I think its worth the $200 buck if you can get money back, though I would suggest you wait before you bring in the new fridge. We kept our old one in during the reno, it was easier to have food drinks. We kept the new fridge in the garage until we were ready to move it in, if that's not an optin, make sure you have it covered and I mean wrapped tight with plastic several times. There is so much dust flying around, besides you don't want it damaged during reno, because it will be moved around. Unfortuntaley, cash for clunkers just started this month for us, so it didn't for us we didn't benifit. We moved the old one into the garage.

What type of fridge are you buying?

Thanks---the challenge for our state is that you must document both recycling of the old fridge and installation of the new one in order to get the rebate, or we would definitely go the route you're describing!

We're not 100 percent sure on which fridge we're getting, which is another challenge---without the rebate we will get a KitchenAid single door bottom freezer, but that's not included in the rebate program (for stupid reasons, as it actually meets the energy requirements, but is not on the state's outdated list of models...augh!) so if we go that route we will likely look at an equivalent Samsung. So another factor, of course, is how the two compare in cost---it may be a wash anyway. Just starting to research this.

Well then I would say its not worth the $200, get what you want, because most of the items we like are not part of the rebate. I bought the kitchen aid french door and it didn't have any rebates...it doesn't matter energy efficient or not.

We moved our existing frig (which was only a couple of years old) into the living room during the reno. The only problem moving it out of the kitchen was that the dolly wheels left grooves in our soft heart pine floors.

We ended up moving it back into the finished kitchen and then back out again when the delayed refinishing of the floors happened a month or so later (covering the floor with masonite during those trips). During one of those moves the main door was dented in several places (it's a SS, single door, freezer on bottom model). Our GC took full responsibility and replaced the door, which cost a lot more than $200.

So I'd say move your frig as little as possible. Or be extremely careful (the dents were caused by something that happened when the frig was strapped to the dolly, we think).

It's not a big deal if you're careful. We moved our fridge (full depth model) into our living room for our remodel. Put it on sliders for the hardwood floors and had to take the doors off to get it through the doorway. We didn't get the new one picked out before moving back in so it went back.

Suppose this would be a good time to go fridge shopping huh?

My old white fridge have wheels.. just pushed all the way into the living room, it's still in the living room, with stuff growing inside :(

Yeah, unless it's a built-in fridge, you can just roll it into the next room.

Poorowner, you're supposed to plug it in! :)

I don't mean to suggest that fridges are easy to move. They are heavy and can maim floors and doors as well as get dented themselves, but if one (or preferable, two) is careful, it can be done with no damage.

Thanks---I hadn't even thought about the issue of getting it through doorways, but now that I do....ack! We have 32" doorways that are more like 29" of clearance, so no way will the current fridge fit without a lot of grief, though if we're lucky the new one may get through with the door off---it's counter-depth.

But just envisioning that convinces me we should not be moving it in and out more than once. (This is also a good excuse to stick with the KA!)

It's also funny because we heard from the neighbor that the PO, when she bought the house in the mid-90s, had a fight with the sellers because they were taking the refrigerator and they went back and forth forever on it before she finally yielded....now I wonder if it's because she knew how much of a pain it would be to get what's there now through the doorway!

U have too many *IFs* for 200 lousy bucks. SKIP IT. Specially the part where u don't get to buy what u like. Something that u will be staring at for a good several years. And don't forget u can Craiglist the old one.

Moving is no big deal. Go to Uhaul, they sell this armband strap and use 2 men to lift the fridge straight off the floor, no wheels, no minor obstruction to worry. My new fridge was delivered that way by Sears a month ago.

Browsing through the web, am scared by the inconsistency of today's Quality Assurance. So buy fridge when you are READY to listen to it, put it through its paces etc, not when you are up to your kisters on other reno concerns.

If I remember right, you are remodeling the breakfast area around the back door too. Will you be widening the back door? My kitchen has double French doors. I don't need double door but plan to keep them, purely as a way for large things (range, refrigerator, pipe organ) to get in and out.

@johnliu---yes, good memory! :) We are replacing the back door, but not actually widening it (yet....still hope to add french doors someday, but our local code requires that we redo the whole back deck/stairs to do that, and sadly that's not in the budget this time around!) However, we will definitely have the back door and moulding off completely at some point, which seems like a great time to do any moving in and out of large appliances where a few inches could make or break things.

(And on the pipe organ front....the local salvage yard that I stalk for house parts had a gorgeous, if not 100% working, one a few months ago---I would be lying if the "new counters...or awesome antique organ?" thought didn't cross my mind! ;)

My floor guy had two slender wood pieces, approx 2ft by maybe 4 ft. He tilted the frig one in direction while inserting one wood strip underneath the wheels and then tilted the frig in the other direction and inserted the other strip. Now he had something to roll on and he used other wood for a path. The wood was slender and dark brown. I don't know what it is called but bought myself some at HD

Hardwood plywood underlayment, called Haldex, is one-quarter inch thick and very resistant to crushing. Buy a few sheets and use them as a protective layer for the floor. Some hardware stores with lumber yards will stock it.

kas

On a related note, I've realized that I cannot have a fixed island in my layout, because it would be difficult or impossible to move 36'' range and 50'' refrigerator in/out of the kitchen. Same as you, the interior doorways are too narrow. The island would block off the path to the double doors. That's okay, I was already leaning in favor of a work table instead.