The Latest Projects

A number of projects have been keeping me busy lately.  No, not crafty projects like those of Laura—these are more maintenance related.  Still rewarding though.  As the nice neighbor lady said to me as she walked by with her dogs: “You’re always working on something!”

1.  Dryer Fix

Months ago, our dryer suddenly stopped working altogether.  Shortly after it happened, I spent about 15 minutes removing the panels from the back and poking around with the wires.  Then it was time to go to church, so I left it dismantled, which is naturally how it remained for 3 months.

We dragged it along when we moved, but I was so skeptical that it could be fixed that we price shopped for a new one.  More grumpy about the cost of a new one than I was about trying to fix the old one, I attacked it again.

Washer and dryer happily reunited

Within 5 minutes, I had found and fixed the problem.  You know the switch that gets depressed when the door closes that tells the motor it’s safe to run now?  One of the wires vibrated clean off of it.  I popped it back on and good to go.  In fact, I fixed it so fast, that I debated pretending to toil at it longer so Tara might actually be impressed rather than irritated that she had to go 3 months with no dryer when it  was such a simple fix.

As it was, I found myself too excited to not tell her of my triumph, and I did get the latter response.  She was excited as well, though, and we carried the newly fixed dryer down to the basement hoping to ceremoniously start it up.  The ceremony was cut short however, as I realized I also had to change the power pig-tail from the 4 prong type back to the 3 prong, which proved to be a much more frustrating process than I anticipated.  In the end, after much swearing and a trip to Lowes, I did get the dryer running, went to notify Tara, got a half-hearted “yay”, and then went to bed.

2.  Vacuum Cleaner Fix

Lately, our vacuum cleaner has been overheating.  We thought for sure this meant it was about time for a new one.  On closer inspection, I discovered the tube was clogged.  Once I had it cleared, it worked wonderfully, and I was able to vacuum all the dust off myself.

3.  The Basement/Bathroom/Guest Bedroom

Tara’s sister, Becky, came to stay the night, which was well-needed as it gave me the required motivation to clean the downstairs bathroom and put together the guest bedroom.  Thanks to the infinite dust left for us in the lower level, these tasks were not easy.  But after many hours of toil, I can say that it looks much better down there.

Freshly cleaned bathroom

Guest Bedroom

More exciting, I used the carpet squares that we scored for crazy cheap from a garage sale to make a pathway over the concrete and connecting the guest bedroom and bathroom to the upstairs.  I should add that this is the bathroom we use for showering as there is no shower in the upstairs bathroom (only a tub).  Not having to step on cold concrete every morning is outstanding.

The carpetted walkway

And of course, Tara was busy as well:

The mantle

 Fireplace!!