laundry- updates

Wednesday, today is the day Sears makes their visit. I am guessing the day may be a thousand dollar day. I am having the gas stove looked at as two of the burners wont start on their own. The oven light is out also. the Laundry machine is also getting an overhaul.

I thought since I was having the laundry looked at that I could also have the stove at the same time, but they are two different technicians with two different bills. The stove guy comes first. He doesn't have the parts. They will be sent and he will return, but I wont have to pay for the return call.

While he is here he asks if there is anything else he can fix for me. He mentions the filter on the refrigerator. "Yes", that definitely needs replacing. We have lived here since December 2006 without replacing the filter. It is time. I know you are supposed to change it out every year. Its a little past time. The door shelves are broken on the fridge also. I ask for new ones. By the end of the kitchen visit the bill is a little over $400. I would rather fix these things given the opportunity. They would need to be fixed if we ever moved anyway. At least now I can enjoy the use. There is a discount for a second appliance health check. Everything will be sent to me and the repair man will come back in two weeks free of charge to install the new light on the oven, the switch on the stove, the filter and drawers on the refrigerator, worth every penny.


The Laundry repair man comes a little while after the kitchen repairman leaves. The pump is blown. Unusual for the age of the washer, little does he realize the use that washer receives. It is kind of like the time I bought the planer for Tom and he proceeded to cut down the woods around our house and plane nearly 2000 board feet of maple. Sears was out several times repairing that planer. It just wasn't up to that kind of volume of use. It was meant for the hobby use. We had insurance on that planer, worth every penny. We were lucky with the washer, there was a pump in the repair truck.

Tom mentioned last night it might be time for one of his exceptions to the no insurance rule. He always said if you bought insurance for every item, the cost of all that insurance alone would cover replacement of one item every year if it broke. You could just buy a new one. So he didn't advocate insurance. In this particular instance though, our washer gets industrial use. It needs insurance.

I bought a five year package from the repair man, repairs included $500. Thats $100 a year to guarantee it doesn't break down again, less than 50 cents a day. The washer is two years old. In seven years we can consider replacement. As a front loader it should have held up better. Now it will, because it has insurance. The laundry mat cost me $4 a load plus inconvenience. I do a load every day if not two to three. Insurance for this one is worth every penny.

I took advantage of the second machine maintenance discount while the repair man was here. I had him clean out the drier. He must have collected two pounds in change out of the drier guts. That cleaning was definitely worth every penny. I knew there was stuff in it where there shouldn't be, because I had had it jamb up before. I just tipped it upside down and shook it when that happened. That fixed the problem, removed the rock or change blocking the belts. Having it professionally cleaned was wonderful. Now it will be happy for a while.

I was right. The end result was about a Thousand dollar day. But my appliances will all have new life breathed into them. The only thing they wouldn't fix was the instant hot water on the sink. I will just have to go buy a new one. Tom said he would install it, having heard how much we just spent on repair men. But all the repairs had to be done sooner or later. I would rather have the benefit of them now.

Yeah, my laundry is fixed. I was told to run a cup and a half of white vinegar through an empty load first, due to the bad water sitting in it for a week. It smelled like sewer upstairs when the washer door was opened. the vinegar will also help rinse out old soap in the lines. He recommended doing that once a month to keep the lines clear. I am going to start a load right now then I am off to buy a new instant hot water. I had to turn off the cold water under the sink due to the dripping of the instant hot. Now all I need are new floors for the torn vinyl in front of the fridge. That was caused by melted ice cubes not picked up from using the ice maker. Well, maybe next year that will be on my wish list. Today I am just happy to get what I did get done. We are hard on a house.