From Hoopalah to Hootenanny

By Lynna Clark

I mentioned in an earlier story that we had a refrigerator hoopalah. So here’s what happened. Our old house is a wonder; as-in I wonder how we should fix that? I wonder what’s under that carpet? I wonder how much it would cost to change that out? The faux slate tile linoleum in the kitchen had long outgrown its loveliness. In fact, while we were having our den floors refinished, we accidently tore it when we had to move the sofa into the kitchen. Good times. BUT it gave us a peek underneath. Ooooh. More pretty linoleum. I had been shopping for retro flooring in keeping with the style of the house. So we decided to pull up the top layer since it didn’t seem to be glued down. It came up rather easily. I can say that because David was the one on his knees ripping it out. When he got to the cubby that used to be a closet but now holds the refrigerator, we couldn’t get the rest of the lovely fake stone out. Both of us worked way beyond our vast wisdom and strength. But the stupid stuff wouldn’t budge. Plus even though he used an appliance dolly, the refrigerator would not co-operate. David is a strong man so basically he manhandled the fridge out of the little hole and we eventually got enough of the old flooring out so that it wouldn’t be too obvious when we resituated things. Then we worked together to get the crazy thing leveled in our very UN-level kitchen. Since there were no leveling feet or wheels this brought the tension up to ‘lose your mind’ level, which was not the level we were striving for. Then! And this is where the hoopalah comes in, during the night, our refrigerator died.

Yes it was plugged in.

We’re not sure what happened. But apparently during all the wrestling of said appliance the poor thing gave up the ghost. It made both of us so sad because our Life Group Bible study friends had purchased that refrigerator for us when David had been out of work for a while. Now once again there was nothing to do but buy a new one. Poor David was so discouraged. Though we’d saved a couple thousand dollars by finding and uncovering the old linoleum, now we had to buy something we didn’t really want to spend house money on. He sat at the kitchen table staring at the dead elephant in the room while I browsed online for a refrigerator that would fit in that hole. Though I found one just like the dead one, I pondered the wisdom of buying the same brand hoping for a different result. The thing was not that old. To the side of the screen an ad popped up. Apparently Amazon keeps track of our dreams. At some point I had drooled over retro appliances in bright colors, only to determine we could never afford them. But I clicked on it anyway. And guess what. They were having a very short sale, 35% off.
For less than what I was about to spend on an appliance I did not love, I could get the RED one of my dreams! AND it would fit perfectly in the hole. PLUS it came the next morning! Oh my stars! It is just so pretty!
Every once in a while, things fall into place. Well… I’ve heard that about other people but I never assumed it could be true for us. So mark it down my friends. Our hoopalah was turned into a hootenanny. Only the Lord of all creation would care about my crazy love for Fiesta Ware and all things bright and colorful. Thanks to Him my new/old kitchen is a party waiting to happen. I just love it!