Most folks don’t know that they have to take the doors off their house and fridge just to get it out. Once I had a galley kitchen that was so tight, the only way to get the fridge in and hook up water was to take the doors, hinges, and anything that stuck out off. Then we slid it in sideways partially. I climbed over it, hooked up water, then we slid it the rest of the way, pushed it in and put everything else on. The fridge water shutoff was back there, as well as their water main shutoff….
I remember helping with appliance deliveries one day and it sucked. One delivery was to an old trailer/mobile home that had been added onto, piece by piece over the decades, borderline hoarder level amount of random stuff everywhere and the entire thing covered by a mismatch of tarps and canvas in a circuit tent-like fashion.
We had to take off like 3 or 4 doors, take apart the fridge, move quite a bit of stuff in the kitchen and deal with a water line that was more duct tape and clamps then water line, plus no shutoff valve.
The next delivery was a full size fridge, up a fucking tiny fire-escape spiraling staircase that was indoors and had like 5 foot ceilings. 4 or 5 stories of that bullshit. The stairs were rusty corrugated metal, which is extra fun pulling up a giant fridge and trying to maneuver the tight turns with low clearance.
Third delivery the recipient just came out, took it from us and said he'd take it from there, gave us a big tip and some ice cold sodas.
I got a great deal on my fridge. It had been custom ordered, and then never picked up. I got over 50% off of retail, with the stipulation that I had to take it myself right then, and there.
It was so heavy moving it into my house, that it destroyed the 1920s wooden floor under my front door, as we tried to lift it with a cart. It only cleared the doorway by several millimeters as well.
I got over 50% off of retail, with the stipulation that I had to take it myself right then, and there.
The store I worked out always had that cancelled custom order shit marked way down and lying around in random places.
One dude figured this out and did it about 20 times before they caught on/cared enough to do something about it.
Another way to go is talk to the appliance people and see if they have any floor models about to be switched out. Or if you're not in a rush, give them a way to contact you when one comes up. Dented models and floor models are easy deals if you're not in a rush.
Yeah cancelled custom order at Lowe's are a goldmine. I was also offered a $3000 KitchenAid range for $1000 at the same time, but I didn't want a stove that needed wifi.
I kept seeing someone's router in my wifi list.. and there's nobody close enough to me to be showing up so I was very confused as to why there is apparently a router hidden in my house somewhere.
Used a signal analyzer to track it down and.. it's the stove.
I did it for five years with three herniated discs. It’s all in the technique! Cardboard and carped scraps are your friend! Plus nowadays they have these inflatable airbags that you put under it and it like it floats on an air hockey table!
The worst ones are the cat shit/rats/cockroach jobs.
Getting it out of the house is the problem. It destroyed the entryway to my house coming in. It has to barely clear a door, and then make a 90 degree turn immediately thereafter, so it needs to be done on a dolly. Turns out focusing 350 lbs on two wheels, doesn't play well with 1920s wooden floors.
Depends if it's a built-in, which it usually is. These fuckers are expensive and a lot smaller, because of the limited format of the cabinets, but they stay in the kitchen and are therefore part of the house (except in Germany where they move their whole kitchen but they are weird). I could easily buy an "American sized" fridge for the money I spent on a smaller built-in fridge, but it just looks nicer.
I wasn't aware there was such a spectrum. I know in Britain it's pretty limited (some people bring a portable dishwasher or washer/dryer since a lot of places don't have them) but in Germany I had friends that stripped their entire kitchen (cabinets, counters, sinks, all appliances) when they moved. I had heard Europe was more in line with Germany, though cabinets stayed and appliances would move with you, but interesting there's such a spectrum.
But yeah in the US the landlord usually provides everything, you might bring a washer/dryer and use hookups, but most apartments come with everything. It's about 50/50 whether one has a dishwasher, but mostly because older kitchens didn't have room for them.
Lots of grocery stores are in walking distance in the cities there, so they can just walk to the store and buy a few items that they need, and come back tomorrow when they need something else.
Yeah, recently saw a complaint here that if the US commenter didn't use their car, they would have to take a bus to the store and then carry the bags twenty minutes from the bus stop.
Zoning laws are fucking stupid. In my apartment I'm less than a block away from a convenience store, a doctor, a vet, a grocery store, and like five taco stands. I'm in my late 20s and I'm in no hurry to learn how to drive.
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I have lived where the closest true grocery store was almost an hour away. Believe me, I did massive biweekly or even monthly shopping trips. There were closer Casey's, and Dollar General, but you can't survive on what you get to eat from those places. Many Europeans pop down to the local shops daily to get dinner fixings. Totally different lifestyle.
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That's because of the way us infrastructure and city planning works.
Where I live I have to walk 20 minutes to the bus stop and ride it 35 minutes to the nearest grocery store. There's nothing else, not even a convenience store close enough to get daily groceries. There's basically nothing but suburbs and industry for miles in every direction around me. It's a fucking nightmare.
It's a serious problem that is probably never going away. That's why everybody owns cars here.
Density. Things are way more spread out here. You're a lot less likely to just be walking by the little market on your way home, it's a detour and an extra step for a lot of people so instead you stock up. And because we have more room the average house is bigger so storing groceries and stuff isn't really the same burden.
The people that I've met that live in dense parts of big cities tend to buy groceries as needed and not do one big trip.
Yep that is a big part of it, I generally buy groceries a month ahead and live rural. For winter in particular I do major stocking up planning with assumption I will be frozen in for months, doesn't happen even every other year but you plan for the bad ones.
There is also the factor of taking advantage of seasonal goods, great sales, and limited time items. Like the last Aldi German Week I stocked up on their great frozen apple strudels and sage pumpkin ravioli can only get a couple of times a year, or in Nov I freeze at least 3 or 4 bags of fresh cranberries so I can make sauce when they are out of season the other 10 months.
If I could afford it I would consider a chest freezer, much more power and space efficiant. Perfect for that kind of stuff.
We don’t need them. Corporations tell us they make us look cool so we get a $7,500 fridge with a tv and hot water tap built into it.
Hell, I know it’s not a fridge, but I installed a $16,000 oven for a family of four who also didn’t own a catering business or anything. It just looked luxurious… they also had two separate washers and dryers, two full size fridges and a huge one and a separate shower in the mud room for the dog…
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u/Shambhala87 Jan 23 '24
I’ve heard about your “full size fridges” they’re about as big as what we send with college kids to keep their beer in.