Remember the movie The Money Pit?  I’m starting to think we bought one.

The washer crapped out on us the day we moved in.  Didn’t just crap out, mind you, I set it to run an empty load through just to get the well rust and decrepit grime through the system.  When we came back from moving, there was water on the floor.  The damn thing wouldn’t drain and wouldn’t stop filling.  I went to the basement and the valve wouldn’t shut off completely.  So I hung the hose in the window where rusty water ran down the white vinyl for a week forming ice.

Amanda and I shot down to Sears to purchase a new washer AND dryer.  It didn’t make any sense to have a 20+ year old dryer next to a new High Efficiency washer, particularly since it wouldn’t be able to dry a whole load of clothes because of the huge capacity of the washer.  Of course, you can’t just pick up an appliance at Sears any more.  We had to point to them while the sales weasel looked them up to give estimates on how fast they could come in.

The following weekend, I had to dip the water out of the old washer with a coffee mug and then with bath towels to lighten it.  Then the appliances wouldn’t fit through the doors without disassembly of the appliances and parts of the house.  Then the same stuff, in reverse with the new ones, that are even bigger than the old.

Of course, the front loading doors open the exact wrong way.  You can fix the dryer, but the washer (which should be an easer switch than the dryer) cannot change the hinge location.  We need to switch the locations of the machines, which isn’t easy.  Have to buy LONG washer hoses and electrical cables.  Right now, we’re living with it, but I’m assembling the parts and eagerly await my brothers’ visit for moving the appliances.

I can tell you we love the new appliances.  If you need a washer or dryer, spend the extra money for the HE front loaders.  We can do about three or four times the amount of laundry in an afternoon than we could have with the others.  Basically, we bought the cheapest model in the top tier.

Nicky’s blankets actually come out clean, and we’re washing dog bedding and other “optional” type laundry on a very regular basis.  Basically the wash is so easy now that the dogs are getting clean “sheets” every two or three days, rather than… (much longer when I lived alone).  The house will smell much less “doggy.”

The gas…  We didn’t trust the gas line at all.  I didn’t even give the seller a hard time about it because you could see in the daylight that it was totally rigged.  They had a section of rubber hose, probably off a gas grill, as a patch job on the copper tubing.

Amanda called the gas & oil company about getting us set up.  (More to follow on the oil.)  The only gas appliance we have is the oven.  Amanda loves to bake, so being without gas for a week was hard for her.

Paul from Emery Mills Energy came out and did an inspection.  He didn’t even have to “sell” me on a whole new system.  Gordon the gas man came out and did the work.  I have to tell you, these gentlemen are fabulous ambassadors for the area.  Both very nice and professional.

So the oven had fuel and Amanda had to use it.  She noticed yellow flames under the oven compartment and asks me if it’s normal.  I told her it was probably a minor adjustment to the air/gas regulator and not to worry, just shut it off.  The yellow flame was sooty and there was some soot hanging in the air.

A few moments later, I noticed the smoke.  The oxygen level in the kitchen was low enough that the gas stove burner was now yellow.  I opened the oven; the yellow flames below were higher.  I opened the broiler and found the plastic lids Amanda stored there fully engulfed in flames.  We doused them in water sending the glass bake-wear stored with the flaming lids into a million white-hot flying shards of glass.  We’re still finding little pieces.

We pitched the broiler trays out back to be dealt with another day (a day when we have some SOS pads).  Amanda carved up more apples and whipped up another batch of Brown Betty.

On Christmas Eve, Amanda made cake batter.  This required me to go into town to get baking soda and powder and her finding the exact right beaters for her blender.  (Apparently they aren’t all equal.)  She started baking (in the dark because the fluorescent lamp keeps burning out) when the oven started to sound like a blow-torch and yellow flames shot out the stove TOP.

Upon inspection, the culprit was a ruptured internal gas line, the one that feeds the oven.  Cakes ruined and no oven.  I guess Gordon is going to have to come back for a repair job.  I’d like a new range, but this looks like a simple fix.  Since Amanda has limited olfactory faculties, we’re going to invest in a gas leak detector. 

OK, now for the oil.  My brother, Sean, warned us that an outdoor oil tank will freeze, making the oil thick, which burns out the oil pump and leaves you cold during the coldest times of the year.  In Maine they have a clever way to fix that:  Kerosene.   So we’ll be paying about 10% more for oil because of the outdoor tank.  Hopefully, we’ll get 5% more heat out of the K1 than the oil.  At least it should not freeze.

We met our neighbor Tom (a long-time reader of the site) and his wife the mail-carrier (whose name escapes me because I’m so bad with names) on separate occasions over the weekend.  They are really great folks and good to have someone so interested in dogs and dog training so close.  Tom and I took a stroll through the property and he agrees that it would be tough to find a nicer 20 acres in Shapleigh.  We’ve got mostly flat and dry land.  It’s full of ledge, but no swamp.

Neighbor Karl showed up too.  He’s the brother of the seller.  Said he thinks the house dates to the late 1700’s, not mid 1800’s.  I concur.  The timbers are hand-hewn, and power saws were common by Victorian times.  The style is also very simple. 

We made a dump run.  Never thought to organize garbage in the truck for the various recycling bins.  We must have been a sight trying to negotiate the transfer station, but we've got it down now.

Apparently the whole town is full of folks we have to meet.  We’re looking forward to meeting them all.