Turns Out... I Have An Opinion!

We bought our refrigerator with wedding money, so it is as old as our marriage - 18 years.  Our marriage is in much better shape, however.  For months now (maybe a couple years - I've honestly lost count) I have had to defrost the freezer on a pretty regular basis.  There is a build-up of ice that I have to pound through on the floor of the freezer.  If I don't, I'll soon find a puddle forming on the kitchen floor.  It's not the frosty white kind of snowy ice that formed in your mama's freezer.  No - this is the kind you can skate on.  I have to take my heavy duty ice cream scoop, and bang away at the ice... It's a fun job.  Did I mention

I'm down on my hands and knees doing

this?  Yeah - one of my favs.

Well, last weekend, we took a step towards buying a new refrigerator.  We shopped.  A little.  (Read: we stopped by Sears since hubby knew they were having an appliance sale.)  I wish I still had the receipt from 1992 (to see what we paid), because apparently refrigerators have come a long way since then -- and the retailers are glad to charge us for these advancements.

I told my husband that I had no list of demands for a new refrigerator.  I was trying to be easy to get along with, and not come to the table with an agenda.  Wouldn't it be great to just have a new refrigerator, after all?  I just wanted one that I didn't have to defrost -with good door gaskets.  

After much discussion, and several turns around the appliance department at Sears, it turns out, I really DO have an opinion on the subject.

ONE = It must have good door gaskets so there is no need to defrost.  This is really only a JOKE because of our current situation.

TWO = It should be white.  All of our other appliances are white.

THREE = I don't want a water/ice feature in the door.  We've never had one before - so why pay for the extra feature NOW?

FOUR = My hubby tells me it's hard to find a refrigerator without the water/ice feature AND that the filters are $50/mo.  I tell him that I don't want to have the feature and not use it because that would be... (I used the S-word) STUPID!  Besides, I'm also very sure that we don't need 50 of anything added to our monthly budget for the rest of our lives (or the refrigerator's).

FIVE = If we do not get a water feature in the door, then it looks like we will have to go with a bottom freezer/top side-by-side.  That'll work.  I will finally be able to make/bake ahead and freeze some things.  My current side-by-side freezer is not wide enough for any pans.

SIX = But really?  What is that little do-hickey thing that hinges between the refrigerator (french)doors on some models?  Let's find a model without that.

SEVEN = It cannot be bigger than our current 21.7 cu.ft. model.  Our refrigerator is not built-in in the room, and we don't want it to take up any more space than it already does.

EIGHT = After a little further investigating on-line, hubby informs me that we will either have to add 3 inches or go MUCH smaller.  Grrr.

Wow - so there's a portrait of my easy-to-get-along-with self.  A little intimidating.  I do see a new refrigerator in the not-too-distant future -- if we can only agree on a model. 

So, speak up now, because I need your help.  Have you purchased a new refrigerator in recent months?  Tell me about it.  Any other things I should be looking for?  Are you happy with your choice?  Please.  Educate me.