The time had come – we had to replace one of our toilet seats – the one in the upstairs bathroom. We have been in the house for about 33 years. We have 2 bathrooms and have replaced each of the toilet seats at least once. The upstairs toilet seat apparently had a plastic film seal over the seat and the hole that had suddenly appeared in the film was getting too big to ignore, so a new one was needed. (I am a big believer in “whenever you can ignore a problem – do so”.) I had not actually completely ignored the problem - I had given a bit of a pull to the edge of the hole to see if it would expand...
Now a toilet seat might seem a generic item and replaceable with no thought, but having grown up in a home where the bathroom was alternatively referred to as “the reading room” and “daddy's office”, I can assure you it does take some thought – especially when one is on a budget. First I read up on toilet seats as I knew that these days there are different shapes and though there might even be different sizes – only different shapes. I was pretty sure ours was a “round” as opposed to an “elongated” - the latter being a newer style of toilet than ours – which predates our buying the house. I was right. So size was determined – round. Price is always a factor and we did not something fancy – so next question was plastic or (not, not paper) wood? We have one of each (our half bath in our kitchen* has a wood seat). Husband studied the seats in both bathrooms and decided on plastic.
Then the hard question – Home Depot or Lowes? I noticed that Home Depot had a lot more choices than Lowes, but husband had to go to both stores. He bought the plastic, round seat, near, but not at the bottom of the price range, we had figured would be good for us and we took it home.
At home - after it sat around for a few days, of course, he opened the box and took the seat to the bathroom to see how it would be. He then went to the Home Depot website and decided that maybe we should have a more substantial seat and found one. Back to Home Depot and bought that seat. We had not returned the original so we could think about it.
He decided the new one was more substantial and decided to put it in. It was another manufacturer and had a more complicated installation than the other (and our old) seat – involving putting in the hinge and then pushing the seat connectors into the hinge. When he took the seat out of the box it had several large scratches on it. Back to thinking. One thing he mentioned that was that the scratched one was slightly, but measurably thicker - “Does that matter?” My first response was “no”, but then I thought about it. This toilet is somehow taller than the one downstairs (which should be the same size) and the downstairs one is a slightly more comfortable height for me so I changed my response to “yes” and explained this to him. We decided to go with the first seat.
We went to install the first seat we bought. We took off the old one – cleaned the toilet well (my job) and went to install the new seat. Unfortunately no one thought that one have the toilet sitting almost against the side wall. (I often joke that we should take out the toilet paper and find someplace else to put it so my leg does not touch it when using the toilet – it is that close a space.) Installing the left side of the seat was complicated by this problem, but we managed to get installed. Well, that's something accomplished.
The seat does have a new feature – s l o w c l o s i n g. I am used to holding the end of the seat to keep it from falling too quickly and have to learn to let go and let it fall.
Showing posts with label Home Depot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Depot. Show all posts
Thursday, August 4, 2022
EVEN IN A PANDEMIC - THINGS BREAK AND NEED TO BE REPLACED
Thursday, September 23, 2021
SORRY TO MISS A POST AGAIN - DEALING WITH RUNNING ERRANDS UNDER COVID
My apologies for missing last week's post. The night I was to write and post was the start of the holiest day of the Jewish year and I could not do so, the following day is the main day of the holiday so I could not do so that day either. (Writing and turning on/off electrical devices of any kind are among the things not allowed during the holiday.)
The days after were taken up with a problem in switching our business bank account. We went in Wednesday (before the evening when the holiday would start) to open an account at a credit union we use. I had telephoned first due to the pandemic to see if we needed and appointment. The main office said we did not and told me items I needed to bring to open the account. When we went in on Wednesday we were told – and there were signs around – that an appointment was needed to see one of the “platform people” (did you know that what the people at the desks are called). We had to go home and made an appointment as they were fully booked or else they would have accommodated us. I went home and made the appointment for Friday – after the holiday. Oh, and the list of what I needed to bring was missing some items from the printed list I was handed while in the credit on Wednesday.
Thursday night after the holiday I put the needed paperwork and also some other items for us to deal with while at the credit union – such as two deposits to go into the new account when opened and paperwork to make an IRA withdrawal to transfer money to our personal bank account elsewhere. (I am not working or getting paid as I normally would as I am not going to clients.) We spent Friday going to the credit union and then the bank. Friday night I realized the credit union employee never did give us starter checks for the account, so I cannot order any. Luckily it is rare these days we use the account so when we get our ATM cards and go in to pick PIN numbers we will ask for the checks.
And so between these larger matters and the smaller matters of every day – a week passed and I realized that I had not posted – again, my apologies.
