Monday morning, I went to go put clothes in the dryer that had been left in the washer overnight. When I opened the lid, it was completely full of water. So my immediate thought was that "someone must have stopped the washer in the middle of its cycle and forgot to restart it". That's happened once before. So I press the "resume" button and....nothing. So I turn it completely off, let it set for a minute and turn it back on. I select a new cycle with the expectation that the sensors will tell itself that it is still completely full of water. I press "start" and it worked! Yay!! All is well...so, I'm talking on the phone with Connie, farting around on the computer when I realize....the water is running in the washer. Why is the water running? Doesn't it realize it is FULL??? So I run over and press "STOP"!!! It unlocks the lid and I quickly open it to a cold and unexpected spray to the face. The water is still running!!!!! I start mildly panicking when Connie tells me to unplug the washer from the wall. Good idea!!!!! I race over and pull the plug.........."Well?!" Connie asks....the water is still running and I had the plug in my hand.
"I'll be there in a minute!!!"
So I hang up the phone. I look over at the floor and there is water starting to come out from under the washer....I quickly get some towels, barricade the water to one area, grab me some coffee and resume farting around on the computer. There wasn't much I could do at this point. My parents finally arrive.
The water is still running......
So my Dad goes out to the alley to shut the water off to the entire house. He quickly comes back, even more irritated, saying it was stuck! So we called the City to come turn the water off.
The water is still running....
So I call the guy that fixed our dryer not too long ago and tell him what's going on. He was so nice. We talked, with detail, what was going on and instead of insisting to come over to look at it and charge me $60, he gave me his "advice"...."Don't waste your money fixing it. Just spend that money on a new one". Thanks, Brian! Lifesaver!!!
The water is still running.....
After a long 30 minutes, the water is finally off....crap...now the water is off. Hope nobody needs to go to the bathroom.
And off to Lowe's we went.
I looked up and down the aisles trying to figure out which washer we couldn't afford more. I knew that if we were going to have to spend the money we already didn't have, I might as well get something I liked and that wasn't going to break down on me anytime soon. So, we ended up going with a front load Frigidaire.We also found a pedestal to put it on half the price. It has a few scratches and is a little discolored, but who cares?! I only wanted it to get it up off the floor, so it also having a drawer for storage was a bonus!
So, I paid and met my parents for lunch. With all the stress, I hadn't put any makeup on, threw my hair in a un-brushed pony tail with a T-shirt and jeans...I don't even think I brushed my teeth, so not having to worry about lunch was a life saver! Thanks Mimi and Papa!!
After lunch, we went home to the broken washing machine....now what? It is completely full of water and clothes. So we starting ringing out as much water as we could, you just can't fully appreciate the "spin" cycle until you have rung out your own clothes. Any denim I had ended up hanging on the fence...the last thing I want at this point was to be going back for a new dryer too! Then we started emptying the water out with the only thing I could find worth using...two hard hats from Kyle's job. Why they were at the house is beyond me...
EMPTY!! FINALLY!!!
So for now, I just hang out until tomorrow when the new washer arrives....
Very first thing the next morning, the phone rings. It is 7:30am and I am dead asleep. When I answered, I was "greeted" with an old, cranky man. He informed me that he was going to be the man to deliver my washer with matching pedestal. He then went on, with a rude tone, to tell me that I would not like the pedestal. "It has scratches all over it and it is not compatible with the washer you purchased." WHAT!? I told him I knew about the scratches and didn't know what to do about the other. I just said "I guess we can figure it out when you get here."
At about 10'o clock, he finally arrived with another delivery man. I showed him where it was going to go and went out to his truck to get it loaded up on his dolly. He was in his truck for what seemed like forever. He finally made his way up the sidewalk. I came out and held the door open. As he was walking by me, I noticed a very large and deep scratch on the side of the BRAND NEW washer. Not the pedestal, the washer. He wheeled it to it's resting place and began taking packing tape and plastic snaps off. Once he removed everything, this was our conversation....
Rude man- "We have a problem." ........perfect.
Me- "What's that?"
Rude man- "Your hoses are too short."
Me- "So do we need to take it off of the pedestal?"
Rude man- "Oh, I don't have time to deal with that. I have out-of-town deliveries the rest of the day."
Me- speechless
Really? Am I on Pranked or something? Did the LOWE'S delivery man just tell me he didn't have time to DEAL with it? I asked him if all I needed was longer hoses and he said yes. I told I would take care of it and that he could go to the rest of his more important deliveries.
So, Connie goes back to Lowe's to get the correct hoses and explain how I had been treated. The dent was then mentioned and a discount was now in my future. :) She then gets the hoses and info for me to get my discount and questionnaire for the service I had received, hee hee hee, and came back to my house to finally finish the job. We connected everything....Connie connected everything and then we pushed it into place.
Now that it is Wednesday, I have a new, working washing machine and a free pedestal thanks to my discount :) It is so crazy how your life, even for a brief moment, changes when you lose something you never think about not having. My dishwasher has broke before and I have gone without, but to not be able to do something as simple as wash your clothes...it was such a helpless, sad feeling. And it is funny even thinking about that because the truth of the matter is, I could have done it old school and washed them by hand, but that never crossed my mind until the whole ordeal was over.
I definitely look at my washer very differently now and am truly thankful we are fortunate enough to have a washing machine at all. Count your blessings everyday....even when the inconveniences are annoying :)
By the way, if you are in need of a new washer and dryer, I know just the guy to sell it to you and just the guy to NOT deliver it to you! :)
