Weekend saga

Owning a home is awesome.

Not really.

Sometimes yes it is nice, but i was struck driving back from my daily Home Depot trip (couple days I went twice but i've been there F, S, S, and today M), as to the curiosity of the evolution of the human dwelling.

Why these things? Why settle where they are at.

Honestly it is a pretty pedestrian question to answer. Easy enough to go through the "history" of dwellings and how they've wound up where they are now.

Still struck me as odd.

These square boxes based on dimensional cut dead trees.

Why home depot?

Well, it has been a FUN weekend.

Alluded to the water heater right?
well yeah, that has been leaking for a while. Anode rod fitting and hot water fitting. Not clear leak, no, rusty leak. Corrosion. Not good.

Water heater was out of warranty in 2008. Was installed in 2002.

Got decent life out of it i guess. I figured i'd cash in on the National Grid Rebate program to upgrade to more efficient units. But this is a short tank, they don't make efficient units in short tanks. The rebate for an on demand one had me considering it but it would be a bit longer of a job to do, would require figuring out where to run the intake and exhaust and yeah...  this one might get us another 8-10 years, by that time hopefully ALL the water heaters will be super efficient and well, yeah deal with that then. Now? Change before it becomes a flooded basement.

Sort of fortuitous that the need to get this thing fell on tax free weekend in Mass. saved some money there. So that's good right? Seems silly but at least the timing was good.

The garbage disposal was toast a while back. did a $15 plastic pipe plumbing special to get the stuff working. was strongly encouraged that we need to get one back.  The garbage has been stinky the drains i have to pick all the food scraps out of constantly. Easy sure twist my arm.

Water heater, garbage disposal, $40 of extra parts (that were all returned).  My brother helped (okay did most all of the connection work - only room for one person to do it all), got the old one drained, removed, and the new one installed, hooked up and no leaking gas, no leaking water, and HOLY CRAP THIS WATER HEATER WORKS SO MUCH BETTER. Not surprising but still nice that there is more than just the preventing a basement flood to installing it.  the little sheet says it uses a handful of therms less than the old one even.

My bro said to put the old one out in front of the house. He wagered it wouldn't be there in the morning. Well it sat there until about 2pm today. someone driving around grabbed it. Sweet. cheaper than a refuse tag from the city, and i don't have to haul it to the recycler myself. I like that.

Our Dishwasher (the automatic one, not me, because no one else really washes any dishes here) has had a sticky panel for a long time, then it recently started making a strange noised, then it just stopped draining. Last week.

I've been handwashing a hell of a lot of dishes. Remarkable. I mean usually I still have to load the dishwasher but sometimes on rare and special occasions the other inhabitants of the house actually put their stuff in the dishwasher vs leaving it on the table or stacking it in the sink for me to deal with. Now? Fuck it, Daddy can wash it. And wash I have been.

So yeah. Sunday morning after a night of getting the water heater in and then made dinner for everyone sitting around talking deep and life level shit all night (till the movie the girls were watching was over)...  wife was out running the Falmouth Road Race so it was just me and the girls. They wake up late, I make everyone breakfast and the little one and I head off to Lowe's to buy the dishwasher my wife and her parents picked out. CR best buy FTW! Cash in hand (in bank as a gift, i am a very lucky man to have generous in-laws) we head in there and I'm expecting to have to order it. WHAT? IN STOCK? AWESOME! No two weeks of handwashing while waiting.

Dishwasher purchased, Head to home depot to return the pile of un-used fittings.

Headed home. Bro showed up to help carry water heater out of house and to collect his van that was left here. We evaluate what is needed to cap off supply to the old dishwasher, then haul out water heater carcass, and i head off to build a few more bikes and hang out as a change of pace.

Today? Girls up, fix em breakfast, head to home depot, why? Because yesterday when I went to install the garbage disposal, well i discovered that the bag of parts, the outlet, the wrench the seals and all that were not in there. Damn it. I need a 3/8" cap anyway. Grab stuff head home.

eventually get old dishwasher out. Was not simple. Seems the previous owners had some super fancy tile put in. But the tile was put in AFTER the dishwasher. So what that meant is well. THERE IS NO WAY TO GET THE OLD F'N DISHWASHER OUT EASILY!!!  What a pain in the ass.

Got it out myself. Then installed the new garbage disposal, finally a snag free install. ONLY because i saved the old one (needed a bit or two off of it).

Then hauled the old water filled washer out myself (only spilled a pint or so of water on my foot and the floor in the process) and proceeded to try and figure out how i was going to get an extra centimeter of clearance under the counter to get the new dishwasher in. That took a bit of time. Got it in. But guess what.

The old water connection sits inside the electrical connection box. Can't hook it up.

SERIOUSLY?

Must now take it back out. Sweat off the elbow and the coupling, sweat on a cap. T-into the hot water line from the sink, install a valve and then put the thing back, and hook it up. I don't have a torch, or a pipe cutter, or the fittings.

So yeah. Very little bike riding lately. Lots of house work.

Car still needs some work. Fence is still falling down.  BUT DAMNIT I CAN GRIND FOOD SCRAPS DOWN THE DRAIN AND HAVE HOT WATER AND well maybe tomorrow i can stop hand washing dishes.

Yeah for vacation time. Cause this has been F'n AWESOME AND SO RELAXING.

Beer:30

I am looking forward to what 49 decibels sounds like. that old washer was F'n LOUD.

Oh. right.

scratch beer:30

time to wash dishes so i can cook dinner so everyone can dirty the dishes so i can wash them again.

At least the food will be made from scratch with love...  because there is no other way to make food.

Not from a fucking box or a package or powder.

heddwch
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