Joys of Home Ownership

Short Shifter Kit

We are converting, and when I say we I mean we hired some professionals, our fiberglass step in shower enclosure to a roomier, roll in tiled one. Seeing as we are sprucing up elsewhere in the bathroom as well we bought a new toilet for it. We also bought a second matching toilet for the hall bathroom too.

They came from Home Depot so they are a Glacier Bay brand with a vacuum-assisted flush that can clear 7 billiard balls on the first flush. I would like to give that claim a test but I’m afraid that even though the toilet could get rid of those 2-1/4″ solid orbs the house’s plumbing would probably explode.

The inside of the tank looks like under the hood of a modern car, you can’t see the workings because they are under a plastic cover. But I do know there is no old school chain on the handle that goes down to the flapper at the bottom of the tank, so no more jiggling the handle to stop the toilet running. So instead of a three inch throw on the flushing handle this takes a inch to activate. It is sort of like a short shift kit for you manual transmission sports car.

Demo Day

A whole lot of banging and sawing went on today. The main bath was being gutted so that we can get a really nice titled true flat floor walk-in shower instead of the stained fiberglass one we had.

We had the TV in the living room up pretty loud listening to Radio Paradise while we worked on a jigsaw puzzle. But at times it was so loud that Donna requested to borrow my over the ear headphones to play Radio Paradise via the app on my cell phone. From this photo it looks like they are almost finished with the tear down.

The loud noises will continue tomorrow at 10: 00 AM.

Uncontrolled Quality?

A couple weeks ago the dryer started to let out a little squeal on start up randomly. So I ignored it. a week ago the randomness stopped and it became routine. I started shopping around for deals on laundry pairs. Last Friday the little squeal became a constant loud scream of ear splitting high pitched noise.

We were now stuck with a load of soaking wet clothes. I called our neighbor across the street to ask if I could dry a load of clothes because our dryer was making a loud squeal (I’m almost surprised she didn’t hear it.) She said, “You can of course use my dryer. But, we do have a small laundry room in the community and it is free.” “Oh,” I said, “I’ll try the on-site laundry first. Thanks.”

It was just two washers and 2 dryers and when I got there a woman was in one set, so I popped are wet clothes in and opened the Lowes app to see what I could get in a hurry (there was actually a filter for that criteria.) I could get a set of stackable Whirlpool units delivered the very next day, Saturday.

I selected the haul away service because broken laundry machinery won’t fit in the back of the Mini. They won’t let you check out until you have added the water supply hoses, the dryer power cord, plus the dryer ducting and the clamps, even though what I had on the old machines would work. Oh, and $55 for the stacking kit of 4 plastic feet, 2 metal plates and 4 screws.

The delivery, the assembly, stacking and hauling away, went great. It took them maybe 45 minutes total and we were ready to do a load. Washing was fine, but when the wet clothes went into the dryer it sounded like something didn’t get screwed down inside the machine. I put pressure on the dryer sides, then the top, I even lifted the front of the machine and the noise was diminished some, but not to an acceptable level. Checked to see if the machine was off level, it wasn’t.

I went online and registered the machines and their serial number with the manufacturer. Right after I got the registration conformation email I entered a request for warranty service. Because everything is online and artificially intelligent these days, even though it was Saturday, I had a Monday morning appointment for some service.

It took the fellow who came maybe 5 minutes to diagnose the issue of a faulty blower wheel. His comment was, “We’ve been seeing a lot of this lately.”

Does the manufacturer know that they have this problem?

So That’s What That Switch Is For

When we first moved into our home here in Fairview three months ago I went around testing each light switch to see what they controlled. There was one on a side wall of the main bedroom’s closet that was placed pretty high up. The closet light switch was at the right height and right by the door into there, so this second switch was a mystery.

I had the phone number of the previous owner, so I called him up to ask if he knew what that switch was for. He replied, “I have no idea what it does.” I told him, “I was going to get an electrician in for something else and when I did I’d get him to figure it out.” The previous owner’s response was, “Call and tell me, then we’ll both know.” I have never gotten around to the electrician thing. I had a hunch it was for the water heater because in that closet was a bump out that was perfect sized for one and close by to it was a whole house water shut off.

During our winter storm last week when we were close to losing power I got down a heavy blanket we had on the top shelf of the main closet in case we had to huddle under something to stay warm. The very next day when Donna went to shower she shouted, I have no hot water. I tried a different faucet or two and there wasn’t any hot water there either. With all the flickering and near misses at a power failure my first thought was a tripped breaker. The one labeled water heater was fine, but I cycled it anyway. My next thought was to see if there was a separate breaker on the water heater itself. As I was unscrewing the fasteners on that bump out I looked up and that mystery switch was in the down position! Aha!

I must have turned the switch to the down position when I dragged down that blanket, flipped it up and 20 minutes later we had hot water.

42,000 Dust Bunnies*

*This post has been sitting in the drafts folder for a bit over three weeks now for one reason or another. It has been so long long that we are more than half way towards the forty-three thousand mile mark…

In preparation for our big move we have been packing up little used stuff and cleaning every nook and cranny of 4 years of accumulated dirt and dust that we don’t really need to take with us. We are both fairly neat people and we have now pets, so it is amazing how much dust could be found in the house. I’m blaming it on the dry high-desert climate.

While running errands around Klamath Falls, the Mini rolled over the 42,000 mile barrier.

