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Re: A number of possibly not-dull stories to share... 

By: Decomposed in 6TH POPE | Recommend this post (2)
Sat, 28 May 22 3:58 AM | 26 view(s)
Boardmark this board | 6th Edition Pope Board 		Msg. 32384 of 60008
(This msg. is a reply to 32382 by Decomposed)
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#3. This is far-and-away the most complicated story. I'm going to cut a lot of corners in the telling and hopefully not put anyone to sleep.

The washer died a few days ago. No, I don't mean my wife. I mean the G.E. clothes washer we bought used in Sacramento and relied upon for a good many decades. It lost its ability to complete a spin cycle, shaking and clanging and actually making the lights in the living room flicker. My wife thought the problem was the motor. I thought it might be a belt. But it hardly matters since nobody around here repairs washers. Nobody I know, at least, and especially not me.

Sidebar: We do have a brand new washer/dryer sitting in the barn at the other property. But I didn't like the idea of hauling it here. And I figured it'd be a patchwork solution. Ultimately, there are two houses and they both need a washer. So, "no" to that idea.

My wife found a number of sub $100 washers on Craig's list. One seller said his worked "so far as he knew," but the outside was pretty dinged up. That sounded sketchy. Another we contacted said she is in Michigan right now awaiting the birth of her grandchild and wouldn't be back for ten days. Nope. Doing laundry isn't one of those things that can wait two weeks. I suggested we pay a bit more than $100 and hopefully get a washer that wouldn't be questionable or involve waiting. My wife then found a washer/dryer pair available north of Concord, about two hours away. The seller and her husband are renovating, flipping the place, actually, and she said she'd be willing to split the pair since they weren't a matched set. Awesome. We arranged to pick up the washer Thursday morning. $200.

We did just that. Except for the pup throwing up whilst I was holding him, it all went well and we came home about noon with a nice glass-topped Maytag Bravos washer. I have no idea how old it is, but it looks modern to me and the old washer could've been at the half century mark for all I know.

Update: We just did a serial number lookup. Based on the first four characters being "CX38," this washer was made in the 38th week of 2020. Cool! It's just a year and a half old!

Once home, the next thing to do was to disconnect the old washer and get it out of the house. We live upstairs and aren't body builders, so this isn't as easy as you might think. But, last night, we had at it.

I turned the washer valve (on the wall) to "Off." Due to corrosion, I unscrewed the cold water hose from the washer instead of from the valve. A little water leaked from the washer, but it wasn't bad. Then I did the same with the hot. As I unscrewed it, water dribbled, then streamed, then squirted out. I figured it was a lot of pent up pressure and continued unscrewing. We got a large pretzel bottle and held it beneath to catch the water. I got the hose off and... %@#$!! Water gushed out and began soaking the floor, and me, and showed no sign of slowing down. I stood there stupidly not understanding how this deluge... at least a gallon by now... could be spraying from the washer, then yelled to my wife (who was only a foot away), "Where's the water coming from???"

"From the hose!" she said.

Okay, duh. It didn't occur to me to look at the hose since I'd turned that water off. Right? Well, yeah, I did. So I stood there a few more seconds, with water still coming out at high pressure, too stupid to remember what I knew even as a 2nd grader about cutting off a hose by crimping it. I aimed the hose at the toilet - which, fortunately, was open, and spent the next minute or two like that while my wife looked for towels.

While standing there... I confirmed that the washer valve was indeed off. There shouldn't be any water. But there was. Something, obviously, was amiss.

I told my wife to take the hose. She kept it aimed at the toilet while I tried to figure out how to extricate myself. The hose and water, you see, had penned me in. I eventually dropped to my knees and crawled UNDER it all. Then I headed downstairs and turned off the well at the circuit box. That stops the water.

I returned upstairs and... the water was still spraying. This made no sense and for a few seconds, I had no idea what to do. But I headed down again and this time cut the main power to the house. FINALLY something worked. The water stopped.

