Wow, it's been so long since I blogged on, I forgot my blogin.
I realized I hadn't updated the blog in a while when I scraped my arm on the bathroom door entering AND exiting about a half hour ago. Yes, folks, life has remained abnormal in my 2-week absence. I have cut various fingers on plastic, managed to sleep away all of Labor Day weekend, and had to resolve a dryer issue.
One of these days, I'm going to learn how to fix my appliances myself, rather than paying the first-available stranger $128 to come replace a belt. Ah, well, at least it was cheaper than buying a new dryer and paying an electrician $137 to come out and hook it up or install the appropriate outlet. Who knew dryers could be "direct wired". I sure didn't. Up until 2 months ago, I was happily unaware of how anything worked, except the miraculous "dial-the-landlord-and-wait-until-it's-done" phenomenon. Now I have learned more about plumbing, sewers, appliances, electrical whatnot and mold than I knew existed.
After discovering the dryer had stopped tumbling (found this out when I burned a hole into a set of sheets--tried to dry them faster by using high heat--the combination of high heat and "no tumble"=holes in sheets), I recommended to my husband we just buy a new dryer and be done with it. Since having a repairman out was about 1/2 the cost of a new machine anyway, I figured what the hey. The current machine looks to be about 20 years old, anyway. So we go to our friendly Home Depot, where we learn dryers can not only be gas or electric (!), the electric ones can be direct wired (where the electrical wires that supply the juice to the machine are hooked directly (get it?) to the machine--you don't plug in the dryer like with any other normal appliance. Of course, if this is the type of setup you have, the Home Depot delivery guy will drop it off and leave you to figure out how to direct wire it--they don't set up the direct wiring. The saleslady at Home Depot told me that direct wiring is no longer up to code. I wasn't sure what type of dryer we had--I knew it was electric, because I remembered playing with the circuit breaker one day and the dryer went off when I turned off that circuit, but as for direct wiring--no clue. But, since the saleslady said direct wiring wasn't up to code, I figured we couldn't have that--the contractor who sold us the house put a lot of work into updating the electric and other stuff. So, I figured, naw, we don't have direct wire, no problem, the Home Depot delivery guy will be able to drop off and set up the new dryer and cart the old one away.
Of course, when we got home, I checked and sure enough--direct wire dryer.
But, I figure, in all my 2-month homeownerly wisdom, that it doesn't matter--we have an outlet by the dryer, we'll just plug in the new one and shove the old off to the side to be carted away when we can figure out how to un-direct wire it.
NOT SO! A dryer doesn't use a regular plug or outlet! Didn't know that, either. There's some huge, slanted prongy thing to plug into a special outlet JUST FOR A DRYER! Who knew dryers were so special (probably everyone but me). So, I've got a new dryer I CAN'T PLUG IN ready for delivery, a dryer plug that I have no outlet for, and a dryer that burns holes into my laundry.
That's just too much dang dryer for any one person to handle.
Somewhere in the midst of all this dryer discovery, my husband wakes me up at an ungodly hour to let me know there's water leaking through the ceiling in the breezeway. I very calmly grabbed a couple of pots, placed them under the leaks, and crawled back in bed. At least it wasn't a dryer problem--in fact, it was the OPPOSITE of a dryer problem.
But, the problem's been resolved. The belt (to the tune of $128) has been replaced, the new dryer order has been cancelled, the useless dryer cord/plug (which, by the way, costs extra--it's not included in the price of the dryer, I guess because you could direct wire the sucker) has been returned and the leaking has stopped. All has returned to abnormal.
I realized I hadn't updated the blog in a while when I scraped my arm on the bathroom door entering AND exiting about a half hour ago. Yes, folks, life has remained abnormal in my 2-week absence. I have cut various fingers on plastic, managed to sleep away all of Labor Day weekend, and had to resolve a dryer issue.
One of these days, I'm going to learn how to fix my appliances myself, rather than paying the first-available stranger $128 to come replace a belt. Ah, well, at least it was cheaper than buying a new dryer and paying an electrician $137 to come out and hook it up or install the appropriate outlet. Who knew dryers could be "direct wired". I sure didn't. Up until 2 months ago, I was happily unaware of how anything worked, except the miraculous "dial-the-landlord-and-wait-until-it's-done" phenomenon. Now I have learned more about plumbing, sewers, appliances, electrical whatnot and mold than I knew existed.
After discovering the dryer had stopped tumbling (found this out when I burned a hole into a set of sheets--tried to dry them faster by using high heat--the combination of high heat and "no tumble"=holes in sheets), I recommended to my husband we just buy a new dryer and be done with it. Since having a repairman out was about 1/2 the cost of a new machine anyway, I figured what the hey. The current machine looks to be about 20 years old, anyway. So we go to our friendly Home Depot, where we learn dryers can not only be gas or electric (!), the electric ones can be direct wired (where the electrical wires that supply the juice to the machine are hooked directly (get it?) to the machine--you don't plug in the dryer like with any other normal appliance. Of course, if this is the type of setup you have, the Home Depot delivery guy will drop it off and leave you to figure out how to direct wire it--they don't set up the direct wiring. The saleslady at Home Depot told me that direct wiring is no longer up to code. I wasn't sure what type of dryer we had--I knew it was electric, because I remembered playing with the circuit breaker one day and the dryer went off when I turned off that circuit, but as for direct wiring--no clue. But, since the saleslady said direct wiring wasn't up to code, I figured we couldn't have that--the contractor who sold us the house put a lot of work into updating the electric and other stuff. So, I figured, naw, we don't have direct wire, no problem, the Home Depot delivery guy will be able to drop off and set up the new dryer and cart the old one away.
Of course, when we got home, I checked and sure enough--direct wire dryer.
But, I figure, in all my 2-month homeownerly wisdom, that it doesn't matter--we have an outlet by the dryer, we'll just plug in the new one and shove the old off to the side to be carted away when we can figure out how to un-direct wire it.
NOT SO! A dryer doesn't use a regular plug or outlet! Didn't know that, either. There's some huge, slanted prongy thing to plug into a special outlet JUST FOR A DRYER! Who knew dryers were so special (probably everyone but me). So, I've got a new dryer I CAN'T PLUG IN ready for delivery, a dryer plug that I have no outlet for, and a dryer that burns holes into my laundry.
That's just too much dang dryer for any one person to handle.
Somewhere in the midst of all this dryer discovery, my husband wakes me up at an ungodly hour to let me know there's water leaking through the ceiling in the breezeway. I very calmly grabbed a couple of pots, placed them under the leaks, and crawled back in bed. At least it wasn't a dryer problem--in fact, it was the OPPOSITE of a dryer problem.
But, the problem's been resolved. The belt (to the tune of $128) has been replaced, the new dryer order has been cancelled, the useless dryer cord/plug (which, by the way, costs extra--it's not included in the price of the dryer, I guess because you could direct wire the sucker) has been returned and the leaking has stopped. All has returned to abnormal.
posted by Bidipuce at
3:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home