For The Want Of An Aerator

Because we are selling our house, it needed to be inspected by the buyer. The biggest thing on their “Fix This Stuff” list was a new water heater. I get that, it was listed on our inspection when we bought here 4 years ago. The dried up rusty looking drip coming from the front panel makes it look like it’ll go at any time. So we opted to go ahead and give the new owners some peace of mind.

We had our realtor rustle up a plumber for the job, because they can always get someone on short notice to do home repairs. The only day he could do the work was last Wednesday, but we were going to be out of town and not getting back until Thursday night. Our realtor arranged to let him in to do the job.

We heard nothing at all on Wednesday, or Thursday, so what we had was a Schrodinger’s water heater problem. Had it been changed or not, we wouldn’t know until we got home…

I had helpfully pulled out the washer before we left, so he would have easy access to the water heater and when we looked in the laundry area Thursday evening we knew that we had a new water heater. Our nice plumber had even put the washing machine back. Cool. When Donna tried the kitchen and hall bathroom faucets the flow out of them was pitiful. The shower in that bath was restricted some too. Everywhere else worked just fine. When I called the plumber he agreed to come over on Monday (he doesn’t work Fridays.)

Around 5 on Monday with no word from our wayward plumber I texted him and asked if he was coming over, he replied with bad day, can I come tomorrow? He said he’d be there around 11:00. By noon on Tuesday and still no plumber, so I texted, “Coming?” He replied, “Running late, be there in an hour.

When he arrived he explained because of our galvanized, 60-year old, pipes when the water gets turned off and then back on all the flakes in the pipes make a beeline to the first faucets turned on. He set about cleaning the troublesome lines. The kitchen was improved slightly, but the hall bathroom was kicking his butt. He took the whole faucet out and and did get a bunch of junk out. When he put the faucet back on the sink, it still wasn’t flowing great. He tried to get the aerator off and couldn’t get it unscrewed, but in the trying mangled the aerator screen. Now the water was coming out too hard and splashing everywhere.

He headed over to a local plumbing supply store and bought an off the shelf aerator. It wouldn’t screw into the faucet nozzle. By now it was late in the day and he said he’d be back tomorrow, Wednesday, with a different aerator. He was a no show. So around 11:00 on Thursday with no word, I texted, “Will we see you today?” “About an hour,” was his reply. This time the aerator fit and all was right again, so I wrote the check for the job and he left.

Later that evening, with the bathroom faucet dispensing nicely aerated water, Donna heard a dripping sound from under the sink. Sure enough when you turned on the water fully, from either tap, a small stream of water came out underneath, from the center of the faucet assembly! Crap, so I texted him. Below is the text conversation that followed:

Me: Well, nice try and fortunately the bucket under the sink was in the right place to catch the water. That aerator was creating so much back pressure that it over powered the O-rings that lead to the faucet output nozzle causing it to leak and the water comes out underneath.

Me: I broke the aerator out and the faucet works as advertised with no leak underneath, but it now still needs an aerator. Home Depot has one of the exact faucets in stock for $119 or there is a Phister Ladera in brushed nickel for $69 that would be an acceptable substitute. Go buy one and come over tomorrow to put it in.

Me: Option C s to buy the aerator from Delta online. RP101505 for $6.64 + $15.99 for 1 to 2 day shipping.

Plumber: I can do that but probably not tomorrow and you do realize it’s not my fault, all I did was replace the water heater. Your water lines are old and deteriorating

Plumber: But I would be happy to buy you another one and install it

Me: Don’t worry about it. I’ll buy the $69 one and put it in myself. Maybe next time you change out a water heater in a home that has galvanized pipes you’ll remember to flush the water lines through a hose into the tub or something, so the poor not so wise home owner won’t turn it on and clog their faucets.

Plumber: Noted. I want to buy it for you guys. I don’t like leaving my jobs on bad terms. I will call you tomorrow.

Me: OK

Plumber: Thanks

 
Today is Friday, his tomorrow, and all we got from our friend the plumber was radio silence. So our tomorrow, Saturday, we are headed over to Home Depot to get that $69 faucet and I’ll put in myself…

Unexpected, But Shouldn’t Have Been

Last Friday when I went downstairs to swap the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer I was surprised to see the Soak light lit. When I opened the lid the clothes were swimming in a round plastic pond. Wow, that’s different from our usual plague of out of balance wet clothes in one half of the tub. But I tried the same fix, i.e.. the Drain and Spin cycle. Knowing that it takes 5-10 minutes, I headed back upstairs.

When I returned downstairs, the clothes were a little wetter than they should have been, but at least the water was gone. But because I didn’t know when in the cycle the washer had quit before so that maybe it never made it to the rinse part, we decide to start over, I added some soap and ran the typical wash cycle.

After the usual hour wait, back downstairs I went. The Soak light was lit and the tub was full of water again. Crap. Ran the Drain & Spin cycle again. Same results as before water gone, but clothes overly wet. So I got a big lawn & leaf plastic bag to line our clothes hamper so that we could run to a local laundromat to do the load there. Later that day I ordered a new washing machine. We really shouldn’t have been surprised.

I came close to calling in a repairman to look at it back in February and then in May I actually order a new one, but cancelled it at the last minute because it started working correctly again. Knowing our new washing machine’s arrival date yesterday I unhooked the old one and when I slid it out from it’s home, underneath, was quite a lot of small bits of plastic that looked a little like chopped up licorice. I dragged the broken washer into the garage and when I looked at the bottom of the machine I couldn’t tell where that black stuff was coming from, whatever, this thing was going to the dump.

The new washing machine arrived today and after 2 full loads it still works just like it should.