By the way, for the second time in less than a year, an upstairs water problem was pouring through the garage ceiling. Good thing the previous damage hasn't been repaired yet,eh? - or we'd be replacing the insulation and drywall in the garage for a second time.

We cleaned up the bathroom floor. Then I set out to learn which circuit controlled the well. My wife manned the offending hose upstairs, keeping it aimed at the toilet just in case, while I turned off every jumper, then turned on the main. No problem. I slowly turned on every jumper except for the one that was supposed to control the well. No problem. When I turned on the well's jumper, the upstairs hose starting gushing again. I turned the jumper off and . . . it didn't stop! So, again, I turned off the main circuit and that killed the water flow.

Interesting, no? The well jumper can turn the power to the well ON, but it can't seem to turn it off again. Maybe one of you high IQ types can explain it.

We knew at this point that the main fault lay with the washing machine valve - a spigot on the wall of the house, not part of a washing machine. Youtube videos said these valves are all standard and incredibly easy to replace. I watched how it was done and agreed that I could do it. I headed to Home Depot and picked one up... from the same manufacturer, Symmons, for $39.95. Once home - after dark - we screwed the faulty hose back onto the old clothes washer, which let us turn the water to the house back on and deal with the rest of the problem in the morning.

Friday morning (today), I cut the main power once again, loosened two screws on the washing machine valve, pulled it off, popped the new one on and had that problem fixed. It took about ten minutes.

My short story goes faster now. I found the movers' straps I bought from Tophatter a few years ago, and the two of us worked like pros to get a HEAVY (and not totally dry) washer down the stairs and outside. We rested for an hour to make sure we weren't having heart attacks, then lifted the new washer out of my truck and onto the same movers' straps.

Did I mention that a thunderstorm is on its way? LOL. That's one crisis that didn't play a role. It looked like it COULD start raining but no rain. Knock on wood.

We again rested, used the handheld EKG to verify that we were still alive, then lugged the new washer slowly up the stairs. Those movers' straps... they're life savers.

The wonderful new (almost) Maytag Bravos washer is now in place, running, and has already done a couple of loads. It uses very little water and, somehow, just half the detergent. The clothes look clean. I think it works!




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Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months


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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: A number of possibly not-dull stories to share...
By: Decomposed in 6TH POPE
Sat, 28 May 22 2:14 AM 		Msg. 32382 of 60008

This one is pretty simple too.

My wife and I hit a church rummage sale this a.m. Everything was "by donation. Pay what you want." I hate those sales. I want to get things on the cheap, but don't want to COME ACROSS as cheap.

So, anyway, I was in the church while the wife was outside minding the dog. That was probably for the best since she's always saying "no" to the things I want to get. This time she didn't have a say.

The only thing that interested me were four huge (12" x 10.5"), square earthenware plates, bright yellow. I thought it'd be nice when eating a steak with a couple of sides or a taco salad, to actually have room on the plate. Although I'd initially passed on them, I circled back and picked 'em up. I gave the desk $5 which they thought was just fine.

I was pretty happy this evening when my wife told me that "Mamma Ro" Italian plates -which is what mine are - in this style are advertised on Ebay for $22.49 plus $7.99 shipping. Some sellers charge more. One is asking $28.99 plus $14.99 shipping. And that's for ONE plate. I got four for five bucks.

Then my wife had to spoil it all by telling me that they're serving trays.

"What's that?" I asked since I don't pretend to be the cultured one in the family.

"It's what you put food on when bringing it to the table for guests," she said.

"Uh, does that mean I can't eat my steak and taco salad on it?"

"You COULD," she said... stressing the word in that way she has that tells me I can do something but would be a total buffoon if I actually did.

Okay, so I get it. I bought these huge plates for the express purpose of being able to eat a jumbo taco salad without any of the lettuce or meat falling off and . . . apparently I can't do that.

%@#$.

But at least they were cheap.

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