The Day the Fridge Died

Happy New Year! If I made New Year’s resolutions, one would be to post more often, but since I’m not a fan of resolutions, I’ll simply say that I have set a target to blog once a week – we’ll see how it goes!

One thing that interfered with staying on track during the holidays was food related. Christmas, in all it’s wonder, revolves around food. I love the togetherness, celebrating Christ’s birth, sharing and peace – definitely what should be enjoyed and relished at Christmas, but all of these things come together beautifully with food. We share it, we give thanks for it, when we have a party we plan around it and Christmas dinner is most often the pinnacle of the season.

So, six days before Christmas when the ‘relatively new’ fridge in our house died, it caused a bit of panic. A fridge dying is always a cause to panic, but when you’re hosting Christmas dinner, it’s even more stressful. When your husband (aka, The Renovator) is gifted with building, but useless with mechanical issues, then it’s real panic.

Saturday night (the 19th), I took butter out of the freezer and noticed that nothing was frozen. The Renovator and I felt around in the warm fridge, then cranked up the cold dial in both the fridge and freezer to see if it was just ‘an adjustment issue’. We knew it wasn’t, but we really didn’t know what else to do!

By the next day, when the fridge began to ‘smell warm’ (nothing bad, but an odor like plastic mixed with food) we realized it was time to call in an expert. A repairman arrived the next day and charged us $85 for 15 minutes. Because the fridge was still making noise, but the cold result was absent, our problem was worse than when a fridge won’t ‘run’ ,or if it is ‘clicking’ off and on (both of which can be repaired). The result after our $85? The compressor was dead. The repairman actually wrote ‘dead compressor’ on the assessment form.

Not the news we wanted! We checked Craigslist for a fridge that would work until we renovate the kitchen. I mentioned our dilemma to my best friend, telling her that we needed a temporary fridge and she replied, “like the one in our garage?”

We were rescued! Food was divided between “salvageable” – into a large cooler with ice; “doesn’t need to be cold all the time (bread and some veggies)” – in the warm fridge; “bad food (as well as ‘suspect’ food!)” – garbage.

The garage fridge arrived the next day. After cleaning and organizing, it was making noise, but still wasn’t getting cold! Christmas was in four days – I had to buy the groceries and needed a fridge!

I stuck my hand in the freezer – cold! In the fridge – warm! This made no sense. Then, as I wiggled my fingers around the back of the fridge, checking unusual orifices, I noted that there was a bit of cold air coming in from the freezer. I called The Renovator in, believing that with my basic analysis, he could fix it.

He took the pan out of the bottom of the freezer, removed the cover plate and noticed that the fan was stuck. He gave it a ‘tweak’ and cold air whooshed into the fridge! Wahoo!

Christmas came and it was lovely. We appreciate all the things we have, including great friends with a spare fridge and the fact that The Renovator isn’t as mechanically challenged as we thought. And that’s why I love being The Renovator’s Wife.