Tales From The Ipe!

Beginning a few weeks ago, the Kenmore washing machine that came with the house began to make a very loud whining noise as it agitated, which in turn began to agitate me. Why was it making that sound? Was it on its last legs? Concurrently, I had some weird noises coming from the dishwasher, which is even more unusual, as it’s only 5 years old. I called Sears to have them come in and take a look at both appliances. I’ve had Sears come out in the past once to take a look at our BBQ, and the experience was pretty good Expensive, but good.

The good news was that the dishwasher was easily remedied — it turns out that our dishwasher was full of suds. Hand dishwashing soap is very concentrated, so when we washed pots and pans, that soap accumulated on the dishes, and then we put those same dishes into the dishwasher for a proper washing. The soap accumulated in the dishwasher, and the sound we heard was the drain pump at the bottom of the dishwasher unsuccessfully sucking the suds. I wouldn’t have believed it myself, except that we tested this by running an empty dishwasher without dishes or soap, stopping it after 5 mins, and opening it to see it full of suds like the old Looney Tunes cartoons. Advice from the Sears guy? Be very careful with washing pots and pans over the dishes and then putting aforementioned dishes in the dishwasher. We had to put some vegetable oil in the dishwasher, and run the dishwasher empty twice to finally clean out the dishwasher.

The bad news was the washing machine was on its way out. The transmission, the flux capacitor, the timing belts, and a mess of other real and imaginary parts were worn out. To replace them all would cost over $900, which is basically a new washing machine, so the Sears guy recommended we go out and buy a new one.

At the end of date night last Friday, we went to the Lowe’s in Lawrenceville to check out washing machines, and to buy some drill bits for myself so I could replace the backyard gate. Yesterday, I went to purchase an LG washing machine after it went on sale. We were able to schedule a home delivery and installation (and cart away the old washer) for the next day on Sunday morning. I had planned to be home for the installation, but while I was at the gym, the delivery guys showed up early and installed it.

Our new LG washing machine

I’ve run an inaugural load of dirty laundry, and it’s certainly quiet. And that’s all there is to say about that.

A month or so ago, the top hinge on our backyard gate broke due to the wood attached to the fence post splitting. The best I could do temporarily was to use some rope/twine to tie it to the fence until I could either fix it, or hire someone to fix it. A year or so ago, we had a local handyman company come and rebuild the broken fence. Now I had another broken fence. Home ownership is a pain sometimes. So I added that to the Joel “To Do” list, including replacing the front and back exterior lights, and making some other small repairs around the house.

Replacing the backyard exterior light was a little annoying, but I was able to finish that in a little more than an hour. I had considered fixing the gate myself to save money, but free time became questionable, so my wife asked that I consider having another handman company fix the gate when they come to fix a few other things beyond my skills around the roof. Unfortunately, I haven’t found anyone available to do it, so I put  the gate repair job back on my to-do list. I measured the board, and Josh and I hit our nearest Lowe’s to get a replacement board of pressure-treated wood that would match the necessary dimensions, and bought a whole mess of galvanized lag screws and nails. It wasn’t easy to hang a gate by myself, but with some odd bricks and leftover pieces of wood, I was able to keep the gate vertical long enough to mark and pre-drill the holes, nail and fasten the gate, and voila!

I’m not having much luck removing the old exterior light in the front yard, but I hope to get to that next weekend. Oh, and also painting the replacement fence slat. Man, is nothing ever done?