Dishwasher Dies; Heirlooms from back home
Greetings All !
Dang! Trying to update this BLOG in a timely manner is DIFFICULT to pull off!
So here I am again, a bit late with the following news!:
DISHWASHER REPLACED — Yes, early last week, our dishwasher stopped washing. It would fill and drain just fine but the water wouldn’t get forced up onto the dishes. It was circa-1994, so I suppose it was about time for it to have problems. Since we were planning on replacing it anyways with the remodel of the kitchen, we simply went to Sears and bought a new Kenmore dishwasher.
I like it because it’s got 5 different locations where the water comes out to spray the dishes. (A couple of websites had suggested I focus on that as a feature, since the one thing you want in a dishwasher is for it to actually CLEAN the dishes.) I learned a few things too:
1) Turn on your hot water faucet for a few minutes… until the water is actually hot. THEN start your dishwasher.
2) The average cost to a homeowner to wash one load of dishes in the dishwasher is less than the cost of a postage stamp (37 cents)!
3) Rinse-aid does a pretty good job of keeping your dishes spot-free!
We had to go out-of-town briefly (more on that in a sec)… so there was a delay of about a week between the purchase of our dishwasher and its actual installation. In fact, I just put away the first clean load of dishes this morning!
The unit itself is pretty low-frills. It’s got a stainless-steel front panel, but the interior is plastic. We got the extended warranty on it (one of the FEW times you’ll ever see me go along with those sort of things), because hey, I had problems just trying to get the agitator off of the OLD one. All total, it cost us about $500. I think for that amount of money, you should be able to expect an average decent dishwasher. Nothing to write home about, but nothing cheap and prone to break-downs either.
HOME AND BACK AGAIN — We spent four of my five off-shift days travelling to Wisconsin, filling a small trailer with some furniture and other old items, and then travelling home again. You see, back in June, my Grandmother on my mom’s side died. And now, my parents are selling her house, so they’re clearing out a lot of her stuff. Plus, I had been promising for almost a year to come up and get the “family pool table”…. an old, old item that most of the men in the family seem to desire, but few want to actually lift!
And so, thanks to a U-Haul 5 x 8 trailer, I was able to bring home:
1) That family pool table. It’s at least 60 years old… and probably a lot older, so I’m told. However, its condition is not good. Apparently, early on in its life, its round ball-like feet took some water damage and had to be removed. Somebody apparently used some plumbing parts to build it some adjustable feet, but those haven’t really been used in a while either.
The table itself is 3/4 regulation size. The wood’s finish is bare in some areas, scratched in others. The felt needs to be completely replaced. One of the bumpers may be damaged. And all of the leather pockets probably need replacement. There’s only one of the family pool cues left, for some reason. And the pool cue rack is a real mess. But at least we appear to have all of the balls.
This is going to be a major restoration project. I’ll probably do some research and assessment over the fall and winter and perhaps see what I can do to get started after Christmas. I promise I’ll take good photos and post them here.
2) Somehow, my parents acquired several sets of those stackable “lawyers bookcases” somewhere around the time when I was born. I’m told they came from the offices of the Electric Company in Milwaukee. Each child in my family is to inherit one such stackable case. Since I’m now in an old home where such an antique would look terrific, my parents thought it’d be alright for me to “inherit this a bit early”. I’m quite surprised that we managed to get my set home, after 560 miles of travel, without any damage to the glass! Apparently, my dad and I did a good packing job. This lawyer’s bookcase needs no real restoration. The only problems seem to be that the metal rods that act as closing mechanisms for the glass doors seem to have popped out-of-place on two of the cases. Looks like a screw-eye or two may be missing. This should not be very hard for me to fix.
3) A Grandfather Clock (or actually, as my mother tells me, a Grand-MOTHER clock, as it’s a bit smaller in size than most GrandFATHER clocks). My Grandfather purchased this clock from the Emperor Clock Company (in Alabama) back in either late 1973 or early 1974 !! I know, because when I opened the envelope that still contained the manuals for this clock, there was a letter in it from my Grandfather to the company; and that letter was dated February of 1974 !! ( It seems he was asking them about a problem he was having getting the clock to work properly. The company sent his original letter back to him, along with a page of recommendations!)
Only ONE tiny little part was damaged in getting this clock home: the suspension spring — a small piece of metal that’s about the size of a dime. Yep! It broke right in two! I was surprised and annoyed. But then, a quick Google and I learned:
a) The Emperor Clock Company still exists! (They apparently have always made grandfather clock kits. So I’m not sure if my Grandfather actually put together our clock himself… or if he had somebody else do it.)
b) They have a website!
c) They sell suspension springs on their website! In fact, they still sell the EXACT one I need… for just $5 !!
So, I was able to resolve my problem in about 5 minutes! God bless the Internet !! (Yeah, I have to wait a few days for delivery, but so what?)
We also inherited a few other odds-and-ends: My wife got a small upholstered chair that she just adores. We got my Grandfather’s set of book shelves.. the one that he kept right by his recliner all the time. Of course, to a guy like me ( I “read without ceasing”), there’s nothing more wonderful than bookshelves! And I even got an old advertising outdoor thermometer for some dog-biscuit company I never heard of! It’s in excellent condition (though I can’t seem to recall where it is at the moment)! It’s just like the kind I like to stumble upon in my antique mall travels!
Oh well, I have to go now. Lots of Day-Job things calling me.
But when the day-job gets oppressive… and travel wears me down… there’s still nothing that gives me quite as much peace… or makes me more reflective and appreciative… than My Old House!
Take care,
-= Dave =-