THOUGHT OF THE (TWO) WEEK(S) -
Try to group your errands outside the house. It makes no sense to go to the same place (whether it during the current pandemic or in normal times) more than once if you can go there once and do everything you need to do. (When we went to the credit union I did transactions for us, our business, and for our reenactment unit in the same trip and then went to a branch of our bank about 3 blocks away to save time out running errands.)
Similarly if we are going to do something in the community “L” and eating lunch out – we eat lunch in the community “L” and not at the location nearer us - but not in that direction – where we prefer to eat lunch. Saves time and we will look for any other things we need to do that we can do while in that community/area.
The supermarket we are currently using for most of our grocery trips has a Home Depot across the street. It is not a Home Depot we particularly like as it is small and in an older store (a small Kmart) they took over so nothing is located anywhere that makes sense, but it saves time to go there as it so close to the supermarket.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
COVID 19 #9 PATIENCE WITH ERRORS AND DELAYS
I hope that all and their loved ones continue to be well.
This week in the wonderful world of isolated at home we have been working on two problems.
First over a week ago I found that the hot water tap in our downstairs bathroom was leaking. I tried to use the shut off valve under the sink – but of course it did not turn. I had to call husband to deal withit. He could not turn that shut off valve either but, being taller than me, he could reach the bigger shut off – just for that sink – in the basement. So no leak and no hot water in the sink in the bathroom off the kitchen. Hands either had to be washed upstairs, in the kitchen sink or in cold water. Since I would forget to wash my hands before coming downstairs to work in the kitchen and did not want to risk washing virus into the kitchen sink – it was wash with cold water.
In normal times we would have gone to Home Depot and bought the replacement cartridge and fixed the sink – after much screaming and yelling about what was being done. (It is not a household repair around here unless there is a lot of screaming and yelling.) But we were not going to go out and look for the part in Home Depot. Husband looked it up online and found that the Home Depot we go to did have the part and would bring it out to us in our car - but in looking to see this, he found out that there is a lifetime warranty on the cartridge and the manufacturer would replace it free – and by mail. So I telephoned and they were mailing the cartridge. Tuesday we had not received it and I called to check and it was traced and here at the post office – along the lines of “a small world” the woman who checked for me happened to mention she used to live in this area – in the community I grew up and I told her that. She then mentioned the school her children went to – and it was the one that my sisters and I went to – gee, they might have gone to school with one of my sisters (I am too old to imagine that for me as she would be, well, as old as my 91 yo mom).
The cartridge arrived in the mail today and with a small amount of concern of everything going right – we now have hot water in the downstairs bathroom – and it does not leak – my hands are very happy not to be in cold water again. Well, the isolation led to us saving the cost of the cartridge as he would not have looked online and found out about warranty on it if it was not that we are not going out.
Second – we have put off renewing our several medical prescriptions until now when they have to be renewed – will be out of one medication for husband on Friday morning and he did not like my idea of splitting up some old pills of same medication to make the correct dosage for him.
On Monday during the day I telephoned our pharmacy – Walmart – about what arrangements they had for pickup as we did not want to walk into the store. Around here, Walmarts are not delivering and there is no pick up service currently in general. They do have pickup service for prescriptions only (not even denture adhesive could be added). I was told to call before we come and then again when we are in the parking lot and we would pay at our car. I telephoned on Monday night and put in the renewals through the pharmacy's computer.
On Tuesday (yesterday) we received a call that they were out of the strips for my Diabetes meter and it would take until “Wednesday” for them to come. I told them that was okay – and then asked about same for husband – since I had listed his prescriptions first, he had gotten the last of the strips. No problem, we had figured on going today (Wednesday) any way. So far, so good.
Today I telephoned the pharmacy to check that the strips had come in. They had, but now they were short one of husband's blood pressure medications and it would not be in until “Thursday”. Okay, we can go tomorrow. The employee was looking over the list of the medications to make sure all the rest were accounted for. She happened to mention his insulin and the price - $141. Problem – it is suppose to be $47. I double checked that they only were filling same for a month. (Our other medications are for 90 days, but he only wants one box/month's worth of insulin at a time since if something happens to our fridge it will go bad and is expensive (more than it appears from the copay for it). It was for a month.
