Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
I have a bad memory when it comes to the days the garbage people pick up the recycling. I thought they were coming to get it this morning. In actuality, they are coming next Tuesday.
Of course, this had to happen the one time I decided to put a whole heck of a lot of cardboard out for pickup. I mean, I put out about twelve flattened cardboard boxes…big ones too. When I realized no one was coming to get the cardboard, I decided to make a very special trip to the local transfer station.
A transfer station is basically a station where they transfer things. That was my attempt at humor. Our local station is quite beautiful, so beautiful in fact, I decided to take a few photos.
Transfer Station Cardboard Trailers
Sure, it might seem strange to take photos of the transfer station, but if I don’t do it, who is going to?
I must say, our local transfer station is one of the more organized ones I have ever been to. There is a place for used motor oil, old tires, cardboard, metal, recyclables, appliances, furniture…well, you get the picture. All I did was drop off some cardboard and recyclables, but now I see the potential for a whole lot more.
Mad peace to you.
Related posts
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
I got thinking today. Perhaps I should measure the kitchen up and bring the measurements down to Lowe’s. I read, on their website, that if you bring your measurements to them and pick out what you want, they will give you a price right there. Then, they will send someone to your house to measure again. I think that visit costs around $100, but they apply that money to your total purchase. I think that’s a pretty good idea.
I am having this battle in my head…it’s between using Lowe’s or the local place we have up the road. I have to keep telling myself that we have only two more years in this house. We just need to fix the kitchen and plan for the next people to make it their own and not necessarily be in love with our design. Again, we can only get so much for a two bedroom, one bathroom home in this area. That, I believe, calls for something other than granite for the counter tops, if you catch my drift.
So this is the quick diagram I put together. The measurements are accurate, give or take a quarter of an inch. We still have to pick out a stainless dishwasher to match our refrigerator and stove, but that shouldn’t be hard.
I am going to give Lowe’s a call tomorrow to get the scoop. Then, Laura and I will plan for a visit on Wednesday. Hopefully, then I will have some photos for you.
Related posts
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
I had to run down to the tile place today to pick up the extra tile that wasn’t used on the bathroom floor. It was a whole box. I got it and put it in the basement for safe keeping. While I was there, I struck up a conversation with the fine lady about remodeling kitchens (we have to do ours). She gave me a business card for a local kitchen place, right up the road. I noticed a website address on the card, so I gave it a visit. I looked at all the pictures on the website and at the information. I got all motivated and accidentally started ripping up the kitchen floor.
This is the before shot…well, I started a little of the floor.
This is a picture of most of the floor ripped up, before I moved anything around, like the refrigerator or stove.
This is what I got done today. Do you know what this means? Commitment. I really wasn’t planning on starting the kitchen so soon. But then again, I am not sure I planned any project I started here.
As I look at the guts of the whole thing, I am noticing that there really isn’t too much to it. We were planning on keeping things the same way and just updating everything, but now I am thinking that we make an “L” out of it instead of the hallway thing that was going on. The main reason we wanted to keep the same layout was because I didn’t really feel like moving the power source for the stove and we were going to keep the tile on the wall above the counter tops. When I moved the stove, I found the power source actually closer to where the stove would be if we changed the layout. Also, the tile is crap, so it’s coming down.
I can take my time with this project because, unlike the bathroom, we can function in the kitchen while it’s a construction zone. Remember, we are moving in an estimated two years, so we will try to make some less-expensive decisions.
Related posts
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
As mentioned in my previous post, our dryer stopped working last night.
Ok, here it is…when I pressed the start button, I only heard the motor struggling, with no turning of the drum. If I had the front door open and fooled the dryer to think it was closed by holding the switch, I could get the drum turning with my foot. It wouldn’t turn very well and I would smell something buring. It wasn’t the belt because I had already replaced that earlier and it was still tight. You know what? I didn’t even care. This is the same dryer that was leaving grease type stains on our clothes.
I thought it was time for a new dryer. I tried Home Depot to no avail. You can read about that mess here. I am sick of that store. It’s starting to turn into something similar to a dirty Wal-Mart. Well, that’s the one I go to anyway.
Paul was gracious enough to meet me at the Newburgh, NY Lowes to pick up a new dryer. I was going to get the GE dryer that cost about $350, but after talking with the sales guy and learning that most of the dryers they sell have the same parts, just different features, I opted for the less expensive Amana product. He also informed me that Whirlpool owned both Amana and Roper. Hmmm, interesting. Upon further inspection, I discovered many similarities between many of the dryers.
I got in a tiff with a guy at work. He kept telling me that I just have to get one of those $800 jobbers because they were real quality. I tried to tell him that this was a dryer to leave in this house after we move in a few years. I didn’t particularly need all that much expensive quality when I was going to hand it to someone else. I was basically looking for an “on” button with some good features that wouldn’t leave stains on our clothes. I mean, c’mon, how many options do you really need or use with a freakin’ clothes dryer? Perhaps the more expensive ones fold the clothes too.
