It just figures.

[jpub]

So, I'm basically a week away from a new TV - or I was.

Unfortunately, this morning I woke up to hearing interesting dripping noises from my ancient dishwasher, and discovered it was full of water. I managed to get
the water to drain, and then also discovered it was leaking a bit of water. Not a lot, but enough that I've more or less said 'that's it.' In
screwing with it, I ALSO find that the valve that controls its water intake is stuck open.

That means:

1) Have to call a plumber to replace the valve (and another, I think the one to my toilet is stuck too) which means anywhere from $100-200

2) Have to spend $400 on a new diswasher.

Oh well, I guess I have to wait another 4 months for a new TV. *sigh*

Why is it whenever I'm about to get a purchase on something nice, the universe has to break something on me?

[Shepherd]

jpub wrote:

---

Why is it whenever I'm about to get a purchase on something nice, the universe has to break something on me?

Look on the bright side, if the universe were being really nasty, it would wait until after you make the purchase to
cause something vital (and expensive) to break.
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

[jpub]

See, there are times I'd almost rather that. At least then I'd be *forced* into the expendature, instead of seeing my ambitions thwarted.

It's not like this is putting me into debt, just inconvenience.

[Star Ranger4]

Its called a Murphy Switch, my boy.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[jpub]

Eight. Hundred. Bucks. That's what this cost me.

$350 for the plumbing repairs. Yeah, that was a bit pricier than I expected.

$450 for the new diswasher. Someone explain to me why NO ONE wants to do delivery and installation on these things? Ended up having to go to Sears because
they're the only ones that'll deliver and install, as well as remove the bloody old one.

[Black Aeronaut]

... Ya know, if I was in your neighborhood, I woulda helped out with all that and probably saved you a few hundred dollars. There's much to be said about
having degrees in Domestic Engineering and Handyman Technician.

Letsee... I can install various appliances, including light fixtures, ceiling fans, and even the switches if I have the proper materials and tools available.
This includes natural gas appliances such as dryers and stoves. I can fix or even replace toilets and their associated valves and fittings, and I've even
good with showers and tubs. I can balance chemicals in a swimming pool, organize a kitchen, and assemble furniture.

Also within my abilities is assembling a computer from component parts, installing operating systems on said computer, and all the other sundry software and
drivers. I've done this before when my mother has asked me to canibalize several non-functioning towers so my brothers could have something to mess with
(this, of course, means trouble-shooting to find out what parts are bad or good).

I can also work on cars. Not only the simple stuff like lube jobs and filter changes, but I can also replace brake pads/shoes, replace or repack wheel
barrings, replace alternators, radiators, water pumps, fan belts... even a drive shaft. With some help I'd bet I can pull an engine or transmission and
drop one back in. Been sorely tempted to do so on several occasions.

I guess you get the idea at this point.

Chris, it would serve you well to find a few good DIY books because there've been times when I or myself have saved my family hundreds or even thousands of
dollars because we handled a few jobs on our own.

The leak from the dishwasher sounds fairly easy. Probably a bad hose or seal somewhere. That's an easy fix and the part is cheap enough (seals: $0.50-$5.00
hoses: $5-15).

Your dishwasher's valve probably had a bad seal. It shouldn't have been the solenoid since those tend to fail in the closed position for obvious
reasons (better to have a non-functioning valve that doesn't leak instead of one that does). Another thing wrong could be that mineral deposits could have
jammed it open. Seen it before. This is usually an easy enough fix and the part, I would guess, could cost as little as twenty dollars. Supply and demand, you
see. So many people liek you say fuck it and buy new instead of buying parts which are readily available, even for the 'ancient' models (really,
ancient means it's from the sixties or something and all the major brands carry parts for models going as far back as the eighties or further).

The really serious problem was your cut-off valve. That could have been a lot more troublesome since not only would you have had to shut off your entire water
supply (not really all that hard, just inconvenient), and then, depending on whether you had copper or PVC pipes, soldered or glued a new valve on. Or maybe
your might have been able to replace the valve seal, or, at worst, the valve seat, thus avoiding having to deal with the mess of solder or glue (pain in the
butt).

Toilets are a piece of cake and the parts are cheap as hell. From the sound of it, you may have needed to replace the float and valve assembly. Twenty bucks at
a hardware store, easy. Easy to chage out too. Just shut of the toilet's supply, use a crescent (adjustable) wrench to take the supply line off, then
remove the old assembly (you usually don't need the wrench because that part tends to be plastic, finger tight, and not designed for wrenches). Instalation
is the reverse. Simple, no?