So I telephoned our insurance company. I got a very nice employee – he explained what it could be – I explained that the deductible had been met for the year. He checked the records and agreed it should be $47. While we were speaking there was an echo on his phone – whatever caused that made it so he could not call our pharmacy and he transferred me to another employee – with apparently notes about our discussion on our files as I did not need to give her the pharmacy's phone number again. She though insisted the $141 was correct as it was for 75 days of insulin! I explained that it was for a one month supply and the prescription is written for same – one month, one box. She finally figured out the problem and called the pharmacy to change the price. I then called the pharmacy to make sure it was all corrected. So hopefully when I check tomorrow all the prescriptions will be ready and we will go and get them.
Third – Yesterday in the mail we received mail from our cable company marked “urgent” - so I opened it before sealing the mail in the “Tuesday” plastic zip bag for mail. I left it open and facing the bag to be able to read it while it was in the bag. It said that our cable would be shut off as we have not paid our bill. Back last month when the cable bill was due we were short on money in our checking account due a timing problem to pay our cable bill. Normally we would have gone and transferred money from another account – but if we cannot go out, we cannot easily transfer the money. I tried telephoning our cable company to new avail, then we tried to “chat” online with same – to no avail until I went to what I had learned to do during the crisis – I went online in the middle of the night to chat with them. A very nice employee when I explained the situation and asked for the courtesy of an additional week to pay the bill told me that he did not give me the time – there was an automatic 60 day allowance on payment of bills. I checked with him again that nothing needed to be done and he said nothing – it was automatic. So we paid our cable bill from last month and our cable bill from this month – together – earlier this month - 30 days after the first bill was due and in time to be on time for this month's bill.
Then yesterday I received the notice. I tried calling the cable company to no avail – busy. Meanwhile husband went online into our cable account online – it showed the payment and but had for an unknown reason a $10 balance. I checked with our bank and the check had cleared our bank on April 11 – seems to me that it should have reached them timely if it was back to our bank by then. I checked the notice – it mentioned a $10 fee if one did not pay by automatic payment – was this something new that they had done?
Later that night I again went on the cable company's website and turned on chat and waited for about 45 minutes. I put in the background of what had happened and then asked about why I received the notice if I had 60 days grace on the late payment from last month and this month's was timely paid – and did I now have to pay a $10 fee for paying with a check instead of by automatic payment? Per this employee - there was never a blanket 60 day grace period – same was for people who lost their jobs, was only offered through mid March, and people had to apply for it. My check reached them – one day late, due per her May 8 and arrived on May 9 (mailed on May 3). I mentioned that we have been with them over 30 years and NEVER paid late. I was not charged for a fee for paying by check – it was for late payment. She waived the fee. She also said that she would let them know about the incorrect information I had relied on which I had been told during the earlier chat in case other customers were told the same incorrect info.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Everything now takes a bit more time and more checking to make sure it is correct. Try to keep calm (I did with all of these problems) and be nice – so many people are so upset and on edge that customer service people appreciate even more when a customer is nice to them. (And believe me, I can terribly nasty when something has gone wrong due to stupidity -such as employee giving incorrect information.) I have also been sure to thank the employees for continuing to working for all of us to have the needed services/items and say that I hope they and their families stay well.
This week in the wonderful world of isolated at home we have been working on two problems.
First over a week ago I found that the hot water tap in our downstairs bathroom was leaking. I tried to use the shut off valve under the sink – but of course it did not turn. I had to call husband to deal withit. He could not turn that shut off valve either but, being taller than me, he could reach the bigger shut off – just for that sink – in the basement. So no leak and no hot water in the sink in the bathroom off the kitchen. Hands either had to be washed upstairs, in the kitchen sink or in cold water. Since I would forget to wash my hands before coming downstairs to work in the kitchen and did not want to risk washing virus into the kitchen sink – it was wash with cold water.
In normal times we would have gone to Home Depot and bought the replacement cartridge and fixed the sink – after much screaming and yelling about what was being done. (It is not a household repair around here unless there is a lot of screaming and yelling.) But we were not going to go out and look for the part in Home Depot. Husband looked it up online and found that the Home Depot we go to did have the part and would bring it out to us in our car - but in looking to see this, he found out that there is a lifetime warranty on the cartridge and the manufacturer would replace it free – and by mail. So I telephoned and they were mailing the cartridge. Tuesday we had not received it and I called to check and it was traced and here at the post office – along the lines of “a small world” the woman who checked for me happened to mention she used to live in this area – in the community I grew up and I told her that. She then mentioned the school her children went to – and it was the one that my sisters and I went to – gee, they might have gone to school with one of my sisters (I am too old to imagine that for me as she would be, well, as old as my 91 yo mom).
The cartridge arrived in the mail today and with a small amount of concern of everything going right – we now have hot water in the downstairs bathroom – and it does not leak – my hands are very happy not to be in cold water again. Well, the isolation led to us saving the cost of the cartridge as he would not have looked online and found out about warranty on it if it was not that we are not going out.