Anyway, I got home and set the whole thing up. I turned it on and immediately heard this scraping noise coming from the back. Who knows what the heck that was. After a few minutes, it went away. I am going to chalk that one up to its break in period.
I think this may be a pretty decent dryer if it doesn’t break. Hey, let me ask you a question. How much money is a guy going to have to spend right before he and his sweet baby doll have to pay for a new porch? This is getting absurd. I mean, the lawnmower (I still haven’t received the parts for the other one), the air conditioner and now the dryer…I am not even going to ask you what next.
PS – Thank you Paul for doing me this big favor.
UPDATE: That scraping sound was driving me nuts, especially when I put in a load of wet laundry. I turned the dryer off, unplugged it and turned it around. Then, I noticed that the back cover was pushed in so it was in turn, pushing the exhaust fan housing against the exhaust fan. That was causing the sound. I popped it back out and now it is fine and quiet. I guess that happened during shipment or something.
Related posts
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
I won’t boycott them, because I like them, but Home Depot is definately not on my good list anymore. Lowes is just blowing them out of the water. I thought that my trip to Home Depot the other night was tragic because of all the dying plants I saw, but this trip topped the cake.
Ok, here goes…our dryer bit the dust last night. After troubleshooting and diagnosing, I decided that our 30 year old dryer needed to be replaced. I will write another post about that later, but I wanted to share the exchange I had today with the salesperson…
ME: Hi, I want this dryer, let’s load it up.
THEM: Wait, you can’t have that, we have to order it.
ME: Ok, so you don’t have it in stock?
THEM: No, we can have it to your house on Friday.
ME: Ok, deliver is free since you don’t have it in stock, right?
THEM: No, it will cost you $55 for delivery.
ME: Ok, well, let’s just have it shipped to the store and I can come back on Friday to get it.
THEM: No, we don’t do that. I asked the manager and he said no.
ME: So you are trying to tell me that you don’t have the dryer in stock and if I want it, I have to have it delivered to my house for an additional $55? There is no way for me to pick it up from the store?
THEM: Yes. Well, we can give you a mail-in rebate for the delivery cost.
ME: Ok, well, does someone need to be at the house in Friday? I ask because I have a job.
THEM: Yes, someone needs to be at the house.
ME: Thank you. Goodbye. I will look at Lowes. (Thinking: Can you make this purchase any more difficult for me?)
A few hours later, I called Lowes to see if they had the same exact model in stock. Here is how the phone call went…
ME: Hi, do you have this model in stock?
THEM: Yes, come and get it.
ME: Thank you. I love you.
Now, mind you, I asked Home Depot about three different models on the floor. They didn’t have any. They had four in stock of the cheap one. The salesperson told me that they didn’t have enough room for all those dryers. Well, I guess they don’t want my money. Sorry guys. Lowes had enough room…so much in fact that they had five of the model that I wanted.
It really pisses me off about how they wouldn’t work with me at all. They wouldn’t even entertain the thought of getting the dryer to the store for me to pick up. I mean, my debit card was almost falling out of my pocket it wanted to be used so badly.
Maybe Paul was right.
Related posts
Monday, May 28th, 2007
So I broke down again. I couldn’t have my sweet honey baby sitting in our living room sweating from the summer
(or late spring) heat. The curtains are working well, but we still needed something to take the edge off.
I hopped in my car last night and headed for Lowes. Laura asked if I could drop her off to do some walking. I did that and went on my merry way. On my way to Lowes, I listened to the Irish show on NPR…more of that in the next post. So listen to this…I get to Lowes and pull in the parking lot. Hmmmm…seems like there aren’t too many cars here. I was on a mission because I wanted to get the new air conditioner as well as two more trees to plant close to the house. I want more shade on the front windows.
I saw a bunch of employees pushing the lawn tractors back inside, so I stopped and asked what time they closed. The girl told me 7PM. Man!!! I forgot it was Sunday. Oh well, I decided to drive over to Home Depot. This really screwed me up because I had the perfect air conditioner picked out online from all the reseach I did. It was Energy Star certified and everything. All I had to do was to go get it.
I walked into Home Depot and took a look at what they had as far as air conditioners. The big 24,500 BTU ones were absolutely huge and would never fit in my car. They also required 230 volt and I have 115. the one I was going to get at Lowes was the “Samsung 12,300 BTU Electronic Window Type Air Conditioner with ENERGY STAR®.” Seemed like a sweet ride. All I could seem to find was an 800 BTU air conditioner that was good for a 340FT room. This really sucked. I thought that maybe I could just get two of them and split them up among rooms. I put one in my cart and strolled into the garden center.
Gee…what happened to all the good trees? All gone. Boy, people sure do wipe these places out. I guess it is a good thing because that means people are intelligent enough to plant trees. Doesn’t help me out any though. I left there and went back to the air conditioner section again. I looked to my left and discovered all the air conditioners that I missed before. I noticed a nice LG 11,500 BTU air conditioner that covered about 550FT, so I was in pretty decent shape with that one. I plopped it in my cart and left.
