Ice, ice baby

Wednesday’s to-do list

Laundry
Call furniture store
Make sure sprinklers are off at eight
Buy fridge

Yes, tomorrow I have to buy a brand new refrigerator. It's not every day that I get to say something like that!

Appliances are an interesting facet of home life in the US. And not so much because you depend on them a whole lot (a day without ice is a day with air down in the south), but because some homes actually come with all appliances included. Some, however don’t, which can lead to interesting predicaments. In our case this meant selling our appliances a few years ago, because the house we moved into came fully equipped every appliance you could think of. From the washer and dryer to the stove and even the electric kettle. So out went my brand new washer and fridge. Regrettably, however, we had to buy a new washer/dryer for our current home, and for our new home, we will, yes indeed, have to buy a new fridge. Such is life when you’re always on the move; painful and, at times, expensive.

Now, usually, the love of my life and I usually make large purchases such as fridges and washer/dryers together. We are definitely the embodiment of the “poldermodel”; all decisions are made after long and sometimes arduous negotiations. However, yesterday, after spending several days shopping for a new floor, a paint color for the kitchen, and driving across town numerous times to sign a million forms, husband-dear literally told me to please go and buy us whatever fridge I thought would work. It’s not often that I get to spend that much money all by myself, so I was a little excited. However, this was before I actually started looking. I had no idea there were that many options out there. We knew we wanted a double-door refrigerator, but do we want smooth sides or textured? White or almond? An ice-maker in the door or in the freezer? Transparent crisp drawers or not? Separate cheese drawer or just a little shelf? And how tall did we want it? And did it have to have a separate dispenser for ice and water, or could we do with just one nozzle?

Also, we have, apparently been selling ourselves way short with our current refrigerator. I can’t begin to tell you how many salesmen told that there was no way a four-person family could live with a fridge that is a mere 35”wide. The average American family has to have at least 36”, and even that is cutting it close. Maybe it’s our Dutch blood, or perhaps we are some sort of miracle, since we seem to have been doing fine with our lovely 35”, 21 cubic ft fridge.

See, this is why I like having a house that comes with all the appliances. You don’t have a choice between a white light or a blue light in your ice dispenser, and so you take what you get. We have barely looked at the stove, dishwasher and microwave in our new house. We just made sure that it’s similar to what we have now, and that it works. I don’t think we really like the style of the stove, but who cares, it came with the house, if we end up not liking it, we’ll replace it. Easy enough. Honestly, I don’t like having all these choices, especially since I’m the one who will end up having to live with the choice that I alone made. I know that whatever fridge I will buy, I’ll probably find something wrong wit hit, and then blame myself for at least a considerable amount of time.

So could someone please do me a favor, and pick one out for me? Thanks.