A guy came over at 8:00 to perform what we thought would be a simple cleaning of our dryer vent pipe. We have suspected a clog for a while (the dryer takes three hours to finish a load and the clothes come out smelling musty), and since Garry's efforts to clean it out himself were fruitless, we called in a professional. What we learned, however, is that the piping in the ceiling is either horribly clogged or ripped, leaving us with zero air flow between the dryer and the outside. In addition, whoever finished the basement of this house installed the cheapest piping possible, put the dryer twice as far from the outside vent as he ought to have done, and installed piping behind the dryer that is not up to code. Combined, these offenses have created a huge fire hazard that needs to be fixed ASAP.
This is way beyond the scope of Garry's handyman capabilities.
And it's going to cost at least $800.
We had earmarked a wad of cash for a really exciting Christmas present for Garry (freeing up our tax return for something I really want), but apparently having "fun money" saved is just like begging for a home improvement disaster. I'm glad this ridiculous situation won't devastate us financially, but it is a huge bummer nonetheless.
Given the opportunity, here are eight ways -- most of them frivolous and in no particular order -- that I would rather spend $800:
1. A super-capacity dryer.
2. A professional painter to transform the vaulted walls upstairs.
3. Food storage.
4. A new maternity wardrobe.
5. Two round-trip tickets to Honolulu (Expedia has them for that price at the moment!).
6. A home decor fabric shopping spree at JoAnn this weekend (50% off...think of all the possibilities!).
7. Several sessions with a personal trainer.
8. This cute chair -- in purple.
Instead, you can expect online updates regarding the expensive, smelly experts making holes in our ceiling, shoving fancy, code-appropriate pipes in the right places, and, hopefully, a dryer that finishes a load in less than an hour.
I bet you can't wait.
9 comments:
:-(
I do like all of your 8 ideas though.
My three favs though are 1, 4, and 5 (not necessarily in that order).
Aw man, the life of a home owner. I feel your pain. You have some great ideas though!
Bummer! I think you are right though, when you have that little stash set aside, that is when the home/car disaster hits. All 8 things are definitely way more fun than new dryer pipes!
Sorry to hear about your dryer problems. Such is life,right? Just when we've set aside a bit of money to play with, "Murphey's Law" says we'll have to spend it elsewhere. I hope it's no more than $800.00. OUCH!
Found your blog through the Solis Family blog. Very cute. I agree: saving money in my family to do something really great is just asking for disaster. In our case, this past week our computer got a virus and the hard drive was fried! SO what did we get to do? Spend $700 on a new laptop. Grr.
So sorry to hear the news but better than having a house fire. Things will work out I'm sure.
Oh - I'm so sorry Heidi! I feel your pain, though. I just hate it when that happens - our guest bathroom (that we had ripped into before Fridge and Washer distasters) is still sitting in disaray behind a closed door until future notice. On the positive side, this means I have a clean bedroom everytime guests come over out of fear that they might need to use the bathroom - in our room! :) Our room has stayed much cleaner because of this! Good luck!
Oh, bummer! I'm also glad you have money set aside, but I'm so sorry this is rudely imposing upon your fun plans.
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