Well, today Laura and I just got home from her parent’s house and turned on the new AC. Boy is it nice to cool the place off just a bit. I feel totally guilty, but we are going to keep it to a bare minimum. Also, Paul and I are hopefully going to hit the other Home Depot tomorrow to look through the slim pickins of trees again.
Related posts
Friday, October 13th, 2006
Have you ever had a piece of clothing that went in your washing machine fairly clean and came out with a stain on it? Probably at one time or another. There are many things that can stain your clothing, besides you. Probably the most prevalent washing machine caused stain is rust. If you have a washing machine basket that is chipping, your clothes can push up again the rusty basket during the spin cycle and create those beautiful little orange stains that never come out. I have also been reading a lot about grease type stains on clothing. They say there are two main causes for this: 1. Your shaft bearing and seal are worn and the transmission oil is creeping up to get in your water. Once this happens, it gets on your clothes to cause staining, and 2. You have a buildup of fabric softener that comes loose off to put a greasy like substance in your water and on your clothing. Once you put your clothes in the dryer and the old fabric softener melts, wham, you are hit with a few stains.
I have read about a few others, but I forget what they are. That is probably because I have my own problem…and unfortunately, no one on the planet has heard of this particular problem. That is why I am putting it out to you.
Here is it – we are getting stains in the form of brown lines or “streaks” on our clothing when it comes out of the washing machine and dryer. I usually notice them after I pull the clothes out of the dryer, but I am sure the staining is occurring in the washing machine. So here is the dilemma: What in the world is causing the staining? The lines look very much like they are brown creases. I need to find out if something is coming through the water pipes into the washer or if it is coming from the washer itself. We have a new greensand filter installed, so I am pretty sure it is not in the water. Unless of course, the purple potassium backwash is flowing through the pipes into the washer. If I can isolate the problem to the washer, I can pull it apart and look for the culprit. I will take a look at the shaft going into the transmission to see if there is any grease or oil on it. If so, I will buy a new washer. The picture below is my actual shirt that came out of the dryer with this mark on it. It is about 6 inches long, so you can understand why we are getting so frustrated with this problem.
So, my question to you is: Have you ever had, or known anyone, with brown stains or streaks that look like “creases” come out of their washing machine? I beg of you…
UPDATE…
Ok, this is an update to the above post I wrote about 6 hours ago. I came home tonight on a mission. After going to Home Depot this afternoon with Paul, I had a few things to look at. We decided that perhaps the problem can be isolated to the water lines or the washer. It is pretty important that I figure out what is causing the problem, because purchasing new parts and a new washing machine can get quite expensive. Then, the possibility that you haven’t even fixed the problem still remains.
I came very close to purchasing two $33 water filters…one for each water line of the washing machine. I figured that maybe the pipes still had gunk in them from all the years the previous owners ran the water with iron sediment building up in them. Paul talked me out of that. We agreed that before I purchased the filters, I would go home and take off the rubber hoses that attach to the back of the washer. Then, I would snake a wire through each one and pull a small piece of cloth through them, to see if there was gunk built up in them. I came home this evening and did this. The cloth came out completely filthy. Bingo…I thought. I pulled the cloth through a few more times until there was no dirt left. I reattached the hoses and put the washer back in place. I took the front panel of the washer off so I could see what happens when it runs. I tried to simulate a real wash, so I filled it with clothes. The outer tub on this particular GE washer is clear, so I could get a good picture of what was happening. I was looking for little beads of grease floating up in the water. If the problem wasn’t the hoses, I would catch it here for sure. I wanted to find out something before Laura got home.
I ran the wash and watched the machine go through all of its cycles. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. This wasn’t much fun. As I sat there, I started to think about how our new strategy to avoid these stains was to turn our clothes inside out and wash them that way. That way, the stains wouldn’t show on the visible side of our clothing. It has been working well. Wait a second…what difference does it make whether or not we wash our clothes inside out? If there is something in the water, it makes no distinction between which way our shirts and pants are situated. The oil would get in any which way.
HOOOLD OOOON……..
Laura came home and we started talking about this horrible issue. I told her what I found and told her about the inside out dilemma. We both started getting a little quiet. I mentioned how this never happened where we used to live (where we lived a year ago). She also mentioned that she never got any stains on her scrubs (she wears them for work). Hhhhmmmm. In our last place, we had a different dryer. Also, she never puts her scrubs in the dryer because if she gets a stain from the washer, she doesn’t want the dryer to “set” it.
THE DRYER…….
I ran downstairs with a white sock in my hand. I opened the dryer door, took the sock and rubbed it hard, up and down, against the rear corner, between the rear wall and the drum. I pulled the sock out and looked at it. Well, well, well. I nice brown grease-like streak that looks identical to the photo above. I guess when the dryer heats up, it makes this, what ever it is, get gooey and easily transferable to clothing.
Now that we figured out what is causing the stains, I can start pricing out new dryers.
Related posts