Second – we have put off renewing our several medical prescriptions until now when they have to be renewed – will be out of one medication for husband on Friday morning and he did not like my idea of splitting up some old pills of same medication to make the correct dosage for him.
On Monday during the day I telephoned our pharmacy – Walmart – about what arrangements they had for pickup as we did not want to walk into the store. Around here, Walmarts are not delivering and there is no pick up service currently in general. They do have pickup service for prescriptions only (not even denture adhesive could be added). I was told to call before we come and then again when we are in the parking lot and we would pay at our car. I telephoned on Monday night and put in the renewals through the pharmacy's computer.
On Tuesday (yesterday) we received a call that they were out of the strips for my Diabetes meter and it would take until “Wednesday” for them to come. I told them that was okay – and then asked about same for husband – since I had listed his prescriptions first, he had gotten the last of the strips. No problem, we had figured on going today (Wednesday) any way. So far, so good.
Today I telephoned the pharmacy to check that the strips had come in. They had, but now they were short one of husband's blood pressure medications and it would not be in until “Thursday”. Okay, we can go tomorrow. The employee was looking over the list of the medications to make sure all the rest were accounted for. She happened to mention his insulin and the price - $141. Problem – it is suppose to be $47. I double checked that they only were filling same for a month. (Our other medications are for 90 days, but he only wants one box/month's worth of insulin at a time since if something happens to our fridge it will go bad and is expensive (more than it appears from the copay for it). It was for a month.
So I telephoned our insurance company. I got a very nice employee – he explained what it could be – I explained that the deductible had been met for the year. He checked the records and agreed it should be $47. While we were speaking there was an echo on his phone – whatever caused that made it so he could not call our pharmacy and he transferred me to another employee – with apparently notes about our discussion on our files as I did not need to give her the pharmacy's phone number again. She though insisted the $141 was correct as it was for 75 days of insulin! I explained that it was for a one month supply and the prescription is written for same – one month, one box. She finally figured out the problem and called the pharmacy to change the price. I then called the pharmacy to make sure it was all corrected. So hopefully when I check tomorrow all the prescriptions will be ready and we will go and get them.
Third – Yesterday in the mail we received mail from our cable company marked “urgent” - so I opened it before sealing the mail in the “Tuesday” plastic zip bag for mail. I left it open and facing the bag to be able to read it while it was in the bag. It said that our cable would be shut off as we have not paid our bill. Back last month when the cable bill was due we were short on money in our checking account due a timing problem to pay our cable bill. Normally we would have gone and transferred money from another account – but if we cannot go out, we cannot easily transfer the money. I tried telephoning our cable company to new avail, then we tried to “chat” online with same – to no avail until I went to what I had learned to do during the crisis – I went online in the middle of the night to chat with them. A very nice employee when I explained the situation and asked for the courtesy of an additional week to pay the bill told me that he did not give me the time – there was an automatic 60 day allowance on payment of bills. I checked with him again that nothing needed to be done and he said nothing – it was automatic. So we paid our cable bill from last month and our cable bill from this month – together – earlier this month - 30 days after the first bill was due and in time to be on time for this month's bill.
Then yesterday I received the notice. I tried calling the cable company to no avail – busy. Meanwhile husband went online into our cable account online – it showed the payment and but had for an unknown reason a $10 balance. I checked with our bank and the check had cleared our bank on April 11 – seems to me that it should have reached them timely if it was back to our bank by then. I checked the notice – it mentioned a $10 fee if one did not pay by automatic payment – was this something new that they had done?
Later that night I again went on the cable company's website and turned on chat and waited for about 45 minutes. I put in the background of what had happened and then asked about why I received the notice if I had 60 days grace on the late payment from last month and this month's was timely paid – and did I now have to pay a $10 fee for paying with a check instead of by automatic payment? Per this employee - there was never a blanket 60 day grace period – same was for people who lost their jobs, was only offered through mid March, and people had to apply for it. My check reached them – one day late, due per her May 8 and arrived on May 9 (mailed on May 3). I mentioned that we have been with them over 30 years and NEVER paid late. I was not charged for a fee for paying by check – it was for late payment. She waived the fee. She also said that she would let them know about the incorrect information I had relied on which I had been told during the earlier chat in case other customers were told the same incorrect info.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Everything now takes a bit more time and more checking to make sure it is correct. Try to keep calm (I did with all of these problems) and be nice – so many people are so upset and on edge that customer service people appreciate even more when a customer is nice to them. (And believe me, I can terribly nasty when something has gone wrong due to stupidity -such as employee giving incorrect information.) I have also been sure to thank the employees for continuing to working for all of us to have the needed services/items and say that I hope they and their families stay well.
