Appliances
Appliances go in
Aug/25/08 12:54 PM
Now that we are back from our little unexpected "vacation", I have a lot of blogging to do to catch up. Shortly before we left I installed the dishwasher. This task exists in the realm of plumbing and as some of you know it is not my best subject. In fact it is by far my worst.
However, this time it went pretty smooth, much more smooth than the refrigerator incident. There was only one trip to Lowe's involved and I didn't actually flood any part of the house. Which has to be a first for me. Anyway the dishwasher went in, and now we don't have to wash them by hand anymore.
Installation tip: Make sure you remove the disposal plug before attaching the drain line. Luckily, our dishwasher is pretty high-tech and alerted me that I had forgotten to do so. I can imagine that some dishwashers would flood your kitchen in a similar situation.
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The Refrigerator Incident
Jul/07/08 10:19 PM
The fridge arrived. You know there is some value in
shopping locally, mainly for such conveniences as
delivery, or old appliance exchange. But you know me
I am waaaaay too much of a cheap bastard to succumb
to such conveniences as these. Nope, we had to search
the internet for the least expensive version of the
fridge that we picked out at Best Buy (Who, by the
way will deliver and set up your appliance and haul
off your old one).
What most people don't know about ordering appliances online is that delivery of said items is about as half-assed as it could possibly be. Typically, they deliver to curbside only, unless you got a big-ass loading dock in your back yard, I dunno maybe some of you do. And on top of curbside only delivery, they belly-ache about having to do that much by telling you at least 150 times that they are in no way going to help you haul the sucker into the house. They belly-ached so much that they tried to convince me to come and pick it up at the distribution center in the next town over. What the heck was all those shipping charges for? Anyway, so the fridge was dropped off today, however unlike the stove delivery, I was prepared for this one. I was waiting with a fridge-dolly and a good, strong, and albeit not-too-smart friend. With some heaving and HO-ing we got the fridge up to the porch where we uncrated it to take the doors off, which for some God-only-knows reason required a metric wrench. Which of course is the driver I didn't have. A half hour later the doors were off.
I wheeled it to its future location and began assembly. What I was completely unaware of was that there would be some minor plumbing involved. As I'm pretty sure that I am forbidden to perform ANY type of plumbing in the state of Arkansas, (On account of me flooding a 3 story building once) I didn't know what to do.
Ok, Deep breath take it slow, it is only a simple waterline attached to the fridge. Sounds easy right? Obviously you don't know my luck with plumbing. This little venture required not one but THREE trips to Lowe's. I went and bought a compression fitting and came home to connect it, yep I cross-threaded it and stripped it. Ugh, back to Lowe's this time I was smart, I bought two! Got home and almost immediately stripped the first one, ok one more chance. This time I didn't tighten it so hard and tried to thread it properly. "Ok Kristin turn the water on." It was almost instantaneous and waaay to quick to catch it, but the hose blasted off of the fitting spraying me, the fridge and half the kitchen floor... "SHUT IT OFF, SHUT IT OFF, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SHUT IT OFF!" It was a terrifying flashback to the time that I flooded the 3 story building. Anyway I changed my pants and headed off to Lowe's for the third and hopefully LAST time. This time I bought a whole assortment of fittings and different connection options. I must say it was epic brilliance on my part, as the fittings were the wrong size. While I was pondering the potential of a fourth trip to Lowe's, I noticed that one of the complex fittings that I had purchased had the same pieces as the first original fitting. I tried it and hold the friggin' presses, IT WORKED! And no lawsuit to boot!
What most people don't know about ordering appliances online is that delivery of said items is about as half-assed as it could possibly be. Typically, they deliver to curbside only, unless you got a big-ass loading dock in your back yard, I dunno maybe some of you do. And on top of curbside only delivery, they belly-ache about having to do that much by telling you at least 150 times that they are in no way going to help you haul the sucker into the house. They belly-ached so much that they tried to convince me to come and pick it up at the distribution center in the next town over. What the heck was all those shipping charges for? Anyway, so the fridge was dropped off today, however unlike the stove delivery, I was prepared for this one. I was waiting with a fridge-dolly and a good, strong, and albeit not-too-smart friend. With some heaving and HO-ing we got the fridge up to the porch where we uncrated it to take the doors off, which for some God-only-knows reason required a metric wrench. Which of course is the driver I didn't have. A half hour later the doors were off.
I wheeled it to its future location and began assembly. What I was completely unaware of was that there would be some minor plumbing involved. As I'm pretty sure that I am forbidden to perform ANY type of plumbing in the state of Arkansas, (On account of me flooding a 3 story building once) I didn't know what to do.
Ok, Deep breath take it slow, it is only a simple waterline attached to the fridge. Sounds easy right? Obviously you don't know my luck with plumbing. This little venture required not one but THREE trips to Lowe's. I went and bought a compression fitting and came home to connect it, yep I cross-threaded it and stripped it. Ugh, back to Lowe's this time I was smart, I bought two! Got home and almost immediately stripped the first one, ok one more chance. This time I didn't tighten it so hard and tried to thread it properly. "Ok Kristin turn the water on." It was almost instantaneous and waaay to quick to catch it, but the hose blasted off of the fitting spraying me, the fridge and half the kitchen floor... "SHUT IT OFF, SHUT IT OFF, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SHUT IT OFF!" It was a terrifying flashback to the time that I flooded the 3 story building. Anyway I changed my pants and headed off to Lowe's for the third and hopefully LAST time. This time I bought a whole assortment of fittings and different connection options. I must say it was epic brilliance on my part, as the fittings were the wrong size. While I was pondering the potential of a fourth trip to Lowe's, I noticed that one of the complex fittings that I had purchased had the same pieces as the first original fitting. I tried it and hold the friggin' presses, IT WORKED! And no lawsuit to boot!