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Santa came this morning.

August 23, 2011

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But he wasn’t the real Santa.  He was a fake.  A skinny Santa that takes his beard off on his break and smokes a cig out back.  He can’t scurry down the chimney either….in fact, he can barely get through the door without causing damage.  Our new refrigerator was scheduled to be delivered this morning and we were about as excited as Christmas morning–until the morning actually came.

And then Chris left for work, and the delivery guys said they would arrive around 9:30 am.  I walked downstairs to a dirty kitchen and remembered when I decided to forego the dishes last night to watch Bach pad and paint the bathroom (details on that later this week).  So I got Greta some breakfast and put her in her highchair and cleaned the kitchen only to mess it up again by taking everything out of our old fridge.  By this time, Greta was done eating breakfast and on the loose.  She “helped” me take everything out of the fridge and made a lot of messes doing it.

When the delivery guys showed up a few minutes later, the one taking measurements asked if he could take off the front door. “Sure.  Do what you gotta do!”  He didn’t.  I didn’t think anything of it because I was trying to contain Greta from running out the front door.  They unhooked the old fridge and water started spilling out everywhere.

“Ma’am!  Can you turn off your water?!”  I don’t know how to do that.  “Uhhh…yep!  One sec!”  I run downstairs and call Chris and we guess where it is and Greta gets into everything downstairs while I do that.  I run back upstairs and run the water until it doesn’t run anymore.  While they move the old fridge out to the garage I clean up all the water on the kitchen floor while Greta jumps in it and then runs for the food sitting on the kitchen counters.

I was running toward her, hence the blurriness

 When they put in our new fridge, it was beautiful….and COVERED in fingerprints.  And when they left, I shut the front door and there were two dents and paint scratched off of it.  Because it takes about 8 hours for the new fridge to cool, I had to put all of the food back in our old fridge now sitting in the garage.  I made about 13 trips back and forth from the kitchen to the garage and thought about how much of a pain this is going to be all day.  Then, I brought Greta up to bed for her nap and I realized I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet so I poured myself some Special K and went back to the garage for milk.  I sat down, read that Will Smith and Jada are separating, frowned, and started googling how to remove fingerprints from stainless steel.

It’s hard to be excited about your shiny, new, appliance when it isn’t shiny and your front door took a hit and you already broke a sweat 3 times before breakfast–but all that other stuff aside–our kitchen got a major facelift this morning.

Here’s our old short and fat fridge:

It is almond colored.  Blah!  There is a huge gap between the top of the fridge and the cabinets and it sticks out about 8 inches from the countertop–which is why I call it “short and fat.”

We have been on the hunt for a new fridge for awhile and last week we ventured into the Sears Outlet to see what they had.  Wouldn’t you know it, they had JUST the kind of fridge we were looking for, for about half the price!  Apparently someone had ordered the fridge (A Kenmore Elite Countertop depth) but it didn’t fit in their space so it ended up at the outlet.  The original price of the fridge is right around $3000, but it was priced at around $1500.  After taxes and delivery, it came to $1700–which is still a lot of money, but amazing for the fridge of our dreams.

So, let’s just pretend it isn’t covered in fingerprints and take a second and admire:

Tall and skinny!
I was a little worried that Greta was going to open that bottom freezer all day long, but so far she has tugged and tugged with no luck.  Whew! And although I am sure I will constantly be cleaning fingerprints off of this thing–any advice on what to use would be great…I have already crossed white vinegar off the list.  Has anyone else had Christmas this summer?!