Thursday, June 27, 2019
REPLACE THE REFRIGERATOR?
Well the ants were resolve as of last week. I have been very careful - I wash the dishes, etc immediately after we eat, then dry them and put them away, then dry the drying rack, dishpan and sink. So far, so good. (Fingers crossed.)
The refrigerator is a different story. I have spent weeks now watching the thermometer in it - it is a remote read so I don’t have to open the door. I understand that there is some play in the temperature of the fridge and I sort of know how it works. For food purposes it has to be kept at 40F or less and for insulin related reasons it has to be kept at 36 F or higher. It can go as high as 46F, but since the food has a lower top limit, I basically have to keep the fridge (house or RV) between 36 and 40 F. I try to keep both at 38F and between 37 and 39F to allow some play or in case the thermometer is off.
I know how to adjust the temperature - turn the knob colder if the temperature is too high until the compressor just clicks on, it if too low then turn the knob just warmer so the compressor clicks off. I am at good at this. In the RV I have been known to jump to the back when we stop for gas to make a quick adjustment.
Recently our house refrigerator has been acting wrong. I look at the thermometer and it is 37F. I leave it. I look again maybe 10-15 minutes later and it is 40F. It should not jump that much that fast or without seemingly hitting any temperatures between. It is then hard to get the temperature back down to where it belongs. I am not adding large amounts of food at all, let alone food that is not already cold. I thought I was just missing the adjustments and started setting the timer in my mobile phone to go off every 15 or 20 minutes to remind me to check the timer. Still missed the jumps. Husband and I have been discussing what to do. For what a repair would cost, it would not pay.
So we have been looking refrigerators online and in stores. Since we have a small house, we have a small kitchen and a relatively small fridge. When we moved into this house 30 years ago we owned a refrigerator that we had used in our apartment and brought that with us. Sending the one that came with the house (from the prior owners) to the garage (which did not have electricity) where its main use was to have our, then, Christmas tree stored on top of it. One July 4th week we were away and came home and found that while we had been away the fridge had died. As we threw out most of what was in the fridge, we thought to and tried to plug in the fridge in the garage - it no longer worked. So we bought a new fridge.
For our apartment we had bought a 15 cu ft refrigerator. Due to confusion the company that we bought it from took about a week to deliver it to us - and they delivered an 18 cu ft one - with an ice maker and told us to keep both when I called that they were wrong. (Apparently they kept mixing us up with another customer which led to them claiming that originally they tried to deliver and I was not home - I was home and on the phone, by coincidence, at that time. We bought the fridge in 1982 for the apartment. I know this as I was working on a piece of embroidery at the time, worked on it all work while stuck in our apartment waiting, and it is, yes, dated 1982. I am not sure of when we bought the first one for this house or its size.
When we had our house treated for the bed bugs in 2009 we found afterwards that the refrigerator which we had replaced that one with was no longer working. Since we found several individual bottles of water in the fridge and its freezer which were not ours, so apparently the bed bug crew had stashed their water bottles in our fridge (it was a major heat treatment) and had been opening the doors all day - so our fridge died.
At that time we bought the fridge that is currently in our house. It is 20.9 cu ft. Like all of our other ones it is white and a top freezer. I did not particularly like a number of things about it, but we were in a rush and bought it - it has served us well.
Monday night we decided that we had to replace it. We both looked online and found that there seemed to be 3 possible replacements of about the same size. Tuesday we went to a major house/hardware chain to look at what they had. None of the 3 excited me. They had oddly arranged shelves (all were actually from different companies - not just the same company with different nameplates) and such. Husband had heard about fridges which allow one to set an actual temperature and the fridge will keep that temperature - not the usual turn the dial a little this way or that and stick a thermometer in the fridge to check the temperature. I found one that was “only” $300 more than what we were looking at - or to look at the extra price another way - it added the equivalent of 50% more of the price to the price. This was something he REALLY wanted. He had given me measurements at home before we went out and this one did not seem that much larger in size and we left it in consideration.
We then went to the other major house/hardware chain to see what they had. Basically the same, but the model that we had seen and husband was interested in, was slightly different - or at least it’s number was.
We have bought large appliances from both in the past and based on same decided that we wanted to buy from the first company, but decided to go a different store in the chain which was larger and “maybe” would have something different.
