After 20 years of wanting one, I've finally got a fridge that has an ice maker. Unfortunately, that's the beginning of the story not the end. You see, our kitchen cabinets where built by Dr. Seuess. When I measured for the width of the fridge, I checked the measurement at the floor, at counter height, and then again with the upper cabinet. All were fine. Tight, but fine. Then the fridge came.

Although all the widths were fine, they were unfortunately offset from one another by as much as half an inch.

I suppose I could have returned the fridge and gotten one that was narrower, but with three kids and my wife and I we need all the cold space we can get. I'm also not giving up my ice maker.

As I got into this job, I discovered that indeed the counter and cabinets were built by Dr. Seuess -- or someone who studied carpentry under his influence. As near as I can tell, there isn't a true right angle within 10 meters of my kitchen. There are many that are close, but none that are true. I used a t-bar to draw a right angle line off the backsplash toward the the front across the counter top. Since the bar was too short, I went to make a matching line, using the front of the counter top to square the angle. The two lines met -- at a shallow angle. Even the front and back edges of the cabinet aren't quite parallel. Who builds like that?

I've spent the last two days cutting an inch off the end of both the lower and upper cabinet. These are built in place cabinets, not buy them and hang them kind. The side panels are 3/4 inch plywood. I was able to cut off both side panels, then trim them so they now fit inside rather than outside the frame of the cabinet. Trimming the laminate counter top was tricky to do without damaging it outside the cut area. I used a very fine tooth jig saw blade and went very slowly.

Two full days of work later (a job a pro could have done in a few hours, I'm sure) I'm finished. Just cleaning up while waiting for the stain to dry then I can push the fridge into place and have done with it (yes, I've tested the fit before staining the cabinets).