Front Load Fix

Day in.

I sure am glad April is finally over.  We had a variety of things break/cause problems and it got to be a little annoying. We started the month off going to the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston.  Yes, both Anna and I finished the 10k despite not training much.  On the way home, Anna's car's oil light came on and the dash read "STOP ENGINE IMMEDIATELY!"  This is more than a little concerning when you are between Columbia, SC and Augusta, GA with nothing around.  Anyways, we got home safely and had the car's oil changed, a new oil pressure sensor, new axles, and a new tire (someone got a little too close to the curb).

At the end of that expensive week, the dishwasher stopped working.  Anna and I have been doing the dishes by hand since that went out, and just as we were looking into a repair man, the washing machine stopped working in the middle of the next week. Our washer and dryer came with the house, and they are a GE front-loading combo.  The washing machine stopped mid-cycle and had standing water in the drum.  Not good. Needless to say, we were now looking for someone that could repair both of our appliances.

A common theme in my posts are the desire to save money.  So as you would expect me to do, I went to the internet in search of a potential solution.  It turns out all front loading washers have a very similar feature. This feature is a drain plug that consists of a trap to catch all the fun stuff you leave in your pockets.  These items range from coins to keys to hair clips to lots and lots of lent.  I decided to check that out and see if that was causing the problem.  If you have a front loading washing machine, I recommend you do this every 3 months!


So here is the easy process to save hundreds of dollars:

Step Zero: ALWAYS TURN OFF THE CIRCUIT BREAKER AND UNPLUG THE WASHING MACHINE TO AVOID DEATH!!!!

1. Locate the washing machine.

Our beautiful machine.

2. Remove the bottom panel of the washing machine by simply removing three screws on the very bottom of the front face.

My screws were white.

Three screws and the panel comes right off.

3. Locate your drain plug.  It should be obvious when you see it.

There it is!

4. Place a thick towel under the plug to catch the excess water.  There will be a decent amount.  You may want a bucket (depending on how clogged it is). Ours filled up two buckets.

5. Simply unscrew the plug and pull it out.

Obviously I had cleaned ours out before taking pictures.  You will likely have a bunch of lent and smelly nastiness in yours.

6. Clean the plug and reassemble.

Doing that easy maintenance could save you hundreds of dollars.  Like I said, I didn't know about this, so ours was clogged and that was not the only problem.  We had a sock located in the drain hose, just upstream from the plug.  This was not only incredibly smelly when removed, but caused the drain pump to burn up the motor trying to remove it.

So now for a little more detail on how to solve the problem if your washer still won't drain.  We learned this after trying do wash another load.

Drain Pump. Note: The impeller on the end of the pump would spin 180 degrees and stop.  That's how you know it's broken. I read that sometimes the impeller just breaks off.

The drain pump and drain plug assembly.

How they go together....'cuz I know you were curious.

Locate your nearest appliance part dealer to get the replacement drain pump. We used Fox Appliance Parts of Atlanta after talking to multiple repair men and appliance store recommendations. If you live somewhere that there are appliance part stores, Fox can ship parts to you, or you can find the parts you need on The Home Depot's website. We only needed the drain pump, but it comes attached to the plug apparatus too.

Again, do step zero and follow the same steps 1-5, remembering the buckets to drain the water. Once the water is fully drained, you will need to unscrew the drain plug and drain pump from the base of the washing machine.

There's a screw! There is another on the other side as you would expect.

Then unplug the drain pump.

Remove the black and white wires.

Just like that!

Next, undo the black hose that drains from the drum and the grey hose that takes the water out. You will need to use pliers to do this, unless you have an incredibly strong grip.

Remove the assembly and install the new parts!

Re-assemble your washing machine, plug it in and turn on the power.

Hopefully, you're washing machine will run as good as the day you got it.  The parts came to a total of $138 and the repair was free (minus the cost for internet connection to research on YouTube).  I read on multiple blogs that people had this work done by a repair man and it ran at least $300.

Next weekend, I'm planning on fixing the dishwasher.

Day out.

Square-Foot Gardening

Day in.

Anna cooks a lot for me.  And often times(like every dinner), she makes things with fresh vegetables.  In my never ending quest to save money, we thought it would be fun to have our own garden.  I talked to a guy at my work, who I knew had a garden, for advice on the initial set-up, and he told me about square-foot gardening. Thanks James!

James went on to explain that square-foot gardening (SFG) was developed by a former engineer, Mel Bartholomew, in an effort to make gardening as efficient as possible.  Perfect for my personality and the small plot of land we call home.

So two Saturdays ago (April 14, 2012) we went all in.