They did not. So I made the decision. As much as I would hate the fancier fridge - it was side by side and I was not even sure a turkey would fit on the tiny shelves and we had to take it in stainless as white add another 50% to the price, it made sense for the problem we have with keeping the temperature in such a small range. We bought it. To be delivered and set up on Friday.
We then went home and measured the front door - it was about an inch too small, but we figured that they could take the fridge doors off as there was a measurement without same and it would fit.
One thing husband had read about is that the freezer in this type of fridge has a small “door” to the main compartment which opens and closes to take cold air into the freezer and it makes the main fridge section warmer. We have a small freezer in the basement - from when we used to grow vegetables and I would actually shop at sales to buy food and would store the extra in this freezer. Now it is mostly empty - when I went to see what was in it - everything had a date to use by in 2016. I tossed them out. I then took all of the items in our fridge’s freezer downstairs to the freezer. Only things I left in the upstairs freezer are some of those liquid filled plastic things that one freezes and puts with food or meds to keep them cold in transit. I then turned the fridge’s freezer temperature almost all the way to the warmest temperature. (We would need to move the frozen food to same anyway as it takes a day for the new fridge/freezer to reach temperature.
Overnight the same thought came to each of us - the fridge also had to pass through 2 doorways in the house - and they were narrower. Then husband went downstairs and laid out the measurements of the fridge we ordered - it was huge! It would not only block part of the entry into the kitchen from the dining room, it would also block access the (only) light switches in the kitchen. I measured the old fridge and came in about 3-4 inches smaller front to back then he had measured. We went back to the store and canceled the order.
Now what to do? Well, the fridge had been working okay since yesterday (Tuesday). Maybe it would keep working - at least until we return from a trip next week. The sale on the various refrigerators continues to July 10, so we could still get the price when we came back. We looked at the 3 fridges in the right size and decided which one we would get - but we figured we would buy it after we returned from our trip.
Husband decided he wanted a chicken pie we had in the freezer. I went down and took it out. Temperature in the fridge was 37F - great! I put the pie in to cook and was playing games on my cell phone. I wanted a glass of soda - in taking out the bottle that was there, I notice we would need more and added a bottle - a room temperature bottle - to the fridge. When I looked up again the temperature was 45F??!!! By now we have several thermometers sitting in the fridge - the one we normally use seems to always be the odd one out. In this case the others all showed the temperature to be 40F - could it be a thermometer problem? We have spare of the remote read and I set that up and took the first one out - same problem. Even with the temperature set to the coldest setting - it was not getting colder, the compressor did not seem to be on. We unplugged the fridge and then plugged it in again (it seemed to help twice before since the weekend). No effect.
Extremely s l o w l y the temperature dropped. After dinner, we went out and ordered the fridge that we had decided to order next week. I don’t love it - but hopefully it will work and it is better than the huge side by side husband wanted - and it should fit through all the doors it needs to. It is suppose to be here Friday.
Now for logistics -
We have an automatic ice maker to old fridge - as we had one before, we had bought it again. We are not getting one for our new fridge - we rarely use ice and end up tossing out the shrunken cubes that are in the freezer. We can do it “the old fashioned way” and have frozen trays of ice in the freezer. But we have to shut off the water to the fridge and get rid of the water in the line. Husband found it and turned it closed as far it as it went. I threw out the shrunken, dried cubes in the ice bucket and turned the ice maker on to use the rest of the water in the line up. We either have much more water in the line than we thought, the ice maker uses much less water than we figure - or the water is not actually off and has a leak in the tap as we keep getting more ice cubes - right now they are just shells of ice, but they keep coming. Just heard more drop. We bought a “cap” for the end of the water line - just in case the water is not and cannot be shut off completely.
Freezer, as mentioned, is basically empty.
That leaves our fridge section. There is an open package of American cheese slices, an open package of cream cheese, 2 hot dogs, and 6 eggs in it. I have 2 of husband’s insulin pens in it. If we cannot keep them below 46F, I am not going to worry about it as they will need to be used within 42 days - and they are 20 days worth, plus husband is in the middle of pen - so they should be used up long before the 42 days. The rest of what is in there does not really need to be in a fridge “to keep” - soda, sealed bottles of ice tea, condiments (no mayo), and similar. Our RV is currently plugged in to charge the batteries (done twice a month, just happened to be doing it now) and we will turn on the fridge in the RV tomorrow and put the food from the fridge in it until we can move it to the new fridge. (Hot dogs could just be frozen and put in the basement freezer.)
I soooooo hope that this is the last of the stupidity that has been going on. (Well, I do have to make a 3rd call to an insurance for our reenacting unit - so, still repeating chores over and over.) I really cannot take any more!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When one thinks that everything is resolved - something isn’t and will need to be dealt with and redone.
