Friday, March 1, 2013

FIRST VISIT PART FOUR

The dishwasher saga...

I had originally thought we would have the dishwasher installed when the contractor started doing the kitchen remodel this spring. I changed my mind and decided to have it taken care of during my visit. Our Realtor gave us the name of a handy man since our contractor was tied up at the time. The gentleman came out and what should have been a routine install was anything but! Earlier in my postings I had mentioned the aroma that greeted me when I first stepped in the door. I had purchased air freshener and a scented candle to see if I could eliminate that musty smell but it wasn't working. Once the old dishwasher was pulled out, I found out the reason why!! Wow! Mildew and a potential bio-hazard situation awaited!!



(On this blog I will share the good, the bad and the ugly, this is definitely UGLY!)


After the the handyman pulled this nasty thing out, I shoveled out all of the rotted drywall, etc. that was on the floor. Our contractor is repairing the wall when he begins the kitchen remodel this month. While chatting with the handyman I commented how SEARS wouldn't haul away the old one since they weren't installing the new one. (Good thing as it turns out since some of the plumbing had to be reworked!) In response the gentleman said,

"Are you expecting me to haul it away?"

Covering my tracks and back pedaling because I could tell he wasn't planning to, I said,

"Oh no, of course not!"

He explained that his work van was full but that he would help me load it up in the back of my rental car and I could dump it at the trash site. The way the trash collection up there works is that there is a "staging area" in Columbia Falls with industrial size dumpsters and people bring their trash there. The landfill sends out the big trucks that empty the dumpsters and then take it to the landfill in Kalispell. He finished the install which took several hours because of reworking the plumbing issues and then we loaded the dishwasher in the back of my Toyota RAV 4 SUV. It was too late to run it to the staging area so I figured I would do it the next day.



(The new dishwasher!)


The next day I had a Plumber coming out to give me an estimate on the issues we needed to have taken care of. I did some painting and cleaning, filling my time until our appointment. He was running behind so that by the time he got there and we walked through everything, I had 30 minutes until the staging area closed and I could dump the dishwasher. When I got in the car I was overwhelmed by the soured, mildew smell of a nasty dishwasher! I checked in at the office and the lady asked me if my appliance was metal. What?! I'm thinking, "Of course it's metal, it's a dishwasher!" Well, the tub is plastic so it can't go in the junky, worn out, old appliance pile, it has to go in one of the dumpsters. Again, WHAT?! I'm thinking, I am a pretty tough old broad but even I can't lift that nasty thing over my head and toss it into a dumpster! I'm looking around to see if there are any burly mountain man, cowboy types who still haven't lost the art of chivalry but there was just an elderly man doing his best to toss a trash bag into the dumpster. Um yeah, he would be of no help. The lady at the office explained that I could go directly to the landfill in Kalispell and dump it there but unfortunately they were closing in five minutes. Sigh...I turned around, went back to the house and left the dishwasher to ferment a little longer in the back of the rental car!


The next day had been designated a "play day" but before I could do anything, I had to get rid of the dishwasher. Just as I was leaving the house, I grabbed the cardboard from the TV box and threw it into the back of the car. (I thought I might need it so that I wouldn't scratch up the rental car!) Oh yes, after sitting inside of a car for approximately forty hours, that dishwasher was smelling pretty rank! I drove down to Kalispell, checked in at the landfill office and went to the designated area. I laid that cardboard on the bumper of the car and wrangled that dishwasher to its final resting place! As I drove away, looking through the rear view mirror at the lone dishwasher surrounded by junk, I thought,

GOOD RIDDANCE!!!


To Be Continued...

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