FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER!

Today the contractor finished my kitchen. It’s been eleven weeks since he started. He said six weeks but to add two. I didn’t say anything when he took off two days to go to the dentist, one day for the tree trimmer guys, one day for the DMV, two days for some shower liner workshop, and one day to fix up his Jag for a date.  After all, he did work on some Saturdays and Sundays.

The elephant in the room was the over-sized sub-zero built-in fridge that the appliance delivery guys refused to take when they brought the new fridge and left it behind. It was too big and too top-heavy with the compressor on the top. The contractor parked it in front of my sliding glass door back in February, and there it sat.

I was convinced that my contractor had no plan to get rid of the fridge, so I took manners into my own hands today and put it up on Craigslist. In my post I said to bring a trailer and a dolly and to bring muscle.

A man named Eric responded right away.  Then the second and third emails came in. Then a fourth, fifth, and sixth.  The couple from Benicia said they were on their way, and that they had a trailer and a dolly. I emailed Eric and asked him if he wanted it because others were interested. He didn’t answer.

I continued to iron the costumes for my $1700.00 order that needed to go out by the end of the day. A school in Minnesota had ordered 30 pioneer costumes.

Then the doorbell rang. It was a little old Asian man.

“I am Eric,” he said.

I looked to the street for a truck or trailer but only saw a mini-van.

“Do you have any help?” I asked. “Do you have a dolly?”

“I can do it,” he said.

“Do you have a trailer?” I asked.

“No, a mini-van,” he said.

“That won’t work,” I said. “The fridge is seven feet tall.”

I showed Eric the fridge to prove that he couldn’t get it into his vehicle. He walked up to it and started shaking it.

“Stop!” I said.  “It’s top heavy.  It could tip on you.”

“I can do it,” he said.

“No, I said, “there’s too much liability. You don’t have another person, and you don’t have a trailer. I am sorry, but you can’t have it.”

The Asian man begged with me to let him have the fridge. He’d come all the way from Castro Valley.

I led him back outside where my worker woman told him to go home.

“I can call someone to help,” he said.

“Where doe he live?” I asked.”

“Hayward,” the Asian man said.

That was forty minutes away.  I told the Asian man about the Benicia couple on their way.

“Even if you called your friend, the other people will get here first.”

“Please!” he said. “I really want it.”

“I am so sorry,” I said, “but it’s just too much liability to let you take it.”

Long story short, the Benicia couple arrived with a U-Haul trailer and a refrigerator dolly. The young man knew what he was doing and told us that he refurbished old high-end appliances. He strapped the fridge to the dolly and tipped it back and up.  We all helped him guide it out without hitting the ceiling or the light fixture by the front door. My contractor, who’d said he wasn’t going to help at all, helped the guy get it out the front door and over the flagstone.

The female half of the couple didn’t do much but offer moral support. The man said she’d thank him later. Gag me with a spoon, but they were removing a 450 lb. problem from my house, so I gave them a bottle of Chardonnay for later.

Then I gave my worker woman a bottle of Chardonnay for her birthday the next day, and the contractor got one, too, just because. That’s what you can do when you buy it by the case at Costco.

I met my friend for drinks at 5:00, and I told her the saga of the sub-zero.

“How much did you sell if for?” she asked.

“Uh, nothing,” I said. “I paid them with wine.”

“It was valuable, right?” she asked.

“Not to me,” I said. “It’s been blocking my view for three months. It was a tipping hazard. I needed it gone.”

We clinked our glasses together.

“Here’s to getting rid of what you don’t need,” I said.

“Purging feels good,” she said.

We sipped our wine at the outdoor table and listened to bad electronic music before we parted, and I bought wipes at the drugstore for my sis and came home to eat ice cream and write this blog post.

Vanilla drumstick. Yum!