As a dad, with a 9-year-old and a wife, we are constantly running our washing machine. If a day goes by where we don’t use the washing machine, we are behind!
I find dirty clothes (thanks Niko) in very awkward places! How many times have I told him to throw his socks in the laundry? Like a million. I actually threatened him, and said if he doesn’t do it, they will be put in either his school backpack or lunch bag! I am kidding, although I thought about it, but that would not be a nice thing to do.
Well, last Saturday, we (I mean Nina) started washing some of the cold clothes, and on Sunday, the washing machine (new, as it was purchased last September) decided to produce an error message. I wasn’t in panic mode or shopping mode for a new washer. It would just be very inconvenient.
One of the energy companies up here has what is called a Home Service Plan, and for a small monthly fee, they will service whatever appliances are covered (our washer is one of them). Well, I scheduled an appointment for the following Thursday. But, then I got to thinking and did some further research on Lowes and their manufacturers warranty, and I ended up scheduling another appointment through Maytag for Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the technician came and had to order parts to fix it. He would come back in a week. The next day, the parts arrived and I was excited so I scheduled another service call for Thursday, but they declined saying they were still waiting for one more part and the manufacturer is trying to locate it. In the meantime, I canceled the home service plan technician for Thursday.
So, how did we cope? On Wednesday afternoon, Nina went to a laundry mat with a bunch of clothes. It only took an hour, as she used a few machines. Our dryer works, so our first two loads for the dryer were all Niko’s. On Friday, she did a small load manually, and on Saturday, more supplies arrived to help with manual loads, and she did another on that afternoon in the laundry room sink.
On Friday afternoon, I did get a text update from the technician that another part is being ordered and they are still waiting for an update for another part, and our next service call is tentatively scheduled now for April 7th, instead of this Tuesday. Just means we will have to do some more at home, and we will make one or two more trips to the laundromat. It’s a huge inconvenience. But doable.
You don’t realize how much you rely on a washing machine, until it stops working. It’s like when our over-the-range microwave stopped working and I kept forgetting, and kept trying to use it, only to be reminded it doesn’t work.
Now, with the appliances in our home, they are not brand new, but they are of newer quality and definitely not the originals. We did bring our 15 year old chest freezer and our one year old plain fridge (both are working great in the garage for extra storage – they get full quickly after Costco and Trader Joes runs).
So, eventually, we knew that new replacement appliances would need to be purchased. The microwave was first, and we got a new one through Amazon, and I found a professional through Thumbtack to take the broken one down and replace it with the new one. For the washer, about six months ago, it started to leak, and Nina and I decided to get a new one instead of fixing.
Oh, in addition to all this happening this week at our house, Niko missed two days of school because of his eye hurting. In 2024, he had a scratch on his cornea. Thankfully, this time, it was not as serious. But, it did hurt and required prescription eye drops and normal eye drops.
Yesterday, the three of us went to the movies to see Hoppers. It was a cute animated Pixar movie. For me, I like seeing who the voice actors behind the characters are. Of course, we had popcorn, drinks, and Niko got a hot dog. Later when we were home, I saw a post in the neighborhood Facebook group of a shrimp food truck two miles away, so I grabbed Niko and off we went. We got a fried shrimp basket, which was really good and fresh, but Niko was still stuffed from the movie theater food.
