The Dishwasher

We have a dishwasher that came with the house, but it is definitely sub-par compared to the Bosch dishwasher that we left in the old house. I am totally lazy when it comes to the dishwasher. I want to throw everything in (nothing hand washed) without chunks on it and I want it to come out clean. One of my personal nightmares is to be drinking from a cup and see that there is some unidentified crusty at the bottom. The thought of that makes me nauseous. YUCK!!!

Of course the days of just going to the appliance store to purchase what we need have gone. Every penny saved buys tile or plywood or water heaters. So Moose suggested that I comb Craigslist for a replacement. It took awhile, but I found a Bosch for $200. The catch; it needed a part. The blessing was that the people selling it had a repair person come out and they told me what part needed to be replaced. With Moose's help, I found the needed part. He assured me that I could replace the part and if I ran into trouble he would help. I took a deep breath and decided to make my Grandpa, Ernie Lange, proud. Papa often came to our rescue and fixed many things around our house. My grandma, Mama, was always his patient assistant.

I have fixed our old dishwasher with the help of YouTube videos so I turned to that again. There are so many helpful videos on there!

I took awhile for me to track down all the tools and I watched the video a couple of times before I really got going. The video was of a different model and I kinda had to guess on how to take things apart on ours before moving to the next step.  I took a lot of pictures of different parts because I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to remember how to put it back together. That would have been so embarrassing if I needed to call the repair dude and gave him a bunch of screws...good luck.

When I finally go the bottom of the dishwasher, I noticed quite a bit of mouse poop on the right side of the tray. Lovely. Then I turned to the left.....and there was the stowaway. He had clearly been there for sometime and wasn't fresh. Still that was gross! Time to break from disassembling to bleach the mother out of that thing!!!!

I was able to pull off the water pump, but while I was wrestling it a gasket appeared at the bottom of the tray.

Where on earth did that come from?!?!?!? I got a clamp off the hose, but I swear it was a one time use item. That darn thing wouldn't close. Time to Call A Friend.....MOOSE!!!!

Being the kind man that he was, he called me back, but wanted to know how long ago the mouse died. EEWWW!!! He said he would stop by in the morning to bring a clamp and help me find where the gasket appeared from.

After help from Moose, I was able to replace everything without having any extra parts! Yahoo. I lost some blood, but it wasn't a horrible experience. I had a somewhat creepy labeling system to remind me what went where and the pictures helped.

The surgery is complete, but it is unknown if the patient is going to make it.  Once again, thank you Moose and to Papa who taught me to "Force gently!"


In other news..... Meet Popsicle, Easter, and Pickles!

More friends to come.

Flooring--- my little idea

Part of the adventure of The Farmhouse is that we have a pretty tight budget. Out of scarcity comes interesting ideas.... All of the floors in the house are fir and old--- 105 years old. They have been lived on and need some love, but we want to keep them. I have been scouring the internet and my favorite salvage yard to find more fir floors, but I wasn't seeing anything that I liked or for a price I like.

The boys room has the original antique fir floors. Originally, we were planning to keep them where they were, but I couldn't think of any good alternatives to put in the new kitchen that would work with the existing fir floors.  Since my brain has a hard time resting, I began to look for ideas.

I came upon two blogs (Picklee and freckledlaundry) who had made their own wood floors from---wait for it--- PLYWOOD. They looked great and who could argue with the price? I called up Moose and told him about it. He is such a kind man that he didn't burst into laughter or tell me that I am nuts, but just paused a moment and said "Well, let's keep thinking about that." I just had to chuckle and smile.

There are so many blessing that we receive in life.  Matt and I count Moose and Michael as two of our larger ones. Not only are they incredibly nice, hardworking, kind to my kids and pets, honest, and fun to be with (this is a must when someone basically lives with you for months), but they are so supportive. I know I can come to them with any idea, no matter how out there, and I know they will consider it and discuss it seriously. I cannot remember a time that they blew me off or discredited something I shared with them. It goes without saying that if something awesome happens around this house, they were involved and guiding us.

  

Fast forward a few weeks and I ran my idea past Michael. He wasn't so sure and thought I was joking. I just couldn't let it go...I really felt like I was on to something so I sent the blogs and pics off to Moose. Too my utter surprise, he liked them and said he would be happy to help us make them happen. They both helped us with advice, tips, and let us borrow their floor stapler.

Matt, being the great guy that he is, did all the hard parts like cutting the boards and stapling the planks in. Some day I will get over my fear of most power tools, but not today.

He was a little tired by Sunday afternoon.

 We were still concerned about food fall noise so we installed an underlayment. I have some room to grow on the installation of that.

E was having a bit of trouble remembering that the planks were higher than the sub floor and got so mad every time he fell.

C was happy to play Polly Pockets ALL day without being bothered. 

After the planks were all stapled in, I began the job of patching all the staple marks. Plywood also has some imperfections that I touched up a bit.  Then I sanded the filler and vacuumed like crazy.

Then came staining.....

Then the poly....5 coats.

Sanding before the last coat...with my helper.....

We are SO pleased on how they turned out!  

Paint, Paint, and More Paint

It was an exciting day, when I got the go ahead from Moose and Michael to paint! Forever, I have been the painter of the house, but I have always hated roller painting. The way I roller painted was to put paint on it and then press as hard as possible to get the paint on the way. Then I would be all annoyed that the paint flicked all over and I missed spots.

On Wednesday, I didn't have to work so I began painting. Moose and Michael were so kind and gave me plenty tips. Michael helped me with my roller painting and I discovered that the reason why I have hated roller painting is because I have been doing it all wrong! It so much easier now!

N "Wub blue" so he is getting a blue room. He seemed to like it.

E is getting a neutral color, but I promise to repaint it a shade of his favorite color when he picks one!

These photos are lovely, but that is what you get when you paint at night after the kids are in bed.