Seriously. With a husband in the Navy and a landlord who is out of town a lot, I have learned to do a lot of plumbing work. My Dad is a typical do it yourself kind of guy. He has always done all the work on our houses growing up completely himself. He framed out a basement, drywalled an attic, installed new doors, etc. So I have always had the presence of mind that if something breaks you can fix it, you just have to know how. Granted the time I spend on something is probably three times as long as it will take a professional, but I love the satisfaction of getting the job done. I'm going to shamelessly toot my own horn for a second, because I have unglamorously fixed a few things on my own. I've installed two ceiling fans (two more than Hall has ever installed :) ), replaced a faucet, installed a spray hose on the kitchen sink, fixed a running toilet with a new flush valve assembly, took apart our washer and replaced the pump that had a sock stuck in it and was not draining ( a washing machine has tons of water in it by the way and on this tiny project I had a little help from Bill Roberts our house guest and father to the infamous Karin). And most notably this past week I fixed our dishwasher.
I always throw all the remaining stuff in the dishwasher on my way out the door and run it before we leave on a trip. I love to stick all the coffee pot parts in there and get them good and clean for when we return. This time the dishwasher ran but never drained and we had water stuck in it for two weeks. Totally disgusting. That's why I documented me fixing it. It was super easy.
First step put on appropriate accessory, in this case wellies! Okay, I kid, but I did feel very professional in my boots.
This is the stopped up water in my dishwasher. Yuck!
I used towels to mop up all the remaining water, and put the empty towels in my big galvanized bucket.
Once all the water was out, I pulled the spray arm out and undid some screws to make sure nothing was wrong with the screen, nothing was so I screwed it all back into place. I then made a watery paste out of water and baking soda. I poured it down the screen and topped it off with a cup of white vinegar. It fizzes for about 15 minutes then I poured boiling water down into the screen to wash away the fizzy paste. I turned the dishwasher on it's drain setting, said a little prayer, and voila! It was fixed!
1 comment:
First, I wish your blog had a "like" button. I LIKE this! Second, how did you know what to do?! Is this something that should be done every now and then?
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