Second time's a charm

I don't consider myself to be a cheap person, except when I am.

The washer and dryer at the cabin is an area where I really cheaped out, and as is usually the case, I got what I paid for.

Now let me start by justifying myself....

When we bought the cabin it had a working washer/dryer combo deal. This was not an expense I had budgeted for when I made my projections on my phone at a bar. I also, after buying the cabin did a little mini basement reno at the Denver house which included a very pricy new washer dryer. In addition to being spensive, thanks to the rona, it took about 7 years to finally have a set delivered.

So, when the machine at the cabin kicked I was not about to pay two grand and deal with back orders. In hindsight I sure should have. 

Here is how the saga unfolded.

I found a $150 unit on Facebook. 
We brought it up to the cabin. 
The dryer did not work.
We then spent several hours and Jose endured multiple electrocutions trying to fix it. 
We contacted the seller. He swapped it for a second unit. (very nice dude!)
We had to pick it up and load it into the truck for a second time.

The night before taking it to the cabin someone hit Jose's truck (I assume this happened because the tailgate was down to make room for the new machine). Now I am not a car person and certainly not a truck person, but Jose's truck is real sexy. It's all blacked out and I feel like a boss when I drive it. It is not even a year old (to us, I think it is 2 in real life).  My heart hurt when I saw the giant dent some jerk left without so much as a note.




We were bummed but what can you do. So we haul the new old machine up to the cabin and load it in. Carrying a washing machine sucks. Carrying it for a second time is brutal. I have cuts on my hands still from dragging it up the stairs. We hook it up. The dryer again doesn't work. Cool.

We figured there is no way a second machine doesn't work so Jose took apart the electrical panel. Turns out the issue was there, not with the f-ing machine. So after hours, electrocutions, and a car accident we didn't even need the second machine.




I am sure one day we will look back and laugh, but not until I am done dealing with the insurance company for the truck. Also, I can't complain too much because for the most part all our projects have run super smoothly and been fun. 

Project notes-

Cost: $150 for the machine, $40 for a new thermostat for the "broken" first set, $500 deductible: $690 total...
Time: I don't even want to say
Drinks: We got sauced on PBRs when we realized the error in our ways
Lessons learned: Just buy a new one, don't try and be a cheap ass
 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Garbage People

Image
Jose and I are lucky enough to be a part of a few friend groups we refer to as garbage gangs. These are the people you see a few times a year and need a liver transplant after just two days together. You eat nothing but ranch dressing and PBR in each other's company and do shots like you were 21 again. I love these people. I thought of all these friends over the weekend when Jose and I took care of our second trash heap of the renovation.  With any construction project, there is a lot of garbage generated. I try to give away any old materials that are in good shape, but a lot of it is just junk. So we had a pretty good sized heap going...again. We got a few beers in us and loaded the truck to go to the local dump and make the property look a little less methy. The dump in town is interesting, you drive in and this crazy hippie dude looks at your load and gives you a price. It is cash only and naturally Jose and I forgot the cash because beer so we drove 15 minutes back into town fo...
Read more

We broke the budget

Image
Remember a while ago when I was bragging about how well I was staying on track with our cabin renovation budget?? Well, I have shot that budget to shit and am laughing at myself all the way to the bank now. When we bought the little cabin in Alma, we knew it needed a lot of work which also meant a good chunk of change. We sat in a bar before putting in an offer and made a list of all the projects and all the estimated costs associated. To date, we have been sooo close on those numbers, except for one project, the deck.  For some reason, we decided it would cost a cool 3k to build a new deck. Anyone want to guess how much it is actually going to cost? 5k, 6k?? WRONG!  This deck is going to cost us around 19 thousand dollars when all is said and done (not including furniture I might add). That is actually about the same as the entire rehab has cost which seems really wild.  this photo was taken before this man gave us the material quote, and before we hated him At first I w...
Read more

Da Beams

Image
Well you guys, we made it through the entire renovation without any injuries (save for a few minor electrocutions) until beam day. Never fear, everyone is ok, but I did take one to the head and the scene looked like a horror movie. Luckily I am really hard headed and Jose said it would take more than a 4x4 to kill me, so all is well. this was after clean up, I will save you from the gory pics Over Labor Day weekend Jose, Fred and his dog buddy June and I made our way to the cabin where our new beams had been delivered and were waiting for us. I started staining them, then ran out of stain, so I made my way to town and impressed myself by managing to get the stain, a coffee, hit the grocery store, and a yard sale all in under an hour! Once I had more stain I finished the job and we let them dry. Once dry we installed beam one and beam two in a matter of minutes with no issue at all. Then came beam three. I am not a scientist, so I don't know exactly what went wrong here, but basical...
Read more