Dishwasher repairman

[Flack]

If the faucet fixes involve sweating copper together prepare for an impossible mission.

I guess last winter when it froze, something broke. I don't know the proper terminology here, but let's say there's a copper pipe that goes into the outside of my house, and then a rod that goes inside that. I loosened the nut and pulled out the rod and the end piece appears to have broken off. I think to repair this, I need to remove the copper pipe. I tried to remove the copper pipe and it's mortared to the wall -- like the home builder built a wall of rocks, put the pipe in place, and then just stuck rocks all around it. Using a high tech combination of tools (hammer and thick screwdriver) I chiseled away the mortar holding the pipe in place. It still won't turn, and I've been told that the pipe is "probably" soldered inside the wall. Now we're at the point of either destroying the rock facade outside my house or tearing through the drywall in the living room, so I'm waiting for a second opinion from a plumber before that project proceeds.

There's no mystery surrounding the rear faucet. During that same freeze we had a buried pipe that connects to the sprinkler system burst. I guess it was really cold last year. We had no water pressure in the house for a couple of days and when we walked around to the side of the house we saw the sixth great lake had formed. So we turned the water off to the rear faucet, which is where the sprinkler system (I guess) ties into. Fixing this is going to involve digging up random portions of my yard to find where the pipe broke and then replacing it. The reason this has been a low priority is because we never use the sprinkler system because all it does it make the grass grow and we hate mowing.

[pinback]

There's a copper pipe that goes into the outside of my house, and then a rod that goes inside that.

[Flack]

I worked on the front water faucet until I was out of options, so I called a plumber.

When the plumber arrived he took a look at the situation and said a lot of things like "yeah, boy," and "yeah, buddy," and "yeah, buddy, boy." After studying the situation outside my house, in my living room, he cut a roughly 18"x18" hole in the sheet rock and disconnected the pipe inside the wall. Back outside, he chipped away a bunch of concrete, replaced the faucet, and then added new concrete.

Total price for the repair was around $200, which seems reasonable for a couple-of-hour job. So the good news is, the front faucet is now FIXED. The bad news is, as of yesterday morning, the previously fixed A/C unit is now BROKE again. The other bad news is, I now have an 18"x18" hole in my living room wall. (The good news is, the hole is hidden by a desk, so I'm not going to fix it yet.)

CURRENT STATUS

A/C Unit: FIXED/BROKE AGAIN
Clothes Dryer: FIXED
Ice/Water dispenser on the fridge door: BROKE
Front Water Faucet: FIXED
Rear Water Faucet: BROKE

[Flack]

I had my upstairs A/C unit repaired on 8/9. A couple of days ago, I went upstairs and it was 80+ degrees again.

The last time my repairman came out, he said it was time to spray my unit out again. (My neighbor conveniently planted two cottonwood trees right next to the property line, which constantly feed cotton directly into my air conditioner.) I thought maybe that's why it was getting warm upstairs again, so I went to Home Depot to buy a new spray nozzle for our water hose and ended up buying a pressure washer. If nothing else, I have the cleanest A/C unit on the planet at the moment. (And driveway, and gutters, and sidewalk, but that's a different story.) But I mean if you're wondering if 3,000 PSI of water will remove cotton from air conditioning vents, the answer is an emphatic "yes."

At some point I got delusions of grandeur and thought I might be able to fix the A/C unit, having watched the repairman do it so many times. I opened up the unit, checked voltage, dicked around for a few minutes and finally admitted I had no idea what I was looking at (other than a super-clean, non-functioning A/C unit). So, I called my guy again.

Here's what I know about air conditioner units. First, what I keep calling the "air conditioner" (the big green metal box outside) is really just the condenser unit. Inside the condenser unit there's a fan blade, a fan motor, a big capacitor, a bunch of coils, the contacter, and the compressor. Over the past year, I have paid to have the fan blade, fan motor, capacitor, and contactor replaced -- that leaves the coils, the compressor, and the big metal box.

Apparently, the compressor finally went bad.

