The Refrigerator - Part 1

Well....it finally happened. The fridge that has been threatening a revolt since day one made it's last stand on Friday. What we did not realize, was that it wasn't leaving quietly.

Saturday Morning Mike and I got up, had a tasty breakfast at Kelly's, and then set off to find a new fridge. Of course, there are size restrictions, so it does take some time to find what we believe will be the right fit. By two in the afternoon, we had paid for our selection, and even arranged for it to be delivered that same afternoon, between four and eight.

A couple of phone calls later, our buddies Patti & Grady, Donna (a late arrival w/ Travis' wife Crystal) & Randy, and their son Travis were on their way to help with the removal of the old, busted fridge. We (translation: "I") had measured not only the existing appliance, but all of the openings through which it had to travel. On paper, it should fit. It would be snug, but it would fit.

It was a lie. First it wouldn't fit through the opening from the galley to the  pilothouse. Come to find out, the height of the the opening is not the same on both side.

Enter power tools and safety glasses. Some unknown unit of time later, the refrigerator was now essentially in  two halves, a top and a bottom.

Mike and Randy cutting by hand, while Grady works on the inside of the fridge with a saw.

The guys ripping apart the fridge that has been cut in half...

The top was moved to the pilothouse with minimal difficulty. Enter problem number two. The tape measure says that this should fit through the door. The door is 24" wide. The fridge is 23" wide. It should fit. Three other people measured it. It should fit. It doesn't. IT DOES NOT FREAKIN' FIT!!!!! 

Now the decision is made to cut the top half into half again. This is a delicate process due to the constrained working area, but with some patience and a fairly significant amount of foul language, it is done. We are now able to eradicate this broken POS from our boat.

Total demolition time, approximately six hours.

When all piled up, it looked like this:




While all of this was going on, the delivery folks showed up, and discovered, after asking to borrow some tools, that the door of the unit we had chosen was indeed NOT reversible.Of course we had checked into this at the retail establishment where we completed this purchase...none the less, we were not really surprised at this outcome.

This entire experience was too much for some of our helpers, who each handle stress differently:


Final Outcome? We currently have some extra room in the galley, but we still need to find another fridge so that we can move out of the ice chest that is currently residing on the front deck.