I want to post a picture of Chris hugging our friend Walter because he delivered something very special. A treasure that my husband had been steadfastly seeking for a very long time.
He delivered a full-size, normal fridge.
Imagine two grown men in an embrace in the middle of the night beside a massive, energy-efficient, stainless steel fridge.
While we were away in Canada for six weeks, our friend and neighbour housesat and petsat for us. He commented on our mini fridge (as in minibar fridge) and wondered how our family of seven was able to get by with that. He also heard through the neighborhood grapevine how for two years, we had no power and had a cooler to keep things cold.
I told him that my husband has a hobby of doing methodical research and sometimes it requires a little patience. When it comes to big purchases, Chris does his due diligence and most times, the best quality product is out of our budget. Chris will not compromise and settle to buy a lower quality product or service.
But we also need to wait for “the deal.”
This is what happened when we bought our car, our solar parts and installation, our bathrooms, and now the fridge.
Chris had found the right fridge at the right price when the lockdown happened. No one was delivering from the big city. I insisted on the mini bar fridge. We bought the last one but at a good deal of course. That tiny little thing proved to be our saving grace during our at-home days.
We still couldn’t keep leftovers though, but we had learned through our life with a cooler how to buy just enough. We actually saved money and wasted less.
Although we did eat out once or twice a week, the cooler made us plan ahead.
The mini bar fridge finally allowed my daughter to bake sugar cookies. She is a baker, but during our “cooler” days, any recipe that said “chill dough,” made her mad and frustrated. None of my kids could understand this crazy life with a cooler and candles.
By summer, the fridge that Chris had researched for two years was no longer available. Back to square one. He looked at brands that were still available, compared models, and price compared.
He finally found a specific Samsung that was available but two things stood in the way:
1) It was expensive.
2) He couldn’t find the specs on the amps or wattage anywhere online to see if our solar could handle the energy load.
Just as my husband was about to have a breakdown not being able to refrigerate the pot of bone broth, he had a lightbulb moment.
He could just ask Thomas.
Thomas installed our solar system and Chris and him developed a long-term relationship over their love of coffee and Thomas’ German attention to detail. Chris messaged the model and brand of the fridge to Thomas and two seconds later, Thomas sent a thumbs up. The fridge would work with our system.
Now the price.
Walter, our friend and shuttle driver, was on it. And we happened to be buying at a good time – Black Friday. He found a great deal and told us he would personally deliver the fridge to us.
As Chris embraced another grown man, I marvelled how we all have adapted to this life with patience: the patience between a husband and wife over instant/delayed gratification; the patience of children to wait for luxuries they took for granted; the patience to finally chill dough, to store bone broth, and to finally have ice cream at home.
Leave a Reply