Friday, January 3, 2014

My Dream Refrigerator, because I dream of Refrigerators.


I have played outside with my boys 2 days in a row now... in winter.  I'm really gunning for Mother of the Year, here.  We hiked all around Davis Creek Park and after an hour, somehow ended up back at our car.  The boys turned and ran the other way, not ready to leave.  When we ended up at the parking lot again a while later, I made them load up.  They were still bursting with energy so I drove them to the park down the road and read in my warm car while they chased each other around for another hour.  Graham fell asleep on his Dad's lap right after dinner and the older boys weren't far behind.  I love Reno sunshine.  I can't complain about the 40 degree days.

A while ago I posted this picture on Facebook of the kids frosting sugar cookies and people asked about my fridge.  Lincoln's blood sugar has crashed... too much frosting... I've been wanting to do a kitchen post for a while because I am so excited about how things are (extremely slowly) coming along, but I will have to divide it up or it will never happen.  The kitchen was a total gut, we (Dan) even had to replace the rotten sub floor.  The worst part was removing the drop ceiling.  It was at about 7'6", now it's back to 8 like the rest of the South side of the house.  It took a couple of weeks to raise the plumbing and wiring, a very nasty job.  Fortunately, Dan's dad and brother came into town to help.

The East wall houses the fridge.  Ta Dah!  I love it.  It's a Fridgidaire Commercial.  If you want a glass door, you can get this one, a GE Monogram with the freezer on the bottom, or a sub Z.  This is far and away the best value.  The only negative is that there isn't an ice maker.  We buy pellet ice from Sonic (holla!) and keep it in a rubbermaid box in the freezer, ain't no thing.  When my pantry is built (that shelf is just a temporary sitch... not as temporary as I had hoped, but still... ) we will do a built-in there with a pellet ice-maker and a butcher block.  Someday.

You can see where the ductwork ran, leaving a nook just tall enough for the fridge.   Most everyone, even the salespeople, tried to talk me out of the glass door, but I have wanted a glass door fridge for YEARS, and finally we are doing a kitchen just for us, not as an investment, so I held firm.  The sales people all said that customers get sick of the glass door because it's hard to keep fridges clean.  Glass doors are SO unpopular that this model is discontinued.  If you want one, get shopping before it sells out.  The castors are pretty sweet, too.
My sister was on my team, telling Dan, "Jacqui never has any food in her fridge, anyway.  Keeping it neat won't be a problem".  I HAVE food, I just don't archive food!  I have very strong feelings on groceries.  I have a lot of repect for food, and I hardly ever waste anything.  I only grocery shop about 3 times a month and I buy pretty basic fresh foods. I can't wait to get Arancana chickens so I can have pretty green eggs.  (I LOVE to clean out other people's refrigerators, but it's not the sort of thing I can offer, so if you want my help please ask.  It's my gift to this world).






I agree with Peter Walsh , an organizing guru.  Set limits for your stuff based on you capacity to store it.     If the condiment basket is full something gets tossed so the fresh condiment will fit.  It's kind of gross to have 10 open salad dressings in your fridge, don't you think?  Some of them must be so old. Large spice containers are in the freezer.  In the unlikely event that I am baking I pull out the whole spice basket.  It's very convenient and the spices last longer chilled.

The obvious benefit to a glass door fridge is that the kids aren't opening it and staring at the food all day while energy is wasted.  I got Dan this sweet Elk bottle opener (apron hook) for Christmas.  $10 at Cost Plus, the perfect host gift for that Super Bowl party coming up.  There's some news you can use! 

Dreams do come true.  I have a glass door fridge, I can die now.
P.S.  Paolo wants you to know that we found "deer paw" tracks in the snow yesterday.  

3 comments:

  1. Holy cow! Did you just double the amount of posts on your blog in one week! Go Jacqui! If I had this fridge I would also devote an entire post to it. That thing is awesome. And the kitchen is looking beautiful.

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  2. Our fridge growing up...so many half used condiments. Looks great! Can't wait to visit.

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  3. Thanks, Laurel. Casey, it's weird that mom was such a neat freak and her fridge was so gross. My obsession is probably a reaction to that: ) She always let me clean out the fridge. I would open that big I Can't Believe it's not Butter and scrape most of it into the garbage. Etel and I had a fb thing about their flavored butter. So gross.

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