Hot and Cold

As soon as we get the heater working, guess what breaks next? The refrigerator. One second our boat is too cold, and the next we’re worried about too much heat. Can the porridge ever be just right?

Tom called numerous fridge mechanics who – can you believe this – don’t do house calls! They wanted us to take our fridge off the boat and bring it in to the shop. Um, excuse me, but our fridge doesn’t even fit through the door. We’d literally have to remove windows to get it out. When we finally found a company that would make house calls, they informed us that our fridge is installed illegally because it uses propane as a back-up power source, and therefore they couldn’t help us. Argh (and, uh oh!). Finally, we found a repair guy who agreed to come over and check things out. After two hours of poking around, he told us what we feared: it would cost almost as much to repair our 20 yr. old fridge as it would to buy a new one.

Here’s where we’re also running hot and cold… Part of us is pretty excited for a new refrigerator. Our old one was a Norcold (a.k.a. No-Cold) made of 1970’s off-white plastic with flimsy rusted shelves in all the wrong places.


Disco-era old fridge

When we fantasize about renovating the interior of the boat, we always talk about re-doing the galley first, and a new fridge would be a huge step in the right direction. But the key word in that sentence is "fantasize." We really can't afford a new fridge. The cost of fridge plus installation is going to be about 2 b.u.'s. And that’s when we start to run cold... It really is one thing after another with this boat, and the credit card debt isn’t getting any smaller. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do about it. Let’s say, worst-case-scenario, we decide we simply can’t afford the boat anymore. We’d still have to replace the fridge before we tried to sell it.

So for now, it’s time to go fridge shopping! We’ve got a model picked out, and the good news is that when you’re paying 2 b.u.’s, it’s no longer your job to worry about removing windows and moving large appliances – that’s all part of the installation fee.


Fancy new fridge


Almost full-size, and no rusty shelves!

-Jessi