Dead things come in threes?
So just recently our "stuff" has started giving up the ghost.
My daughter was here, picked blackberries, made a pie, was all ready to bake it when husband's potatoes' tinfoil dropped on the oven coil and it melted. He bought a new coil and (unknowingly) blew a fuse trying to install it. Took it to the shop, they said it works fine. Brought it home, doesn't work. Called in an electrician who traced the line and found the dedicated fusebox for the stove that we didn't know about. Ugh. At least the stove is now working.
Meanwhile, something DD said made me decide to buy a new toilet. Ours has been a pain for 25 years and recently stopped flushing all the way. Basically the water would go down a bit, then go up. MOST contents would flush. We stopped flushing at all at night because the toilet (and the pump!) could unknowingly run all night.
This all made it impossible to keep clean and we have very hard water, and the minerals were building up. There was also no shutoff to the toilet. One time I spent several hours propping up the flusher arm so the water wouldn't run in, and bailing out the bowl. Then I dumped in most of a bottle of Lime-Away. Then it was clean, finally...for a short time.
We hadn't replaced it because DH suspected a clog someplace in the pipe going to the septic tank. We'd have to jackhammer up the back porch to get to it, and the toilet DID still function...sort of. But I was tired of it's sweaty, mildewed, mineraled nastyness.
DD sent me an article whereupon some unsuspecting homeowners hired Mr Rooter, at great expense to replace their sewer pipes, only to find the toilet still backed up. They then replaced the toilet and found a clog just under the toilet. Voila! It then worked great.
Just for giggles, I priced toilets and offered to buy one. We'd need a shutoff, DH warned. But he said he'd ask around for someone who would install it, cheap.
Well the deed actually got done and I am so happy with our clean, flushing toilet! To top it off it only uses 1.28 gallons of water. While our spring water is free, less water meant less electric pump use, and less filling of the septic tank.
The new toilet flushes and fills so fast it is quiet, and I noticed everyone is flushing it at night. Yay! That alone will help keep it clean, not to mention its new non-pitted surface.
While all this was going on, I vacuumed, hit the edge of the floor-to-rug metal strip maybe a bit too hard, and the Kirby abruptly ceased. Period. Great. I'll get to it eventually...
My daughter was here, picked blackberries, made a pie, was all ready to bake it when husband's potatoes' tinfoil dropped on the oven coil and it melted. He bought a new coil and (unknowingly) blew a fuse trying to install it. Took it to the shop, they said it works fine. Brought it home, doesn't work. Called in an electrician who traced the line and found the dedicated fusebox for the stove that we didn't know about. Ugh. At least the stove is now working.
Meanwhile, something DD said made me decide to buy a new toilet. Ours has been a pain for 25 years and recently stopped flushing all the way. Basically the water would go down a bit, then go up. MOST contents would flush. We stopped flushing at all at night because the toilet (and the pump!) could unknowingly run all night.
This all made it impossible to keep clean and we have very hard water, and the minerals were building up. There was also no shutoff to the toilet. One time I spent several hours propping up the flusher arm so the water wouldn't run in, and bailing out the bowl. Then I dumped in most of a bottle of Lime-Away. Then it was clean, finally...for a short time.
We hadn't replaced it because DH suspected a clog someplace in the pipe going to the septic tank. We'd have to jackhammer up the back porch to get to it, and the toilet DID still function...sort of. But I was tired of it's sweaty, mildewed, mineraled nastyness.
DD sent me an article whereupon some unsuspecting homeowners hired Mr Rooter, at great expense to replace their sewer pipes, only to find the toilet still backed up. They then replaced the toilet and found a clog just under the toilet. Voila! It then worked great.
Just for giggles, I priced toilets and offered to buy one. We'd need a shutoff, DH warned. But he said he'd ask around for someone who would install it, cheap.
Well the deed actually got done and I am so happy with our clean, flushing toilet! To top it off it only uses 1.28 gallons of water. While our spring water is free, less water meant less electric pump use, and less filling of the septic tank.
The new toilet flushes and fills so fast it is quiet, and I noticed everyone is flushing it at night. Yay! That alone will help keep it clean, not to mention its new non-pitted surface.
While all this was going on, I vacuumed, hit the edge of the floor-to-rug metal strip maybe a bit too hard, and the Kirby abruptly ceased. Period. Great. I'll get to it eventually...