And then there were two
Monday, 11th December 2006 by JulieSomehow, in all our going-on 10 years of marriage, we’ve managed to get by without ever having to purchase a new fridge. All our fridges to date have come to us via some form of inheritance.
So it was an exciting moment, two Saturdays back, when we handed over the credit card for our very first brand new fridge-freezer. And this wasn’t a casual splurge on a new appliance — this was the first piece of our new kitchen! (The rest to follow in January.)
I arranged to work from home so they could deliver today, and I had barely turned my PC on when there came a knock at the door.
The chap at the door was tut-tutting over our narrow, oddly-curved stairs when I opened it. He was rather gloomy about their chances of getting the unit round the corner and into the entranceway with the limited and badly-angled space that was available.
(I forgot to mention that we’d ordered a BIG fridge. At just over 1.9m it’s one of the tallest they do.)
Nevertheless, he went off to fetch his friend, and the fridge, and that got them all as far as the top of the stairs. His friend came down the stairs to consider all the angles and was equally pessimistic about their chances. The light spattering of morning rain making the stairs look dark and slick wasn’t helping.
Of course, I made all the appropriate noises of disappointment at the thought of giving up our new fridge (!) and they decided that they would have to give it a go. Especially considering that there was no other way in!
Between them there was much heaving and sweating, tugging and wrestling, and with scant inches to spare on the sides they finally got it to the narrow gap at the bottom of the stairs. Where this time, all the clearance problems were at the top to get it under the arched entranceway. And between all the walls, there was barely any space at all to tilt backwards or forwards. (I wish I’d had the camera handy to show how tight it all was.)
But they were too close to give up then, so with a great show of brute force, they heaved it over the tiny step and wiggled it into the covered area outside our front door. At this point, they finally gave in and took off the outer packaging so that it would fit through the door without being tilted (because there was no room for that.)
I’m not sure who was more relieved, them or me, when it finally stood in the kitchen alongside our (suddenly very short) old fridge-freezer. 
Probably a good thing for them to start the week with — it would make everything else look easy!
(Tom’s off on a work-trip to Tokyo for a week [boo-hoo!], and he’s got the camera with him so no pics till he gets back. Once he does, I’ll be sure to pop up a picture of our slick silver monolith towering over its old white cousin!)
