It was two months ago today that our old house officially went on the market. It’s been a crazy couple of months, but things are starting to settle down a bit now. Our dog is back to her old frisky self, our furniture is mostly where it belongs, and we’re making good progress at getting everything cleaned and organized.
My husband is in the middle of installing a new dishwasher, as the one that came with the house wasn’t working. He went to Home Depot and talked with a sales person about the various models available. The salesman pointed out that the $300 dishwasher has most of the same features as the $600 models, but that the more expensive ones have more insulation and are thus quieter. So my husband bought the $300 dishwasher, along with a sheet of foam insulation. He spent this evening installing the new dishwasher, and reinforcing the almost non-existant insulation that it came with. He added the fiberglass blanket that was on the old dishwasher, and lots of styrofoam insulation. He even unscrewed the front of the door panel and added more insulation between the panels of the door. I’m excited to run a load of dishes and see how quiet it is. He’s a good husband. I think I’ll keep him.
I put our little guy in the jogging stroller today and went for a run to the library today. It’s a bit further from the house than our old library was, but it only took about 20 minutes to run there. After working in a huge suburban library for the last several years, the library here feels tiny. But it’s cute, and I like it. I browsed around and found a book that seemed fitting for our new life here. It’s called Farewell My Subaru, and it’s written by Doug Fine. I discovered his blog because of the book, and I’m finding myself very inspired. He did this on a much more grand scale than we’re doing it. He bought 40 acres in the middle of nowhere, and his homestead includes livestock. So far our only plans are for fruits and veggies, and we only have 3/4 of an acre. But it’s the same basic idea, and I’m loving his book.
I’m feeling very successful today, as I tackled a project that had been on my list since we moved in. The bathroom sink drain was blocked, and also had a leak under the sink. I knew that it was a hair clog. Which is gross. But it’s even worse when it’s someone else’s hair. Today I decided that it was now or never, and rolled up my sleeves. I opened up the trap under the sink and found a huge disgusting hair clog that I had to dig out of the pipes. But now it’s all gone, the pipes are clean, and I tightened everything up when I put it back together, which fixed the leak. So now we can use the bathroom sink. Life is good.
Jessie says
Everything sounds like it’s coming together!!
Glad your pup is up and around and back to his normal self.
GC says
Someone else’s hair
oh God
You know what, mad props to you for not making that wonderful keeper of a husband of yours take the job on for you.
FrugalBabe says
GC – I decided I better tackle the drain, since he had spent the previous evening fixing the gate to our side yard, and had been attacked by an angry nest of wasps in the process (somehow he only got stung once, even though they were swarming all over him). That and he was working on the dishwasher while I did the drain. The drain was gross, but rather straight-forward. All I had to do was take apart the trap and the pipe leading into the wall, clean it all out, and put it back together. As nasty as it was, it was a lot easier than the dishwasher project!
Frugalchick says
One of our sinks in the master bathroom is not draining well and I just might have to do what you did. You made it sound easy so I’ll give it a try.
Mary says
Ewww. I have long hair and I shed A LOT, so I know the whole clogged drain thing. If you are a chemical-loving person, I would suggest Hair Clog Blaster drain cleaner. I get it at my local Menards but I’m sure other places carry it.
One day I’m standing in 6″ of non-moving water during my shower, the next…whoosh, I’m getting sucked down the nice clean drain along with the shower water- it’s that good. And anything that can keep my shower running fine with all the hair I lose (and, funny, I still have a head of very thick hair!) is a great product in my book.
Miss Tish says
I’m curious to know how the dishwasher insulation worked! A couple years ago we upgraded our dishwasher, the old one was VERY loud, we couldn’t watch tv and run the dishwasher at the same time! Our new one is a Kenmore Elite and it’s whisper quiet…it’s heavenly. It never occurred to me that we could insulate the old dishwasher – shows how much I know… Hope it worked out well!
FrugalBabe says
Miss Tish,
It worked well. We ended up not including the insulation in the door, since it made the door bend outwards a bit. But the insulation that is wrapped around the tub of the dishwasher makes it pretty quiet. We can definitely have a conversation in the kitchen while it’s running, which we couldn’t do at our old house with the first dishwasher we had there.