Fridge it Forward!
On my first day as co-owner of a single family home, I learned that the power company will pick up old refrigerators for FREE. As it turns out, we have not one but TWO old fridges in our old house – let’s call them Big Black Box and Old Moldy.
Old Moldy hangs out in the unfinished basement and was used by previous owners for excess beverages, wine and sodas. We were excited when we first saw the extra fridge (and freezer!) in the basement when we toured the place with our realtor in October – but I think part of that was because they had our favorite New Zealand wines chilling at the time of our showing.
Professional cleaners came out the day before we closed, but even they could not clean up Old Moldy enough so that we would want to actually use the appliance. The old white walls were rusty and drooping and in the light of day, well, she had seen better days. Besides being an eyesore and sort of being in the way of the stairs, it would be wasteful to keep the old girl humming if we weren’t going to use her to keep things cool. Old Moldy would be retired.
I checked ComEd’s site and learned the details: fridge must be in working order (check); residential customers (check); fridge must be between 10 and 30 cubic feet in size (check). How did I know Old Moldy’s size? The easy online form (which worked!) explained how to measure the INSIDE space to get its cubic feet. The site also let you pick the date for pick up and showed how many spots were still available for each day. And they sent an email to confirm the appointment right away. So far, so good!
Because we hadn’t moved into the house yet, the organization that does the actual fridge recycling for ComEd was confused. They called and emailed to confirm the account info – to make sure it was correct and to confirm the pick up. Wow, this is customer service!
We’re scheduled to say goodbye to Old Moldy next week – the day before we move in – and hopefully we’ll send her off in an environmentally sound way – and get something new for the house with the $35 we get back.
Fridging it forward!!
Lessons of a New Home Owner: Take One
So we closed on our HOUSE last Friday and I plan to blog about our plans, progress and process of becoming acquainted with our new digs. These digs include 4 bedrooms, 2 – 1/2 baths, an unfinished basement, a large living room and dining room, a kitchen twice as big as our condo kitchen and a deck and yard with a shared driveway. The house was built in 1905 and we’re about to at least DOUBLE our square footage – and I can’t wait to use that mudroom, all the closets and built-in bookshelves!!!
So our inspector found a few minor things that he suggested we fix up front. Some old water damage under the kitchen sink had some old mold on the interior and a warped shelf. We simply got a new white coated 1 inch thick piece of plywood and the contractor replaced it. TO DO: We still need to spray bleach and repaint on the back wall. Existing disposal works so we returned the $180 disposal we’d purchased.
The second thing was bigger: supporting the entire structure of the house! I’ll blog about that shortly… and definitely plan to take before and after pictures as we go along.
The next thing we’ve done is the floors. More on that later too!
This is going to be fun! But now, I need to pack a few boxes and a suitcase to get ready for our family XMas trip. Stay tuned…
Uptown Girl moves closer to East Ravenswood next week!
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