Oh, and things always break at the wrong time.
Oh, and when all these things are going on and one goes down to do laundry and pours water out of the dehumidifier all over the basement - the laundry can wait!
The refrigerator is a different story. I have spent weeks now watching the thermometer in it - it is a remote read so I don’t have to open the door. I understand that there is some play in the temperature of the fridge and I sort of know how it works. For food purposes it has to be kept at 40F or less and for insulin related reasons it has to be kept at 36 F or higher. It can go as high as 46F, but since the food has a lower top limit, I basically have to keep the fridge (house or RV) between 36 and 40 F. I try to keep both at 38F and between 37 and 39F to allow some play or in case the thermometer is off.
I know how to adjust the temperature - turn the knob colder if the temperature is too high until the compressor just clicks on, it if too low then turn the knob just warmer so the compressor clicks off. I am at good at this. In the RV I have been known to jump to the back when we stop for gas to make a quick adjustment.
Recently our house refrigerator has been acting wrong. I look at the thermometer and it is 37F. I leave it. I look again maybe 10-15 minutes later and it is 40F. It should not jump that much that fast or without seemingly hitting any temperatures between. It is then hard to get the temperature back down to where it belongs. I am not adding large amounts of food at all, let alone food that is not already cold. I thought I was just missing the adjustments and started setting the timer in my mobile phone to go off every 15 or 20 minutes to remind me to check the timer. Still missed the jumps. Husband and I have been discussing what to do. For what a repair would cost, it would not pay.
So we have been looking refrigerators online and in stores. Since we have a small house, we have a small kitchen and a relatively small fridge. When we moved into this house 30 years ago we owned a refrigerator that we had used in our apartment and brought that with us. Sending the one that came with the house (from the prior owners) to the garage (which did not have electricity) where its main use was to have our, then, Christmas tree stored on top of it. One July 4th week we were away and came home and found that while we had been away the fridge had died. As we threw out most of what was in the fridge, we thought to and tried to plug in the fridge in the garage - it no longer worked. So we bought a new fridge.
For our apartment we had bought a 15 cu ft refrigerator. Due to confusion the company that we bought it from took about a week to deliver it to us - and they delivered an 18 cu ft one - with an ice maker and told us to keep both when I called that they were wrong. (Apparently they kept mixing us up with another customer which led to them claiming that originally they tried to deliver and I was not home - I was home and on the phone, by coincidence, at that time. We bought the fridge in 1982 for the apartment. I know this as I was working on a piece of embroidery at the time, worked on it all work while stuck in our apartment waiting, and it is, yes, dated 1982. I am not sure of when we bought the first one for this house or its size.
When we had our house treated for the bed bugs in 2009 we found afterwards that the refrigerator which we had replaced that one with was no longer working. Since we found several individual bottles of water in the fridge and its freezer which were not ours, so apparently the bed bug crew had stashed their water bottles in our fridge (it was a major heat treatment) and had been opening the doors all day - so our fridge died.
At that time we bought the fridge that is currently in our house. It is 20.9 cu ft. Like all of our other ones it is white and a top freezer. I did not particularly like a number of things about it, but we were in a rush and bought it - it has served us well.
Monday night we decided that we had to replace it. We both looked online and found that there seemed to be 3 possible replacements of about the same size. Tuesday we went to a major house/hardware chain to look at what they had. None of the 3 excited me. They had oddly arranged shelves (all were actually from different companies - not just the same company with different nameplates) and such. Husband had heard about fridges which allow one to set an actual temperature and the fridge will keep that temperature - not the usual turn the dial a little this way or that and stick a thermometer in the fridge to check the temperature. I found one that was “only” $300 more than what we were looking at - or to look at the extra price another way - it added the equivalent of 50% more of the price to the price. This was something he REALLY wanted. He had given me measurements at home before we went out and this one did not seem that much larger in size and we left it in consideration.
We then went to the other major house/hardware chain to see what they had. Basically the same, but the model that we had seen and husband was interested in, was slightly different - or at least it’s number was.
We have bought large appliances from both in the past and based on same decided that we wanted to buy from the first company, but decided to go a different store in the chain which was larger and “maybe” would have something different.
They did not. So I made the decision. As much as I would hate the fancier fridge - it was side by side and I was not even sure a turkey would fit on the tiny shelves and we had to take it in stainless as white add another 50% to the price, it made sense for the problem we have with keeping the temperature in such a small range. We bought it. To be delivered and set up on Friday.