[Sofaspud]

Plumbers in general -- and I mean this with no hostility, honest -- are some of the most blatant rip-off artists I have ever encountered. I'm not calling
them cheats, because they don't often (in my experience) pull anything unethical; but they charge such high prices for work that often any monkey can do
that I can't help but admire them for their gall as much as I hate their practices.

I'm to the point where, unless it involves cast-iron fittings (such as your toilet flange) or raw sewage, I'll do the bloody job myself for, literally,
one-tenth the cost or less. Last time I called a plumber it was $250 to unclog a stuck drain... and all he did was snake it. I could have rented the damn
machine and done the job myself for a quarter of that price. But I let my wife talk me into hiring a professional -- bah -- and now we're STILL paying the
bill.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[jpub]

The problem is, to be brutally honest, that I don't have *room* for the tools I need to do the DIY work. I live in an appartment with me and my wife, and
all I've got available for tool room is the bottom of a small closet.

AFter having the guy here, a lot of the work I don't think I could have done anyway - apparently there was some fitting ring on one of the valves he
couldn't get off, and that meant pulling out some powered saw to get it off. Also, he ended up fixing a problem with my toilet (while replacing the feeder
line when he replaced the valve) that I'd been screwing with for months. The one thing I could have done (fixing a screwey faucet) I had him do because it
was only a extra smidge on the total.

The dishwasher's problems are many and myriad - it was more than 20 years old and needed replacing. The seals were bad, some of the internal plastic
gaskets were fatigued and couldn't be replaced (and believe me, I tried), and there were various leaks (one was the solenoid, by the way, it would leak
when going from open to closed). It also would vibrate so bad when running plates would shake in the cupboards because the motor was failing. I tried various
DIY fixes, but nothing helped.

I'm most offended by the refusal to do the installation. Seriously - they'll hook up and install every other appliance I have, but not the dishwasher?
Boo.

Also, I'm very wary to perform DIY work - I'm honestly a klutz when it comes to doing that stuff. Quite often I end up having to pay to have someone
fix my screwups anyway.

Edit: I understand what you're saying about parts, but I've run into this problem before. The appliances in my place are the originals that were put in
when the complex was built, and the company that made them was a joint called that doesn't exist anymore after being bought and subsumed by another
company. When my Fridge, Dryer, and AC all failed, I spent a chunck of time and effort trying to find parts to fix them, and it was impossible - GE didn't
even admit they were their appliances, a lot of the parts were non-standard, and it was in general a pain. After more than 50 people have gone through similar
pains, the wisdom within the complex is to just replace the pieces of crap.

Heck, I was lucky - I'm the only one in the complex who managed to find a replacement for the AC units we had. Ours were 8000 BTU, but were at least one
inch smaller than standard models that are around today.

[ECSNorway]

Speaking of murphy switches.

Came home today to find out that my electricity was out.

Over at the parents' with laptop right now.

Turns out I /thought/ I had put it on auto-payment, with electronic notices only... and hadn't been checking the email account in question.

Had actually made only a one-time payment.

Six months ago.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[jpub]

YOW. My sympathies.

Heh, I was woken up just now by a power blip and crash.

(The power blipped for 5s, causing my bathroom fan to turn off then on, causing the massive icicle hanging from the vent to finally break and hit the railing
of my deck with a massive crash, causing me to wake up wondering WTF?!)

[SkyeFire]

Well, I'm not sure if my own situation is *worse,* but it certainly *stinks* more than yours, Chris.

You see, me, Dad, and my sisters pooled our money to buy Mom a new electric oven for Christmas. The old gas range has always been a bit flaky, and with new
grandkids in the house often (one of whom is FEARLESS -- climbs on on stoves *that have the burners on* in order to play with the overhead cupboards), we
wanted one with knobs up on the back instead of in front -- none of the gas ranges that were options offered rear knobs. Plus, the glass-top range is *neato
keen.*

So, we got it before Christmas, kept it hidden, did a fast install Christmas Eve eve while Mom was out shopping, and everything worked great -- the
"burners" go from zero to HOT HOT HOT in about 1.7sec flat. Wowsers.

