Kitchen nightmare on Halloween

[bobm]

Well, in Cal. , the land of earthquakes , forest fires, lots of sun , little rain and golden grass, I designed and built our house on former open range land using red iron framework, 8" wide steel studs, and Hardy board siding. It has an earthquake rating of "4" ( highest rating), termites break their teeth on the steel, and the siding is as fire proof as one can hope for. windows are mostly facing due S using a compass.Theroof has 3' overhangs, so it is passive solar which saves us about 65% - 70%on heating and COOLING costs. Our home owner's insurance costs are quite a bit lower than those in the neighborhood too. So, I venture to say that it should we as well built as one could hope for.

 

[Smart Red]

Yup! If you have the skills, you can certainly do a better job than contractors would do. It may have taken a full year to brick the house, but it is well and properly done with no shortcuts or questionable materials.

I am proud of our house as well. We built this 40 years ago to standards that are more rigid than most houses being built today.

 

[flowerweaver]

The SAGA continues...

So after paying the delivery company to put the new fridge in my carport, today the Sears guys I pre-paid to come take off the fridge doors and get it into the house show up and said they really aren't supposed to take house doors off (!) so I had to knock the pins out and remove the kitchen door. Then guess what? It STILL would not fit! Of course if they can't even take off a house door, they sure aren't going to do anything else to help. I was so freaking mad I took a hammer and chisel to the jamb, and when that seemed futile I went and got the reciprocating saw and sawed what remained off. Hell hath no fury like a woman with a sharp object determined to get a fridge in the kitchen. They stood waaaaay back!

So, it's in, whew. Now the kitchen feels too small, but at least I'll have fresh and frozen food again, and more room for it. Guess I'll be needing a new kitchen door.

 

[Nyboy]

Wow I have quite the picture of you and saw in my minds eye !!

 

[canesisters]

OMG... that whole scene could've happened in my house.

Yeah You!!!

 

[Nyboy]

Hope you love the new fridge.

 

[thistlebloom]

Yep, and that's how whole house remodels begin....

Aren't sawzalls fun? And so handy in a pinch!

 

[bobm]

May I suggest that instead of just repairing the kitchen door, ENLARGE it now because ... Next step will be the refrigerator manufacturer will send a letter to you to offer you the option to buy repair insurance ( which costs almost 1/2 the price of this modern marvel per year ) since these "new and improved " devices will quit working within 2-4 years. Guaranteed ! If you don't you buy this insurance this refrigerator will self destruct in 2-4 years. Get this ... my parents bought a Kenmore refrigerator in 1949 and it is still working albeit as a beer refrigerator in my brother's garage. We bought a Kenmore 2 door refrigerator 8 years ago... died on cue in 2 years. Next we bought a GE ... it read the memo and tried to self destruct in about 2 years 2 months. Got it repaired and lasted about a year. We currently have a Whirlpool side by side that is almost 3 years old.

 

[Nyboy]

Funny all my appliances are Maytag. When I was a kid their commercials showed a Maytag repairman who was very lonely, because he had no work to do.

 

[catjac1975]

Our 16 y.o. refrigerator has been on the blink, and losing food when you are a 3 hour round trip to a grocery store is no fun.

So we caught an online sale on a fancy new one and dubbed it our birthdays/anniversary/Christmas gift. Since we are too far from the nearest big box store we don't qualify for delivery. The value of ordering it online from out of state was delivery was available and free.

We already knew we were going to have to remove some cabinetry to make it fit and we've been looking for an excuse to take out these 60 y.o. poorly constructed ones. But last night the long awaited appliance arrived only to discover that there was NO possible way it would fit through any of our doors--oops! Neither of us thought of measuring this old ranch house for that. It doesn't appear you can take the doors off these newfangled electronic ones.

This is a HUGE problem because our walls are very solid masonry and good carpenters are hard to come by in a ghost town. So we had them leave it in our carport. Looks like widening the door will displace our dishwasher and require the phone company to move their box. Perhaps we should just turn our carport into a detached kitchen! I have the task of trying to find someone to do this work ASAP. Wish me luck!

FIRST TAKE OFF THE DOOR BEFORE THE CARPENTRY. It may fit then.