Small Problems Can Create Large Ones

UPDATE: The repairman fixed the fridge on Wednesday, so we are back in business.

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Our refrigerator has taken us on an unpleasant adventure over the last few days. Only 18 months old, it surprised us on Friday when the water dispenser began to leak when we tried to get water. It came out the spout but also other places, making a big mess on the floor. Saturday evening, while I was at work, the entire refrigerator shut off. Since the fridge was out of warranty, I could feel the doubletime I was making at work disappearing from my wallet.

Fortunately (?), I came home and discovered that the fridge had tripped the GFCI – kinda weird, but at least I could reset it and turn the fridge back on. I stayed up for a while to watch a movie. Then around 1:00am the ice maker started freaking out, filling the ice dispenser to overflowing, churning constantly, and dropping ice all over the floor when I opened the door to investigate. Then the water dispenser started dumping water everywhere. I ran around frantically trying to catch the ice, dump it outside or in the sink, sop up the water, reset the GFCI, figure out what on earth was going on without slipping on the wet tile and breaking something. I would have called an exorcist, but I figured they were all in bed. I finally shut off the water line and emptied all the ice and water from the fridge as a temporary solution.

Jenny called out a repairman on Monday. He discovered that the small plastic tube in the water dispenser’s spout had gotten pushed up into the door, which is why water was leaking. That alone is an easy fix. Unfortunately, we’d run it so much trying to troubleshoot it that water had dripped down onto the circuitry that control the icemaker, ice dispenser, and water dispenser, which is why that side of the fridge seemed to be possessed. New circuit boards are not cheap, but they are cheaper than replacing an 18-month-old refrigerator, so that’s the plan. He had to order the part and hopes to install it on Wednesday.

Wind Turbines for the Home

My eco-friendly mother-in-law sent me a very interesting article about residential wind turbines. One company, Urban Green Energy, even makes turbines you can mount on your roof. Here in Dallas, the average wind speed is about 10-11mph, so they would work. When they’re turning, your home uses the power they create. If you aren’t using all the generated power at the time, you can store it in a special battery or sell it back to the power company. Nice, eh?

Unfortunately, at current energy prices, the payback period for us would be prohibitively long. We pay about 11.5 cents/kWh, and the mid-level Urban Green Energy turbine (about $4900 after the tax credit) would generate about 1000kWh per year, saving us $115 annually. So I doubt we’ll install them anytime soon. But if the turbine prices come down and energy prices go up, we’ll certainly keep this solution in mind.

New Shower Thingy

My latest home improvement project was replacing the shower trim kit in the master bath’s shower. The trim kit includes the temp/volume control, the round plate behind it, and assorted pieces inside. I’d already done the showerhead and shower arm, so this upgrade completes our shower for now. Eventually, we’d like to add a shower door, but that’s a low-priority project.

1983 Brass

2010 Stainless Steel

Thoughts on Garage Sales

We are planning a garage sale for Friday and Saturday. If you’re into that sort of thing, come on over and clean us out. This should be a decent sale. Along with us, Jenny’s parents and sister and some of our friends are selling furniture, light fixtures, clothes, baby stuff, and other assorted things.

Some people love garage sales. Others hate them. I have mixed emotions:

LIKE:

  • Reduce/reuse/recycle. Instead of tossing an unwanted item into a landfill, you can let someone else use it for another few months or even years. Stuff stays out of the landfill for a while longer, and the buyer doesn’t need to buy a new item (yet). Very green. You might as well plant a tree outside your garage and give it a hug. Maybe we could sell some this weekend.
  • As a seller, instead of throwing something away for free, you can obviously get money instead. You won’t get rich, but small money > no money.
  • As a buyer, you can get stuff you need or want for MUCH cheaper. Garage sales are great for kids’ stuff such as toys and clothes that have a high turnover rate.
  • They are a great motivator for you and your people to declutter their homes. Just tell your people you’re hosting a garage sale, and they’ll get busy digging up stuff. Some of them don’t even want the proceeds; they’re just happy to get rid of their stuff.

DISLIKE:

  • Garage salers, if that’s the correct term, often expect to negotiate. Some LOVE and DEMAND to negotiate, even if you’ve already tagged an item with an extremely low price. Jenny’s mom is a pro. That’s why I’m glad she’s coming over to help run the sale. She will make sure we don’t get hosed. I HATE negotiating and have volunteered to hide watch the boys instead.
  • For reasons I fail to understand, many cities require you to get a permit for the garage sale. Seriously?
  • As a buyer, you never know what you’re going to find. Advertised items might be gone by the time you arrive. The sale might offer nothing but thirty-year-old yellow vases and dusty eight-tracks. When I buy something, I research it nonstop for three years and then buy the EXACT thing I want, generally online. However, for the hardcore garage salers, the unknown-ness is part of the fun, transforming the trip from a mundane excursion into a treasure hunt. You never know when that beaten-up table you buy for $10 might be a 1780 Federalist end table worth tens of thousands.

Bottom line: come to our house Friday or Saturday with a wad of cash and a trailer. We might have a treasure that you never knew you needed!

Latest House Projects

Over the last few weeks, I’ve kept myself busy and mostly out of trouble by working on the house. When we lived in a brand-new house in Keller, the idea of remodeling a home sounded like waaaaaaay too much work, risk, and expense. Now that we live in a 1980s home that still has many original features, limited remodeling suddenly sounds like fun. Yes, it’s expensive, but I’m doing much of the labor myself or with help from the family to save money, and I’ve learned a lot in the process. I feel empowered now.

Here are a few of the projects we’ve done recently:

Front Door
Ugly, boring color to bold red. Bonus: cute toddler in window.

Master Showerhead
Old, clogged, white plastic head to modern brushed nickel head

Old:

New:

Boys’ Bathroom Showerhead
Old, brass head to modern brushed nickel head

Guest Bath Light
Nice light fixture (just not our style) to brushed nickel (thanks to the Matthews for finding this fixture for cheap at the Habitat store)

Dining Room Light

SUPER BRIGHT light fixture (think operating room lighting) to soothing, less bright fixture in…you guessed it, brushed nickel

Old:

New:

Solar Update

First, the bad news: SolarCity evaluated our house and determined that our big cottonwood tree casts too much shade onto the roof, so we are not good candidates for solar panels right now. I hope that over the next few years, solar technology will advance, becoming more efficient and less expensive. Smaller, better panels might fit on our roof and get enough sun to make them worth adding.

Now, the good news: our solar water heater has been working hard. The roof has reached at least 149, heating the water to the upper 120s during a sunny day. The solar controller disables the electric heater from 5am until 7pm. We try to shower and wash dishes in the morning or early afternoon so the solar heater can reheat the water. When the solar heater isn’t running, the water in the tank slowly cools, maybe a degree or two per hour. The hotter the water gets during the day, the longer it takes for the electric heater to kick in after 7pm, saving us more money.

The solar water heater helps in two ways. Most importantly, it heats the water after we use it. I think that’s where most of the savings occur. Second, it keeps the electric heater from running for 14 hours a day, whether to recharge after use or simply to maintain the desired temperature. I recently learned that you can buy a special timer for your traditional water heater to receive some of this second benefit. By letting the water cool when you don’t need hot water, such as during the day while you’re at work or at night while you’re sleeping, supposedly you can save anywhere from $2-20/month by adding a $40 timer.