6 Months in The North
Join us as we embark on our 6 month journey through the frozen wastelands of the North. Hmmm. Well, its not really a 6 month journey since you should be able to finish reading this post in 2 minutes or so. Also not really frozen since we are on a tropical island. I guess not a wasteland either. Clearly my intro was a bit misleading. We have, however, now spent about 6 months on the north side of the island so let’s just go with that.
Bamboo Update
A couple of months ago we spent about 4 trillion dollars to have 2 stands of bamboo cut down. The big stand was at the back of our yard, we had the root ball ground down there, but for the stand on the side yard root grinding was more difficult. We covered the area with trash bags and a tarp to starve out the bamboo there.
So the update is: The bamboo is still dead.
Those Dang Jalousies
We have a number of jalousie windows (some folks who are not “in the know” will call them louvered windows) in our home. They are great for allowing air flow through the house. Most of those have white plastic blades (slats). The exceptions are in the bathrooms where we have glass blades. Fortunately the glass blades are obscure glass so we are not exposed when taking care of, well, you know.
Unfortunately the vinyl clips that hold the blades can become brittle over time from UV exposure. Not a big problem with the vinyl blades as they are light and put very little pressure on the clips. The glass blades are a different story – they are quite a bit heavier and put more pressure on the clips.
Rewind 6 months or so. When we moved in we noticed that there was tape on a few of the glass blade in two of the bathrooms. This was to keep the blades from falling out of the damaged clips and decapitating anyone who might be standing below the windows.
The previous owners left behind a couple of bags of replacement clips, so we had the parts needed to fix the issue. Since I know a guy who is pretty handy (me), I was able to fix the few that we found with tape on them.
Fast forward to the present. I heard a crash the other morning and we looked around the house for something that either fell over or was mauled by one of the cats. It turned out that one of the glass blades had fallen out of a clip that had decided to quit work without giving notice. The glass blade didn’t survive. RIP my friend.
After inspecting the rest of the clips for that window, I found that one whole side had decided to go on strike. They were all brittle and needed replacement.
Fortunately the previous owners left us bags of replacement clips and some extra glass blades. I started checking the rest of the clips to make sure they were not brittle. Every one of them on the left side in two of the three bathrooms were brittle. Crap (no pun intended haha). But I had enough clips to replace all but eight or nine of them.
I WON’T be walking under the un-fixed windows until the new clips arrive from the supplier. I’m still waiting for the outlandish quote that I am sure is coming.
Appliance Angst
The Washing Machine
In April, our inherited washing machine started leaking water and suds onto the laundry room floor. But it only leaked when using the “Normal” wash setting. It seems that the Normal Cycle made the machine quite angry. So it peed on the floor.
The washer itself is maybe 5 years old and is a Kenmore Elite with lots of bells and whistles. Actually it just has a chime, no bells and/or whistles. Just a figure of speech. Don’t take me literally on stuff like this.
I opened the unit up so I could witness the malfunction myself while it was running, and what I discovered was this; I get really bored watching a washing machine go through its cycle.
After a grueling day of playing Washing Machine Stakeout, Barb and I finally determined that the leak was coming from the air vent on the back of the washer. It turned out that these washers (actually manufactured by LG) had a badly designed float valve that would sometimes stick and not seal the hose to the air vent if the water/suds came up too high.
Fortunately there was a modified float valve available. I was able to obtain the part via Amazon. $8 and about 15 minutes of installation time later, we appear to have a non-leaking washer again. At least it hasn’t leaked the last three times we’ve used it so…. we’ll see.
The Dryer
A week or so ago our dryer, a Kenmore Elite (also made by LG) and which came to us as part of our home purchase, started screaming at us. Oh, we hadn’t mistreated the dryer. But it was acting like a petulant teenager that had been asked to do chores around the house.
The noise it was making sounded like a screaming banshee. Or a bad fan-belt on an old Nissan truck. One of the two. Another “trip” to Amazon netted me a LG repair kit for this model dryer with 4 new drum support rollers and a thicker drive belt. All I had to do was install it.
Repairing the dryer was not quite as easy as replacing the float valve in the washer. Armed with information from viewing a few YouTube videos on replacing the belts and rollers for the dryer, I decided to get started.
