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I was going over an old blog I used to write, and thought I’d resurrect a few good ones.

It was an absolute steal! A beautiful, side by side stainless steel refrigerator.  And we needed one.  I was waiting for some unforeseen tax refund, or perhaps a raise, or maybe even an unexpected inheritance from a rich uncle whom I didn’t know.  But I didn’t have to wait for that!  I found a refrigerator at an estate sale!

After getting it on the trailer, taking off a door, muscling it in the door, I plugged it in …. and it hummed.  I installed the icemaker (with the help of a home depot book on installing ice makers) and then realized, that, in our house, when you turned off the light to the basement, you turned off the refrigerator.

OK, so through another trip to Home Depot, and another book, I decided to re-wire the plug.  What you need to know at this point is that I live in a 100-year-old house, that has been, in a really creepy, hodgepodge kind of way, been “improved” over time.  Knob and tube, romex, and some sort of material covered wire hanging all over the basement, spliced together, and scary, to say the least!

But I … I got lucky!  I found two stubbed-out wires, that I ran back to the fuse box, and I was in luck.  They were old wires, that had been attached to some heaters that weren’t used anymore.  So, with the Home Depot book in hand, I “rewired” a 220 current circuit to the refrigerator (for those of you who don’t know, the refrigerator runs on 110 current.

It wasn’t long after that that the bulbs blew out of the frig.  And not long after that, the top half of the refrigerator stopped working.  As things were melting, I reluctantly called Sears to come help.

After a good, long (way too long in my opinion) laugh, the technicians dug in.  I got home from work just about the time they arrived.  I poured myself some wine. In minutes, they found the problem.  Some kind of condenser thing (not in my Home Depot book), and replaced it.  $245 including labor. But then, it just wasn’t working right.  Pull a panel off. Oh, wow, a fan was totally blown.  Then, what the heck, “This never happens” a blown defroster heater coil … I poured myself more wine.

Ok, at this point, I need to make a confession.  I realized that I had wired it wrong, and re-wired it back. And, of course, I didn’t tell them that I knew I had completely blown up my refrigerator.  I pled innocent. “what the heck?” I said … must have gotten ripped off at the estate sale … and they couldn’t believe it. I poured myself more wine.

The more they investigated, the more was blown, and by the time these wonderfully competent Sears guys left, I had bought a new refrigerator.  Only it was used. I poured myself more wine.

By the time bedtime came I was finishing off a bottle of wine.  I had not quit drinking.  But I had promised myself, never, never, never, to “re-wire” anything ever again.