We then went home and measured the front door - it was about an inch too small, but we figured that they could take the fridge doors off as there was a measurement without same and it would fit.
One thing husband had read about is that the freezer in this type of fridge has a small “door” to the main compartment which opens and closes to take cold air into the freezer and it makes the main fridge section warmer. We have a small freezer in the basement - from when we used to grow vegetables and I would actually shop at sales to buy food and would store the extra in this freezer. Now it is mostly empty - when I went to see what was in it - everything had a date to use by in 2016. I tossed them out. I then took all of the items in our fridge’s freezer downstairs to the freezer. Only things I left in the upstairs freezer are some of those liquid filled plastic things that one freezes and puts with food or meds to keep them cold in transit. I then turned the fridge’s freezer temperature almost all the way to the warmest temperature. (We would need to move the frozen food to same anyway as it takes a day for the new fridge/freezer to reach temperature.
Overnight the same thought came to each of us - the fridge also had to pass through 2 doorways in the house - and they were narrower. Then husband went downstairs and laid out the measurements of the fridge we ordered - it was huge! It would not only block part of the entry into the kitchen from the dining room, it would also block access the (only) light switches in the kitchen. I measured the old fridge and came in about 3-4 inches smaller front to back then he had measured. We went back to the store and canceled the order.
Now what to do? Well, the fridge had been working okay since yesterday (Tuesday). Maybe it would keep working - at least until we return from a trip next week. The sale on the various refrigerators continues to July 10, so we could still get the price when we came back. We looked at the 3 fridges in the right size and decided which one we would get - but we figured we would buy it after we returned from our trip.
Husband decided he wanted a chicken pie we had in the freezer. I went down and took it out. Temperature in the fridge was 37F - great! I put the pie in to cook and was playing games on my cell phone. I wanted a glass of soda - in taking out the bottle that was there, I notice we would need more and added a bottle - a room temperature bottle - to the fridge. When I looked up again the temperature was 45F??!!! By now we have several thermometers sitting in the fridge - the one we normally use seems to always be the odd one out. In this case the others all showed the temperature to be 40F - could it be a thermometer problem? We have spare of the remote read and I set that up and took the first one out - same problem. Even with the temperature set to the coldest setting - it was not getting colder, the compressor did not seem to be on. We unplugged the fridge and then plugged it in again (it seemed to help twice before since the weekend). No effect.
Extremely s l o w l y the temperature dropped. After dinner, we went out and ordered the fridge that we had decided to order next week. I don’t love it - but hopefully it will work and it is better than the huge side by side husband wanted - and it should fit through all the doors it needs to. It is suppose to be here Friday.
Now for logistics -
We have an automatic ice maker to old fridge - as we had one before, we had bought it again. We are not getting one for our new fridge - we rarely use ice and end up tossing out the shrunken cubes that are in the freezer. We can do it “the old fashioned way” and have frozen trays of ice in the freezer. But we have to shut off the water to the fridge and get rid of the water in the line. Husband found it and turned it closed as far it as it went. I threw out the shrunken, dried cubes in the ice bucket and turned the ice maker on to use the rest of the water in the line up. We either have much more water in the line than we thought, the ice maker uses much less water than we figure - or the water is not actually off and has a leak in the tap as we keep getting more ice cubes - right now they are just shells of ice, but they keep coming. Just heard more drop. We bought a “cap” for the end of the water line - just in case the water is not and cannot be shut off completely.
Freezer, as mentioned, is basically empty.
That leaves our fridge section. There is an open package of American cheese slices, an open package of cream cheese, 2 hot dogs, and 6 eggs in it. I have 2 of husband’s insulin pens in it. If we cannot keep them below 46F, I am not going to worry about it as they will need to be used within 42 days - and they are 20 days worth, plus husband is in the middle of pen - so they should be used up long before the 42 days. The rest of what is in there does not really need to be in a fridge “to keep” - soda, sealed bottles of ice tea, condiments (no mayo), and similar. Our RV is currently plugged in to charge the batteries (done twice a month, just happened to be doing it now) and we will turn on the fridge in the RV tomorrow and put the food from the fridge in it until we can move it to the new fridge. (Hot dogs could just be frozen and put in the basement freezer.)
I soooooo hope that this is the last of the stupidity that has been going on. (Well, I do have to make a 3rd call to an insurance for our reenacting unit - so, still repeating chores over and over.) I really cannot take any more!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When one thinks that everything is resolved - something isn’t and will need to be dealt with and redone.
Oh, and things always break at the wrong time.
Oh, and when all these things are going on and one goes down to do laundry and pours water out of the dehumidifier all over the basement - the laundry can wait!
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