But we didn't use the *oven* for over a week, due to holiday eating patterns. So when we finally tried to bake something... the entire house was filled
with an indescribably rank stench like the cross between a overflowing porta-john on a 90deg August day and a freshly-turned compost heap.

Now, the range has the extra warranty, and the manual actually *says* that a "foul odor" is *normal* until the insulation "burns in"
(choice of words mine, not theirs), but *this* is... Well! Being well equipped Handy Men, Dad and I proceed to disassemble the range as far as we can w/o
risking leaving evidence that would void the warranty (not too much, as it turns out). And find...

A stamping hole, purpose unkown, in the back panel of the oven, where the nice soft fur-like insulation is visible. As are the hundreds and hundreds of mouse
turds, and the spreading brown stain that appears to have been liquid feces or urine, probably both. And without disassembling the oven even further, it's
impossible to tell how much further inside the "between spaces" of the oven the mice got, leaving little... gifts. What we *do* know is that the
oven's self-cleaning feature won't get rid of this, since it's outside the oven proper, on the wrong side of the insulation.

Gah. Mice. Hate 'em. Must've got in during warehousing...

So, of course, I gotta wonder if the warranty will cover *this*.

(odd story about my family and Weird Smells -- many years ago, my mother ran over a long-dead roadkill skunk, which was, ah, *ripe* enough to *explode* on
contact... just coincendentally leaving its scent glands atop our car's catalytic converter. You wouldn't think the smell would penetrate the inside
of the car so easily. Every time the engine ran for more than a minute. For three. Whole. Months....)

[jpub]

Hey, my Dad once drove from Saskatchewan to San Fransisco during one of those high grasshopper years. We smelled dead grasshopper in that van *forever*.

[Wiregeek]

....wow, I got nothing. I mean, sure, the crawlspace under the mobile home I live in was once 3" deep in raw sewage - but it was midwinter, so it was
_frozen_ before there was a Stank Problem (and yours truly got to crawl around spreading lime on the ice, with instructions that I would be beaten for any
leftover lime - no smell problem once it thawed either ; )

and my defining 'profanity moment' is Dad, having attempted to remove a skunk from under the shed, at Grammas place in Idaho, sitting in a washtub full
of tomato sauce, scrubbing and cursing..

but that just doesn't compare.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Black Aeronaut]

Chris, I feel ya on that there.  Sucks when all that kind of crap happens.  The fact that the complex owners installed something from a lesser outfit sucks - they really should have gone with one of the main-line brands like GE, or Sears/Kenmore...
SkyeFire, those ass-hats had better cover it, because there's just no way for something like that to be cool.  Their goods should always be inspected anytime it arrives or leaves any warehouse or store for reasons like that.

SkyeFire wrote:

---

(odd story about my family and Weird Smells -- many years ago, my mother ran over a long-dead roadkill skunk, which was, ah, *ripe* enough to *explode* on contact... just coincendentally leaving its scent glands atop our car's catalytic converter. You wouldn't think the smell would penetrate the inside of the car so easily. Every time the engine ran for more than a minute. For three. Whole. Months....)

*Shatters*  WOOOOHHHH....
Okay, I got one.  Ever lived nearby a mushroom farm?  Take care manuer and elevate the the intensity of that oder to dead-skunk-on-the-highway levels.  That was a pleasant oder to be waking up to every morning.  And when I worked there the smell was strong enough to make my eyes water and my nose smoke.  Fortunately it doesn't smell that bad in the buildings where they grew the mushrooms.  Actually kinda pleasant in a damp and musty way.

[jpub]

black, what killed me is all the Appliances *say* GE on them. They were just manufactured and warrantied through Camco, and now GE won't admit they're
GE appliances. Doesn't matter because they're 20 years old ANYWAY, but still.

So, the guy was in to install the thing today. He did a really good job, I was impressed. We had some chuckles over the ridiculous install that had been done
before - it looks like the dishwasher was put in before the linoleum, because there was just cement/concrete below it. Also, the asshat who did the electrical
connection tied the wires together, and then didn't put them into the wiring box, just left them loose. The drain hose was attached to the sink drain via a
friction connection, no clamp or screw or anything. Bizarre.

I like the new one, although it makes scary noises.

[Kurisu]

jpub wrote:

---

I like the new one, although it makes scary noises.

That means it's working.

...and after it's done with a load a dishes, throw it a pork-chop. It'll love you forever! (J/K)
_____
DEATH is Certain. The hour, Uncertain...