First-world problems

 

You know first-world problems.  They look like this:

 

But a cookie that’s too big to fit into the glass of milk; that’s not our problem.  We don’t need internet first-world problems.  We have our own.

 

We wanted a new refrigerator.  Our first difficult decision; do we buy the one with the icemaker in the door…

 

or the one without?

 

The ice maker in the door is cool, but the one without has more storage space in the door.

 

We agonized for weeks.

 

We settled on the one with the ice maker in the door.

 

 

But then, just when we thought our world was in order, the second problem rears its first-world head.  The new refrigerator won’t fit in the same space as the old refrigerator!

 

The old refrigerator fits fine.  Room to spare.

But the new refrigerator is just slightly wider.

 

The space in the cabinetry is wide enough for the new fridge; we measured it.  It’s 33 ½ inches wide.  The new refrigerator is 32.8 inches wide.  The problem is though, the cabinetry isn’t plumb.

 

The opening in the top cabinets doesn’t line up exactly with the opening in the counter-top, so that reduces the usable width of the opening.  It makes the opening measure slightly less than the width of the refrigerator.

 

This is serious!

 

Get a smaller refrigerator?  Nah; we really like this one.

 

New cabinets?  Pretty big project.

 

Just tilt the refrigerator to the right?  Nope; too far off level.

 

Cut out an entire cabinet and try to make the trim look like we didn’t just cut out an entire cabinet?  Iffy.

 

We told the young guys who were installing the refrigerator to just leave it like that sticking out into the hall; we’d figure it out.  There are lots of resources in the park; people who have done all kinds of things for a living, and have all kinds of tools.  Then we told anyone who would listen.  We all looked at it and talked about it.  We pushed the refrigerator around and looked.  It all came down to trim.  Judy said taking off enough trim would do it.

 

1/8 inch increments.  A little bit here.  A little bit there.  Trim removed from the cabinet, from the countertop, and even one corner piece from the rear of the refrigerator,

 

It all added up to this much.

 

Just enough.  It squeezes in!  Tight against the counter-top on the right.

 

Tight on the top left.

 

And the small counter-top cabinet on the left is gone to another room.

 

Before we started, the old refrigerator fit just fine.

 

Now that we’re finished, the new refrigerator fits just fine too.

 

If we pull the refrigerator back out, there may be scuff marks on the side, but we don’t plan on pulling it back out.

 

First-world problem solved!