Appliances - Round 1

The Old "Mini" Fridge

March 2009 - Although you could chalk another one up to our "vision" for the house, when we bought it, the outdated kitchen was sorely lacking in modern conveniences.  Mainly, the only appliances present were an old almond colored builder's grade range and an apartment fridge so small that most college freshmen in the dorms would reject it.  Also conspicuously absent from the party were a dishwasher, microwave and disposal.  

The Upgrade

Monica made it clear that she would not be able live without a dishwasher.  In turn, I made it clear that I would not be able to survive with a fridge that could barely fit enough food for one feeding for me.  So we set about shopping the local big box stores looking for deals.  We found a massive dutch door, bottom freezer GE Profile stainless steel fridge at Best Buy that was a floor model.  We negotiated the price down $1,500 from the original MSRP.  At the same time, we also bought a GE Clean Steel tall tub diswasher, which, after our coupons and a sale price, was almost $200 off of the full retail price.  We also rang up my brother at Ferguson (more on his company later) and ordered an InSinkErator Badger 5 garbage disposal.  Randal had assured me that it was more than capacity than we needed and that he had frequently experimented with his smaller disposal by "feeding" it different items to watch it chop them up (knowing him, it was probably beer bottles and 2x4s, so I knew that was good enough).  

The Clean Steel Dishwasher

The appliances were all delivered and installed before we actually moved in to the house.  The massive stainless steel models we selected made our dilapidated 1920's kitchen look even more ridiculous.  Unfortunately, after a few months, we noticed that the door of the freezer didn't quite seal properly.  I finally got around to calling GE's customer service and a repair tech came out.  He looked at the freezer for about 3 minutes and informed me that he couldn't fix the issue.  Obviously disappointed, I asked where that left us.  He said "oh, it's no problem.  Just call GE on Monday and they'll send you a whole new fridge." 



The Replacement Icebox - It's
like getting a hug of
chilled goodness



As is often the case when I concoct a scheme to try get a deal, my loving wife assumed her traditional role of Doubting Thomas and assured me that there was some catch.  Turns out she was right, there was a catch.  When I gave the GE representative the model number of our fridge, she looked it up.  The lady apologized and said that was a 2007 model and they didn't make it anymore.  I explained that we had bought it new only a few months before, so she checked her notes and verified that.  She then apologized profusely again and asked if we would be willing to accept a 2010 model!  I almost fell out of my chair.  The brand new 2010 model was delivered a few days later for no charge and it continues to preserve our delicious meats and other necessaries to maintain my sustenance requirements.