I should mention that this A/C unit was built in 2005, and absolutely should not be having these kinds of issues. Every time the guy comes out, it costs me $100-$200 in parts and another $100 in labor. Well, not this time. The compressor, with labor, was $1,750. I really wanted to punch a hole in the living room wall, but I already have one. Instead I kicked this plastic rock that covers part of our sprinkler system. That disturbed some wasps, which came out and chased me for a while.

The A/C guy showed up today at 7:30 a.m. and left around 4. Good -- this ain't the Moonlite BunnyRanch. When I pay somebody $1,750, I like for them to stick around for a few hours. Also, the A/C guy doesn't say things like "yeah, buddy," or "yeah, boy." Today he told me how he spent his weekend repairing the A/C system at an inner city school for free. He's a good guy. He doesn't fix mine for free though. He's not that good.

I am writing this from my upstairs computer room. It's currently 67 degrees in this room, and I have the temperature on the "smart savings" thermostat turned down so low it just reads "LO" because, at least today, I can.

CURRENT STATUS

A/C Unit: FIXED/BROKE/FIXED
Clothes Dryer: FIXED
Ice/Water dispenser on the fridge door: BROKE
Front Water Faucet: FIXED
Rear Water Faucet: BROKE

[AArdvark]

Getting into the green! Arent you going to move again? I think I remember something about you moving. All these fixes will help the value of your house.

THE
LETS SAY THAT
AARDVARK

[Flack]

We want to move, but with an 8th grader and an 11th grader, it doesn't make much sense at the moment. My wife and I both have jobs that we can perform 100% remotely, but the thing tying us to this physical location is the kids' school district. For what I would pay for 1/2 acre here in the suburbs, I can get 8-10 acres for 5 miles north (different school district). So yeah, that's the dream -- a bunch of space where I don't have to hear my dumb ass neighbor's loud truck and the other neighbor who likes to mow at 7 a.m. every Saturday.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Last night it was gunshots and an ambulance. I slept through it. We've started discussing moving to where we have space. We can't work remotely at all and we both work a mile from where we live, so we have our own tethers.

I get the sense that if we do move and I have a 25 minute commute, all of a sudden peace and quiet isn't going to mean much.

[pinback]

Gunshots followed by an ambulance is terrifying. An ambulance followed by gunshots is AWESOME.

[Flack]

Agreed. You hear an ambulance followed by gunshots, run outside and wave to the Live PD cameras.

I can't imagine anything better than living on 10 acres, and anything worse than having to mow it.

[Flack]

Since our last update, we have found a new house. We will be moving at the end of the month, and listing ours for sale shortly after. That means everything on the list that's BROKE will need to be FIXED. Another way to look at it is I will be FIXING things until I am BROKE.

With that, let's talk about the rear outside water faucet.

A few years ago, an underground pipe that's part of our sprinkler system broke. We don't use the sprinkler or the rear water faucet, so we just turned the water off to those two things.

We called the same plumber back to get the pipe fixed. The guy came out, dug in the yard until he found the broken pipe, and repaired/replaced it. $500.

We turned the water back on and discovered that while the sprinkler system now works again, the rear outside faucet still does not. Somehow, the long copper shaft came disconnected to a part it's not supposed to come disconnected from.

We called the same plumber back a third time. He was able to repair that one without digging through the sheet rock. $100.

Current status:

A/C Unit: FIXED
Clothes Dryer: FIXED
Ice/Water dispenser on the fridge door: FOREVER BROKE
Front Water Faucet: FIXED
Side Water Pipes: FIXED
Rear Water Faucet: FIXED

I might as well remove the fridge from the list. It's going into the garage at the new place and there won't be water hookups for the ice maker or water dispenser, so fixing those things is a moot point.

A realtor is coming to walk through our house today so rest assured trusty readers, there will be a new list soon.

[Tdarcos]

Agreed. You hear an ambulance followed by gunshots, run outside and wave to the Live PD cameras.

I can't imagine anything better than living on 10 acres, and anything worse than having to mow it.

Isn't that what Roundup is for?

[Casual Observer]

Isn't that what Roundup is for?

No, roundup is for causing cancer.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Last night the cops sounded their siren for approximately 1234343440 hours.