in the main cabinet. There wasn’t an exact model within 200 miles of where we lived. The manufacture refund us our money. We bought a different brand that would fit in the space. 1st replacement fridge was unpacked in our driveway and had to go back ~ it was really obvious that a fork lift had forked it. 3 days later the 2nd replacement arrived in perfect condition. We were so pleased. It wouldn’t fit through door, even though the cubic ft were the same. It missed by a 1/4″. It went back. We went to our appliance store. They had 1 of our original model left, we took it. 3 days later it is in our just remodeled kitchen and it looked awful. The doors were black, the other appliances are stainless steel with black trim, the counter is black. Our kitchen is small. It was beyond overpoweringly awful. Solution: Since we knew the cabinet was bad and everything else worked we called the manufacture to see if we could keep all the fronts from the original fridge. THEY SAID YES! So we now have a “custom”4 door fridge and we got to keep all the spare parts. It only took about 6 weeks. I so love HEA endings.
Sometimes the stress bucket is full and that one more thing tips it over. It’s real. It’s valid and it sounds like you handled it great. I probably would have given into and ranted at the poor delivery person as I was telling them I was sorry since I knew it wasn’t their fault. I now have kitchen envy. I don’t even like to cook and now I need a kitchen like yours.
oh oh oh House Andrews. I. Feel. Your. Pain. really really really.
In my current phase of life I am going through some thangs, situations with loved ones, so that situations like your refrigerator that should be resolved in 2, 3 business days (including Saturday in my book), just drag on, on, on. Adding pressure, unnecessary stress, to the urgent, priority life-stuff.
Truly, you are persevering, and sometimes you just have to get through this hour and come out the other side.
And we the BDH, wish you well.
Peace,
T’is the season for stress. We all have to hang in there. One day at a time, we will persevere.
Thank you for sharing your kitchen. It’s beautifully done.
When I was a sprout, some 60 years back, we had a sub-zero freezer that sat outside our home in Albuquerque NM. It was the coldest freezer we ever owned and it had no issues even when it was 110 degrees out.
Glad to hear they are still making them. Hope this one lasts longer.
I’ve been behind on my blog reading due to life stress and world stress. I got lured in by Charles Tubbin’s adventures and then popped over to fridge drama. Can I just say that the axis of stress feeling resonates so so much? I almost burst into tears reading this because I’m in the middle of an unexpected and expensive replacement. Deep breath, keep going, have to carry on!
I feel your pain. Sending lots and lots of hugs!
By the way, I LOVE your kitchen!
Election week was awful. I drank too much every night and had trouble finding the motivation to brush my teeth. I cried a lot.
On the happy side, you didn’t figure it out by getting food poisoning first!
hope tomorrow is better.
New fridge looks great.
So sorry for all the stress, but the frog and the kitchen look amazing
Hug!
I love your blog, your kitchen is lovely, as is the new fridge. I love your blog as it reminds me that we all have crap to deal with and although we can’t control the stuff that happens, I can control my attitude. ::sigh:: my attitude isn’t always the best and sometimes that’s okay too. Thinking of you and yours.
That is a giant refrigerator! Well done staying sane and getting work done.
I should have listened to the universe’s message! Two days after this post, I left my upright freezer door open. For. Two. Days. I cried so hard. I’m so glad my sisters were able to come over and help me clean up.
If it isn’t one thing it is another!! Our only fridge is 16 years old and making occasional odd noises. I would mind but we are hosting 25 for Thanksgiving. Fingers crossed.
Just reread Kate Daniel’s books and the Innkeeper series.
Really jonseing(is that a word?) for a new book in any series.
Earlier in our marriage when my husband were not where we are not – we purchased a refrigerator because we went through a similar ordeal – not from a bend and dent no – we couldn’t afford that. So the local fb market it was and about a half gallon of bleach it was installed. It’s been 6 years and the ice/water maker still isn’t hooked up because – reasons.
We can afford a new one now – but why.
We have ice in cubes and trays and we have a filtered water pitcher in the fridge.
You are right – we adapt – you are not alone and in your points of not being able to even plz remember that yes the BDH devours HA’s work – but i’m pretty comfortable saying that we’d support you as people because you’re good people and those are rare.
BDH member *anime eye sharpness – we must protect HA.
please in those moments just picture us attacking and carrying off the offending fridge in mass. One hand on the fridge one hand on pitchfork – HOW DARE the appliance.
In short – emotional hugs offered and thank you!
My mother’s subzero finally crapped out, after years of repair, near the end of the covid mess. You had to fulfill a contract on someone’s life to get a fridge in that time. Since we’re morally opposed to that, she has a teeny, tiny little fridge in that great big hole, and it’s been two years, because -eeeeesh- the subzeros cost a small car. Glad you got one, but I know to never start with one now.