I suspect that for the near future, this blog may be more about the foibles of first time home owners rather than my writing.
I have lived my life until now either at home or in rental housing that came with maintenance departments. Now there is no one to call that isn’t going to cost me $$$ so I am forced to pretend to know what I’m doing and figure some things out for myself.
For instance, I have noticed that many appliance delivery men are large. So how in the world do they manage to install washers and dryers? Our movers did not install our appliances because they said they only move things. Fair enough. Because we neglected to bring along the mental dryer vent hose they left the dryer pulled out so we could hook it up. I retrieved it from the rental house yesterday and decided to go for it. Installing the vent hose isn’t rocket science but it wasn’t easy either.
First of all, the hose I had was way too long so I had to cut it down. That in itself wasn’t so difficult, but did you know that while the tubing is somewhat flexible, it isn’t constructed in the expected rows but are instead spirals? When you cut it, it wants to cut in a spiral too which isn’t that helpful. Also, that metal is sharp. Ouch. Once I finally got it cut to the proper length and attached to the outer vent, I had to push the dryer in so the vent tubing could reach which meant having to push the washer out because while I’m thin, but I’m not that thin.
I repeat – how to those delivery guys do it? I was using some of my best yoga stretches and still had to boost myself up and climb over the washer (while slithering out from under some overhead cabinets) to free myself.
My husband had helpfully attached the water hoses for the washer but when I turned the washer on, nothing happened. Turns out he hadn’t turned the water on. When I turned it on, it started to spray because the hose wasn’t tight enough. Good thing I had my tool box handy!
This morning I went down to bump up the heat setting on our water heater and noticed a puddle of condensation on the floor – right where we just had a piece of wall removed because of a mold problem. Huh. Don’t want to go the mold route again so will have to figure out why the furnace unit seems to be sweating. That’s probably a dumb diagnosis but what do you want. I’m a contortionist dryer-hooker-upper, not a furnace technician.
I can already tell that owning a house is going to be nothing but a learning curve!
In other news, my story Wishful Thinking
I had to laugh at your description of installing the vent hose! I got my dryer from freecycle, so it was up to me to install it, too. Same description! But I haven’t used my yoga moves in years…it’s amazing how much you can fake successfully! Just takes some common sense and good flexibility.
by susan June 27th, 2012 at 1:05 pmI already found a guy willing to shimmy into our crawl space and lay plastic sheeting down. Nope, not even I will go in there!
by Jenyfer June 27th, 2012 at 1:59 pmSome equipment needs to be wrapped/insulated to avoid condensation or steam. Always hang around and watch the “experts” so you know how to do it yourself later. And do NOT let moisture problems go. Not only will you have to make repairs, but in some parts of the country, the word “mold” triggers bad things in regards to your homeowners insurance.
Do NOT use duct tape on ducts! There’s a foil backed tape they make specially for that. Obviously you can fake it for dryer vents for a short time, but remember it’s HEAT and you never want to use tape that could burn. That’s why they make those metal clamp thingies. [Technical term!
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by B Irwin June 27th, 2012 at 5:51 pmB Irwin- I used the metal clampy things on my dryer vent so I’m good on that
No way I’m letting the moisture thing go. There was a spot of mold on the drywall in the basement which turned out in part to be “black mold” which is what held up our closing in the first place. We have not yet had the wall repaired from the mold remediation and I want the moisture issue dealt with before we do. The AC guy who just came to look diagnosed a new evaporator coil because this one is all corroded. Good thing we have a home warranty
by Jenyfer June 28th, 2012 at 11:26 am