ppliances! Lately I have had a hard time living with some of 'em, and many of us can't live without any of 'em! Yes indeedy, I have recently had a rash of appliance break downs. First, it was the stove. Then the washing machine. Then the dishwasher. Then the microwave, and now, not wanting to be left out of the loop, it's the dryer's turn to go belly up. Surely, I can't be the only one who has noticed this alarming trend of appliance mutiny. Surely I can't be that paranoid regarding the lack of integrity in appliance manufacturing - right? The appliance in particular I'm speaking of course, is my old dryer that we bought new in -uh - when was that anyway? My husband looked up the serial number and discovered it was made in 2008. Yes, I said 2008! Then I looked up the average lifespan of appliances and it seems to be between 8 and 14 years for a dryer. Imagine that! This means we haven't even reached the bottom of the average lifespan, so we have two more years to go. Ah ha! So my suspicions were totally confirmed, appliances do need repair or replacement every 3 years. In this case, repairs have been needed TWICE in last three years! The one appliance that has escaped this mechanical blight is our fridge, and as appliances go, that is one I can't do without. Well ....that and the washing machine. Oh and the stove of course. The rest of 'em? I can live without them!
But I do mind spending money on something that is supposed to last a while. I had recently earned some money for catering a tea party for a friend, and I had plans for that money, but those plans when out the window when our dryer went kaputsky. That figures, right? My husband initially wanted to buy a new one, which I was convinced would break down in about 3 years tops (according to my confirmed suspicion), but then, we were also trying to decide if we were going to shell out more moolah (another $100) to fix this antique (by current appliance standards) in order to save some money. Well, of course that really depended on what was wrong with it this time, right? If the repair was more than $100, then buying a new one was the way to go, we figured. Ah let's see....would it be the heating element again, or the timer (which I found out was the most expensive part), or was it something else? We had a great repair guy named Patrick. He recently retired and left us high, and in this case, not so dry.
Me: "Why did you have to go and leave us Patrick? Why? Soooo what if you're getting too old to work - I mean, don't be so selfish! There are people out there (like me) who need your honesty and thrifty prices!
Patrick: ["I'm sorry, but the number you have dialed has been disconnected, or is no longer in service....."]
Soooo...., this undertaking will be a huge labor of love for my home. That is if I can get the project approved by they head honcho, and the help to make it happen. Right .....Honey?