I completely agree with Heather Rosales. I too purchased a Viking built-in all-refrigerator in 2010 against my better judgment. My first problem was that I took delivery of a unit with a bent compressor, so I had to fight to get a replacement unit. In retrospect, I suspect that they replaced it with a refurbished unit because since then I have had ongoing issues. Almost all of my friends make jokes about my fridge issues because they have been following the saga. I had one or two warranty visits to address temperature issues during the coverage period. The warranty was also a problem because I purchased the unit almost a year prior to it being installed due to a renovation that needed custom cabinets that went on way too long. So, I lost a year of warranty time. Since then I have spent over $1600 in service fees (with an authorized service company to try to get it not to deep freeze all my food. I was given multiple reasons for why it was not working properly all of them completely hypothetical while each theory costing me money. The most recent episode involves the same authorized dealer deciding it needed a new door seal/gasket which took almost 3 weeks to deliver due to it being supposedly back ordered @ $700 cost. I am not sure if the seal was or was not the issue because the seal doesn't keep the door closed at all! There is absolutely no suction whatsoever in the door. In fact, the door looks open all the time now. Now they installed some type of temperature measurement device to monitor the temperature for the next 3 days. This experiment seems futile to me if the door doesn't close properly. It would be like trying to test air conditioning with all the windows and doors open. I am going on 26 days without a functioning refrigerator this time around. The other thing to be aware of it the quality of the crispers. They break very easily and the cost to replace them makes it impossible to replace. Of the 5 crispers, 4 are broken. I was quoted $700+ to replace 2 of them. Even the service company doesn't recommend replacing them due to the cost. I have had two other homes where I inherited Sub-zeros and I NEVER had one issue with those units. One of them was ancient but it was a beast; never failing me. I called Viking Range LLC and they don't seem to be interested in assisting. They have a customer care team that provides the token empathic statements but they don't seem willing to do more. In Canada, I noticed that even the authorized distributors listed on the Viking site don't actually carry Viking products despite being listed as Canadian distributors. This is a very telling sign! I would be happy to just trash this unit and caulk it up to a super bad consumer purchase but not only would I have to spend money to replace the unit, it will also require a new custom panel and custom trim work. STAY AWAY FROM VIKING!

BF and I try to eat lots of fresh vegetables. It does help to clean them all up on the weekends. Also I very often make a pot of beans (if you can eat those) and brown rice and then freeze them. I also make stews in the crockpot which I then parcel out into reheatable containers that I can pop into my lunchbox. Same with casseroles like enchiladas, etc. Dips like spinach and hummus are great on whole grain wasa bread, which is one of the things I can eat. Here's a great low fat spinach dip. I also make the regular recipe and sub half tofu for the mayo and sour cream, then just add a dab of lowfat mayo and lowfat sour cream for flavor. Lowfat spinach artichoke dip I can of white beans--butter beans go well, as do cannelini. 1/2 10 oz. package of frozen chopped spinach, or about 1-2 cups from a bag, which is how we buy it. Could use 5 oz. fresh, just steam and dice. 1 jar of marinated artichokes, chopped. 1/2 large red pepper diced or one canned roasted red pepper diced. 3 chopped scallions or 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion couple cloves garlic to taste, or the equivalent garlic powder 1 tsp. italian seasoning and/or some fresh basil dash of lemon juice couple TBLSP parmesean cheese and a dab of neufatchel if you can eat either of those. Go easy, since this is where the fat comes in. Salt and pepper to taste. Not needed if you use the parmesean and canned beans. Combine spinach and beans in the food processor. Spoon out of the processor and add the other ingredients. This should meld for at least 30 min. before eating. Yesterday I made the easiest chili I have ever made in my life, and it was great. Throw it in the Crockpot Chili Ingredients to throw in: 1 chopped onion (red or white) 1 can beans of choice--black or kidney are my favorites 1 cup Morningstar Farms fake meat crumbles, (or 1/2 lb. crumbled cooked lowfat meat of choice) 1 cup frozen corn 1 diced zuchinni 1/2 diced green pepper 1 can Hunts diced tomatoes with spicy red pepper. I had never had these before, they were GREAT. You could use the fire roasted diced tomatoes, or the ones that come with jalepenos. If you can't get any of these, improvise with regular diced tomatoes and canned peppers. 1 14.5 oz can tomato sauce plus some water for rinsing out the can 2-3 cloves garlic 1/2 tsp. cumin 1/2 tsp. oregano 1/2 tsp. commercial chili powder 1/2 tsp. ancho chili pepper 1/2 tsp. hot or mild paprika or a mix Adjust hotness to your taste with cayenne. This version was hot enough for us as is. Throw all this in the crockpot and simmer for about 2 hours on high and 1-2 hours on low. Lowfat and tasty! I served it with baked tortilla chips and a dab of guac which I make by mixing avocado and salsa.