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  1. […] Santa came this morning Chris Loves Julia source […]

  2. Sears Cares says:

    Dear Julia,
    My name is Laura with Sears Cares; I found your post here and while I’m glad to see that you are pleased with your new refrigerator, I want to apologize for the poor experience with your delivery. It sounds like it was a very hectic morning and on top of everything else that was going on, it appears as if your front door was damaged during the delivery. We would very much like to speak with you about this incident and work towards rectifying the situation. At your convenience please contact our office via email at smsupport@searshc.com and a personal case manager will contact you directly. In the email, please provide a contact phone number, the phone number the refrigerator was purchased under (if different than the contact phone number), and please do include the user name you posted under (Julia) for reference to your issue. We look forward to speaking with you soon and apologize again for any inconvenience we may have caused.
    Thank you,
    Laura D.
    Social Media Moderator
    Sears Social Media Support

  3. Laurene says:

    Hey Julia. I’ve met you a time or two – but you probably don’t remember. My son Josh is a good friend of Chris’s. Actually, I like to think Chris is kind of my friend too – if that’s not too weird. :) Anyway, we think your hubby is a pretty good guy – and I love your blog too! Chris is one lucky man, and Greta is adorable!

    I’m usually a silent blog stalker, but I think I can help you with the stainless steel problem. We buy a spray cleaner at Sam’s Club. It’s called Sprayway Stainless Steel Cleaner. (Wow. Creative name, huh?) You just spray and wipe. It works wonders and so easy!

    Don’t you just hate it when people you don’t know are checking out your blog? :) What an interesting world we live in. Hope to see you again sometime. Tell Chris I said “hello!” We run into his parents in the funniest places. Sure like that family. :)

    Cheerio,
    ~Laurene Jackson

  4. We haven’t transferred our food over to the new fridge yet because we had to wait for it to cool down, so yes, it does feel TOTALLY empty now. Hahaha. But, I can see we will have a lot more room in it as well, which is a welcomed change. Chris came home for lunch to cheer me up after a rough morning…but I am pretty sure he wanted to see the fridge, too. WE LOVE IT!! So far, I haven’t heard any weird noises, but I’ll keep you posted.

  5. Oh boy! That fridge is a beaut and REALLY dresses up your kitchen! Great STEEL! (get it?)

  6. Hahahaha! We should have played an “I Spy” game. Whoever can correctly name 13 condiments with the correct brand–wins!

  7. meaganbriggs3 says:

    I AM IN LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!!!

    She is a beaut!! That is sorta the same one that my parents got and it has changed their life completely :-) I can’t wait to see the inside. Speaking of which, does your fridge feel totally empty now that you increased fridge space?? Do you catch yourself just walking by the kitchen staring at it, or opening it randomly?? My parents fridge makes this really annoying noise if it isn’t shut. Does yours do that too??

  8. meaganbriggs3 says:

    I did laugh at how many mayo jars there are…

  9. Ooooo! Thanks for the recommendation! I think I should definitely have some of that. :)

  10. i want to say that i read somewhere that baby oil removes fingerprints…? but maybe i’m talking crazy. my brain’s been all over the place lately.

  11. Gorgeous! We use stainless steel cleaner and a paper towel – make sure to follow the “grain” of the steel. I hope that helps!

  12. The film was over the water/ice dispenser and the Kenmore Elite name–but not over the fridge. Hmmm. Small price to pay for our favorite style, too!

  13. It fits like a glove! What a beaut!

  14. Did the delivery guys remove that film before they brought it in? Typically they won’t remove it until they’re done so it looks clean. How annoying! I think the new fridge looks great. The double doors and the freezer on the bottom is personally my favorite style!

  15. Just went to check–they FULLY open. Whew. Didn’t even think about that! Although, gotta admit, I can’t really reach up there anyway, so we mostly store things we barely use. :)

  16. michelle says:

    not to rain on your parade, but have you tried opening the cabinets above the new lovely? we got one about a year ago but because of the hinge mechanism on the top we can’t open our cabinets above it more than a few inches. an excellent place for those rarely used items!

  17. Kamaila says:

    Someone told me to try WD-40…good luck and tell me how that works

  18. Erica Harless says:

    Wow, what an adventure! :)
    I use stainless steel cleaner wipes that I purchased at Walmart. You kind of wax the fridge with them in the direction of the steel and follow by buffing with a soft towel. I don’t have to do it very often…but I also don’t have kids yet :). I have found that clorox wipes work just fine if I use them on the handles. They would look streaky on the fridge but you cannot tell on the handles. I hope that helps…and sorry for the rambling!

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