To Keep or Not to Keep

We just bought a house, but it took us years of saving, money crunching, and mockery. The husband and I are what we call thrifty. My sister-in-law calls us cheap. She says that we could survive the Great Depression. We budget, save, and we fix things ourselves so naturally this had to come out sometime in the house buying process.

We knew that with buying a house come many extra expenses, and we thought we had prepared for them. We researched how much a refrigerator costs and had some money. We decided that the one we wanted was fine, but felt we could get a better deal on Craig's list. The husband found one that sounded like the one we wanted and called.

Friday after closing we went to look at it in the storage unit. As we waited by the storage unit I expressed my concerns. Was it stolen? Was it working? How long had they used it? As they pulled it out of storage I was appalled. All of my worst fears seemed to be coming true. The husband asked me to look inside. I opened the door and got a whiff of the incredibly rancid smell that comes from mold I almost said, "Let's just go." As we stepped aside to chat about it, I looked at the excitement on the husband's face and knew that we were going to buy this awful fridge.

We bought it and took it home to clean. The husband took it apart while I watched with skepticism. As the husband used a pressure washer for the inside I began to bleach all the drawers out and scrubbed off the dirt. We bleached the inside of the fridge and used a cleaning solution of borax, baking soda, and water (works wonders with smells by the way). We soaked all the plastic parts in bleach water over night. The next day the fridge's makeover was almost complete. The husband went to the hardware store,replaced some broken plastic parts and swiped it out. It looked shiny and new. I was impressed with our efforts. We had saved so much money.

Then the husband plugged it in. It didn't work. Isn't a fridge supposed to keep things cool? Was it the pressure washer? The bleach? Was it me? Did it know that I didn't really want it in my shiny new house? Did I hurt its feelings? Do refrigerators have feelings? I was concerned.

The husband told me not to worry. "You'll have a fridge in your house," he said, comforting me while looking again on Craig's list. The cheap side of me figures that we can sell it to someone who likes to fix things for at least what we paid for it, but I have doubts. Did we just pay for a now shiny, clean boat anchor?

I know I'll eventually get a fridge but am I going to have a fridge by the time we move in?

It remains to be seen. I think I'll block Craig's list on our computer.