There's a lot of truth to many of the things brought up, and people wax nostalgically about "the good old days" but not many people really want to go back too far. Few will give up their cell phones, cars, remote controls, cable/satellite TV, microwaves automatic washers and the like. I'll admit I sure appreciate a lot of the conveniences but I also enjoyed going "back to nature" at the lake. No electricity out there so you got a taste of what it was like 100+ years ago. And certain conveniences there too. But that's a different topic. And me, I really like a large yard. I don't like being where you can reach out the window and shake hands with the neighbors. One of the reasons I bought where I did. Nice large lawn. I much prefer grass to blacktop or concrete. Healthier too. Trees and grass absorb CO2 and emit O2. It's part of photosynthesis. My dad couldn't figure out why I planted so many trees in my yard. I run the a/c much less because the house is much cooler when it's shaded. With grass rather than blacktop or concrete, it's much cooler in the summer and the smell of fresh cut grass is a nice smell, quite unlike the chemical smell of "mountain freshness" or whatever they call that stench they put in the laundry detergents and softeners that people seem so addicted to. Used to be when the clothes would stink was an indicator it's time to wash the clothes and yes, back when, you could wear a shirt and/or pants more than an hour before changing them. Having lawns instead of hard surfaces also lets the water tables fill up again from the rains and snow. Look at the areas with water shortage issues. Generally they have far more impervious surfaces. We are doing our best to fight Mother Nature and can't figure out why she gets ticked off and gives a little slap on the wrists now and then to remind us to wake up. And FWIW, I haven't watered my lawn for over 25 years and have a much nicer lawn overall than most of the neighbors. The hottest part of the summer the grass will go dormant. When that happens you don't need to mow. If you water it, then you have to mow it! What's wrong with this picture? :) And the one I'll add is how people used to "cook" coffee at home. They didn't have to go pay $5 at Megabucks for coffee with a lot of milk in it! Used a mug or a cup and saucer (how many remember saucer and blow? Course the coffee was much hotter then too because women in those days knew that coffee was hot and not to spill it in their laps and run to a lawyer. You'd fix it rather than just toss it and buy new. And nobody bought all new appliances because the color trend had changed! You could get your appliances in any color you wanted, as long as it was white, possibly with some chrome trim. Home buyers didn't know the phrase "kitchen needs 'updating'"! And for the rare circumstance if the washer quit for good and was unrepairable, you surely didn't buy a new dryer to go with it! And back then if you didn't have that item you wanted needed for whatever, you didn't make a special trip to the store. You called a neighbor or went over and asked to borrow a cup of sugar or whatever. Or you would "make do" without. If clothes went out of style, you wore clothes that were out of style until they wore out. Although few would go back to those days, many sure could learn something from those days couldn't they?

Some comments on trip charges. They exist in all of the trades, not just cabinet installers. Electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, carpenters, and every Pro I know has a trip charge, even if they don’t come right out and call it that. Trip charges are for when an installer has budgeted an install to take 2 days, and due to the actions of others, it takes 3 days. Or more. It affects the wait time of paying customers downstream of the job. He is losing money if he has to show up again at a job without additional compensation. And he is pushing someone else’s job off until later to do that. Real life examples: For instance, he gets paid a trip charge when the plumber cut off the pipes too short, and he has to wait a half day for him to show up and lengthen the pipes to fit through the cabinets and be reached once the sink was installed. That trip charge was a chargeback to the plumber. Or, he gets a trip charge when the kitchen designer orders gray crown molding instead of white, and no one opened the package at delivery to check for damage and color. I paid for that trip charge, as well as the right color crown. And got chewed out for not opening the package at check in. That’s what happens at dealers. Or he gets a trip charge if during the install, the customer decides that she wants a tile backsplash after all, instead of the 4” counter splash she had planned. He has to make an unbudgeted extra trip later to install the light rail molding after the tile goes up. That was charged to the homeowner. Now, if the trade just under budgeted his time, and the job takes 3 days and he had budgeted 2? That is his problem to solve and to eat. And to apologize to the downstream customers. A tight schedule can’t have extra labor fit into it without a cost being paid by someone. Sometimes the dealer eats it if they could have prevented the delay that forces the additional trip. Sometimes the GC eats it if the issue is unclear as to who should pay. It’s the GC’s job to make sure that the trades keep to the schedule, and if it takes eating that trip charge, that’s what he does. So, the customer may not even be aware that a trip charge is happening unless the delay is their issue to own and pay for.