Anna and I went to Pike's to get seeds, dirt and this book that explains SFG in great detail.

Nice carrots, Mel!

This book is about 3"x5", 62 pages, and contains everything you need to know about creating a successful SFG. It ran about $5.

We used some old boards, from the fence that used to contain the bamboo, that I cut to four feet.  We used a total of 8 boards because we wanted to make it about 12" high.

The start of our SFG!

I secured the corners with a square post from some other old wood the previous homeowner left behind.

Note: the screws were too long...

So I used the dremel tool to cut them off

Next, we needed to put the bottom on the garden. We used a 1" drill bit to cut drain holes in the bottom.

It's hard to grow anything in a 4'x4' wooden box without dirt, so we created "Mel's Mix".  The reasoning for this soil mixture is explained in great detail in the book.  Basically it provides necessary nutrients, holds yet drains (?) water, and is loose enough for roots to easily grow.

1/3 Peat Moss

1/3 Compost (Mel suggests your own if you can, or at least a variety of composts)

Vermiculite (this is some sort of crushed stone or something)

Since the dirt was probably the most expensive part of this adventure, we didn't want to lose any.  We opened all of the bags on a tarp which actually helped us mix to a homogeneous state.

All mixed up

We put the dirt in the SFG in 3 layers, per Mel's instructions.  At each layer, he suggests watering it to help to soil compact naturally.

"I love shoveling!"

Then to make it a true SFG, we divided it into 16 equal parts.  This has since warped and kind of failed.  We might use string instead...

16 amazing square feet of life sustaining goodness.

We picked some veggies that would be good for the weather as we go from spring into summer, and mostly things we want to eat.  The number of crops to plant in each square-foot depends on the mature size of the crop.  We ended up planting the following in each square foot:
4 Yellow Squash
4 Zucchini
4 Okra
4 Tomato
4 Basil
9 Onion
9 Spinach
9 Beans
9 Spinach
16 Carrots
9 Beets
16 Carrots
4 Cilantro
4 Basil
9 Onion
9 Spinach

Mel also mentioned pre-soaking your seeds, so we read online how long to soak them.

Toby Keith would be jealous of all the red solo cups.

In only one week, we already had sprouts!

Baby beets!

Zucchini

At the time of this blog post, almost everything has sprouted and they are growing fast.  We'll update again when we harvest some!  And if you visit us on the right day, maybe you can pick your own vegetable from the garden and Anna can make it into something delicious!!

Day out.

Happy Easter!

Day In.

We had a lovely Easter weekend. Both sets of parents were able to come in town. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Jay, Rebecca, Anna Claire and Stuart in front of the cross at church

The McKaskles 

Kelly, Harrison and Jimmy
(H just wanted to look at the flowers behind him)

The Days / Miners

Cousins! at Brio brunch

We had brunch with my parents and some cousins at Brio.

Then the Days and Miners came over for dinner at our house. I tried to make the table look festive for Spring. I alternated between blue napkins and a floral print I bought in Paris. Of course I used bird nests on each plate....I love birds!

I found some new candles for the dining room table. I am loving the citron yellow.

As an Easter treat, Stu and I gave Harrison a little bow tie. I think he liked it!

There's definitely animals on the bow tie :)

Happy Easter!
Day Out (plus my little snuggle bug)

Spring Cleaning

Today was my day off. I had planned to do some cleaning anyways, but some little guys had a different plan. And by little guys, I mean ants. The day started off by me adding some honey to my hot tea. Then, an ant is crawling on my hand...not ok. I take off the top of the honey, and they are everywhere! So needless to say, the top of my list was to scrub the pantry, top to bottom. I didn't have Raid or anything, but I found Windex to be suitable weapon.

Here is the pantry pre-clean (aka very dirty).

The ants refused to be photographed. But don't worry, they are there.

After cleaning, here's how it turned out. Overall, I'm very pleased. It's less cluttered and ant-free (for now).

I was also able to finally hang my grandfather's wedding present for us. He gave us this beautiful stained-glass piece. I am happy it has a home now.

 

Highlights of the day:

1. Ants and tea fiasco

2. Spilling a whole bucket of water and cleaner everywhere

3. Losing to the ants

4. Spilling a box of pasta on the floor

5. Having a (some what) cleaner pantry!

Baptism Brunch

Our sweet nephew was baptized last month. We were honored to have the brunch at our house. My sister in law and her mom did a wonderful job with the food and decorations. (I really did nothing except for cleaning the house).

 The blue decorations were perfect.

Some of the delicious food!

Hard to tell...but this cute banner says "Harrison".

The man of the hour! And quite possibly, the cutest thing ever.