Just One More Thing

One more "home improvement" project occurred over the weekend. Our washing machine hasn't been working up to par for a couple of months but it still worked. This week, however, it started leaking. At first it would just leak a small amount once in a while, but not every time. When it started leaking every time and more and more amounts, we decided it was time to call in our friend, the Sears repair guy. He came Friday (same guy that tried to fix our oven). After he looked at the washing machine he said it needed a new pump and that would cost $235, did I want him to fix it? (He also mentioned the motor was old and didn't know how long that would last.) I chose not to have him fix it. The poor guy felt bad that he could never help us. So Saturday morning I marched back into Sears and bought a new washer. Nothing ever seems to be simple for us. Usually you should be able to simply unhook the old hoses, take out your old washer, bring in your new washer and hook up the new hoses. Well, our house is an older home. First we couldn't get the water to turn off that goes to the washer. They wouldn't even budge becuase of all the build up on them. We even tried Lime Away and that didn't work, either. So the next step would be to turn off the main water source. I knew exactly where that was from previous plumber experience. That wouldn't turn all the way off. It still left a drip. I remembered the plumber had gone outside and turned the water off - I knew where that was, too. But, neither Darren or I could figure out how to do it. ( And there was no way I was sticking my arm down that hole filled with spiders and who knows what else, either. But, Darren was brave enough.) We went back inside and tried, again, to turn off the water by the washer but just ended up breaking off one of the turning things (okay, I know that's not what it's really called but I'm a girl so I won't get a beer can dropped on me.) So we decided to unhook the hoses from the old washer and let them drip into a bucket until the new washer was picked up. We still managed to get a small amount of water on the floor and wall, though. Darren's friend/coworker, Brian Atkinson and his son, Chris, brought their truck to pick up the new washer and take the old one to the dump. They also lent us their manpower to get the washers up and down the stairs. The new washer was easy to hook up, it works well, and we got everything dried out and cleaned up. So it did end happily. Here are some pictures of the event:


















The old washer.




















The "turning thing" that broke off.
























Our make do situation with the leaking hose.























Getting the new washer into place. Most people wouldn't want this view of themselves on a blog, but Darren's is a good one.
























The new washer and hooked up and ready to go!