A couple of problems: First, my replacement kit only had 4 replacement wheels instead of the 6 that were actually in my dryer. Second, The drive belt included in the kit was too short because we have a large capacity dryer with an oversized drum. Third, my dryer is a gas dryer and all the videos I looked at were for an electric dryer. The innards of the two dryers are very different. Grrrrr.
Since I only had 4 wheels, I decided to replace all 3 wheels on the back side of the drum. I did this because if the dryer still squeaked, I could just replace the last two rollers up front without have to DISASSEMBLE THE WHOLE DAMNED DRYER AGAIN. For the front 3 rollers I just replaced the one that was stickiest. I also replaced the belt tensioning roller assembly. I reused the old belt since the @#%! new belt was too short. Fortunately the old belt was not cracked and looked ok.
Surprisingly I reassembled the dryer and only have a few parts left over. Perfect, probably didn’t need them anyway. I fire that bad boy up and it seems to work fine. No more dryer banshee. Just a nice rumble. The whole odyssey took about 3 hours or so. Enjoy these before and after pictures of the dryer.
The Dishwasher
The dishwasher that came with the house was a 10 year old GE model. The best thing I can say about this unit is that it ran. Oh and it had REAL stainless steel on the front of it that would never rust (unlike the new appliances which have fake “stainless look” finishes).
Pro tip; If you put a magnet on the “stainless steel” and it sticks, it is either very low grade or not stainless steel at all. It will rust. You’re welcome.
The compliments stop there. It ran, but it didn’t necessarily clean very well. The inside had all kinds of hard water build up and a lot of the jets were clogged. It wasn’t particularly quiet. We knew we would eventually replace it, but thought we would wait until it gave up the ghost.
A few days ago it gave up the ghost. The main water fill valve appears to be stuck closed and it doesn’t make much sense to repair this old one if we’re going to replace it soon anyway.
Fortunately there are a myriad of places to buy appliances right here on Kauai. One is Home Depot, the other is… Home Depot. I think they might have a selection of one dishwasher at Costco that you can actually look at, oh and there is also Home Depot.
So off we go to Home Depot to buy a new dishwasher. After probably 10 minutes of anguished back and forth on which dishwasher to buy, Barb and I agree on a Kitchen Aid that will not only clean your dishes but also has an internal TV screen so the dishes will be entertained while they are being cleaned. It’s kind of like a day spa for dishes. Our excitement has reached the “I guess it’ll be fine” level.
Surprisingly (I’m kidding here), the unit is “Special Order”. Just like all but two of the other dishwashers offered. The two that were in stock washed dishes by using “washboard” technology where you just give up and do it yourself.
Unsurprisingly (I’m not kidding this time), our model is out of stock at the Kitchen Aid factory and there is no date as to when it will be available. The only one that is available is the next model in line – for a hundred bucks more. So we order that one. It will be delivered to Home Depot on June 4th. Not bad, except it will be delivered to a Home Depot shipping center in California on that date. From there it will be 4-6 weeks before it arrives here on Kauai.
So two months (at least) of – gasp – washing our dishes by hand. Oh, the humanity!
The Cats
Our friend, Julie, has reminded me that I should give a cat update in my blog posts. Here goes.
Project Update
Our lanai expansion/closet addition/front lanai project has preliminary approval from the HOA here. The next step is to get the architect to stamp the drawings, and get final HOA approval. From there we will get a permit for the closet work. Fingers are crossed that we get through this without too much heartache.
Work
Work is going well and keeping me quite busy. I’m traveling back to the mainland on The Flying Tube of Disease this month for work. It will be good to see my old friends and co-workers and visit with my mom while I’m there. I’m hoping that the “Vaccination Passport” plan for Hawaii will be in place before my return so I won’t have to go through the travel testing rigamarole.
Aloha
So to sum up, 6 months North, dead bamboo, murderous jalousies, bad appliances, awesome cats, project progress and work travel. You could’ve skipped to this part of the post and got the whole enchilada without having to go through my bloviating.
But WAIT! There’s more! A quick life update:
It’s still really awesome here. 🌴🤙. Aloha!
Kauai Thoughts - our journey to Kauai from So Cal 