Tonight I headed over to my new place to try to do a bit of cleaning so it would be ready to receive furniture and the like on Friday when I move. I had a small list of projects to get done: replace faucet sprayer, remove caulk from bathtub, wash baseboards.
I started with removing the caulk from the bathtub. That was pretty easy, until I got to the caulk that was under the shower door. I’m not sure what bull semen they used to get that to adhere, but it wasn’t going anywhere. I abandoned the job halfway done and resolved to go home and bring back a razor blade to coax it out.
I felt a little ADHD wandering out of the bathroom, leaving a tub full of caulking bits all over it. In the kitchen, I started to replace the faucet handle (the old one had piss-poor pressure), when I noticed a weird noise coming from the refrigerator. Curious, I opened the door – and saw nothing. Then I opened the door to the freezer and saw…
ICICLES.
That’s right. There were icicles connecting my icemaker to the ice cube tray. And the ice cube tray was a solid block of ice. (I don’t even understand how the water was able to freeze that way.) And the floor of the freezer? Also ice – to the tune of a solid inch of it.
WTF?!
The ironic thing? The ice maker was turned off.
I’m guessing I have a leak in there. I’m not sure how or when it started, because the ice maker was fine during my home inspection and during my walk-through. But now, 24 hours after taking possession, I have a leaky mess on my hands.
I emptied everything out, turned the fridge off and left with the hopes that by thawing, the ice maker would drain its excess water and at least have a chance of resuming normal operation.
I went back two hours later to check on it and stick a large bucket in there over night. Unfortunately, there was no obvious shut-off for the icemaker’s water source, so we’ll just have to see if I get lucky over night. Ah, home ownership. Ain’t it grand?
Oh, and if you were hanging in suspense, dying to know if I washed the baseboards… well, I started. Then I got bored, hungry and wandered on home, puzzled that in two hours of labor I had somehow managed to leave my place worse than I had found it.
Sigh. This does not bode well.
pithypants 
For the ice maker, there will be a quarter-inch copper pipe tapped into the cold water supply line under the sink. With any luck, that line will have a small stop cock valve on it that you can close to stop water to the fridge. A quarter turn should be all that is necessary. The valve should be close to the tap-in point, but sometimes you might find it near the back of the fridge (not the best of places). Happy hunting.
wow, Dad’s advice above just might have been the solution we’ve been looking for for over a year now, to our non-working ice maker!
A piece of advice (albeit a few days late) put some towels under the front of the fridge as it thaws, otherwise you’ll end up with water all over the place!