The Money Pit

Something is wrong with my house. The money is just flowing out the door with a force of a wind from a hurricane. Okay, it could be worse I know and I am so thankful and blessed for the things I have, but really.. come on!

The saga from my washing machine continues. Last week I washed a newish ivory camisole and now it has dark streaks on it. They won't come out. A new white t-shirt ended up the same way, but I managed to get those out. This washer is headed for the trash heap. I am scared to wash clothes in it. And it smells. And most of the parts have been completely replaced (to the tune of $900, thankfully not out of my pocket!). I'm done with it, but I can't decide what I want to replace it. A front loader? But then I could still have the smell issue and the wash cycle could take longer and it could only last another 5 years. Who wants to spend $1000 every five years? How can that be good for the environment????

In February we replaced the over the range microwave. It was dying and had been for months. I just couldn't decide what I wanted. I was told that six years for a microwave is a good stretch of time. I just sold my 14 year old countertop microwave on craigslist and it worked great! Maybe its an above the range thing. Really I just need it to reheat my coffee, for the vent, and better resale.

We also replaced the dishwasher. It wouldn't drain, so it was growing mold. Nice. How's that for clean dishes. We hand washed for quite awhile! We had already had it repaired and it wasn't worth the price of repairs to have it repaired again. Aparently six years is good for a dishwasher too.

Last Thursday, I set the grill on fire. Literally. I finished cooking, but didn't turn it off because I wanted to burn off some bits of food. I went to answer the door, sat down for dinner and the remembered  the grill was on. I went to turn it off and there was a lot of smoke. I opened it and the whole interior was on fire! I quickly shut it, turned off the burners and had a moment of panic. Is it a grease fire? I can't open it again for baking soda. Do I get the fire extinguisher? (Actually I forgot that I have 3 of these.) Do I hand Lovey the phone, tell him to call 911 and go wait on the front sidewalk? Do I use the garden hose? And, oh yeah, there is a full propane tank attached to it. I ended up using the garden hose. I sprayed it in the hole on the side of the grill. It put the flame out thankfully. Now my nicely cleaned patio (that I pressure washed a few weeks ago) is filthy, but at least no one was hurt. Big Daddy cleaned the grill out and it worked fine last night.

Today I have a repairman coming to look at my gas range. It has always smelled like gas and four years ago when they came out, they said I was sensitive to the smell and it was fine. Now it is stronger. I don't know if it is because we moved it, even though we looked for leaks when we reinstalled it. So $79 for them to tell me what is wrong with it or just to tell me that I am crazy and it's fine. Totally worth the peace of mind.
*Edit: There was something wrong. We have a very, very tiny leak in one of the burners. So it will be fixed next Monday because they had to order the part. Hooray! I'm not totally crazy.