Home Improvement

     The financial news folks say GE is in trouble.  I can see why.  The wind machines that dominate the landscape around the farm are GE.  Two wind machines in the farm’s back yard have had major repairs.  One had to have a complete new wheel and a top tower section replaced when a blade broke off and whacked the tower a denting blow.

      Another had to have a blade replaced in the first month or two of operation.  The neighbor always said the GE machines were built in China.  They definitely have a quality problem.

     About four years ago, I put in a GE dishwasher at the farm.  If you wanted the dishes to come out of the dishwasher clean, then you must put them in the dishwasher clean.  They came out pretty much the same as they were put in.  When it was newly installed, it went through the main wash cycle without any water in the tub.

     Even after the no-water problem was solved, it still didn’t clean the dishes.  When I replaced the kitchen floor, I had to remove the dishwasher.  The GE need not apply for reinstallation.  It went to market.  I finally gave it away to an appliance repairman who said he could use it for parts.  He wasn’t interested in trying to make it work.  I have been washing dishes by hand since the floor project began.

      The floor job completed, I checked into the local Craigslist to find a used dishwasher.  I found a KitchenAid reasonably priced.  The seller helped me load it onto the pickup.  My job, to get it unloaded and installed.

     A couple of sixteen-foot planks came in handy.

     Getting the dishwasher from the pickup to the house was fairly easy, especially with the furniture gliders under it.  The time-consuming problem was rerouting the 220V outlet that supplies power to the stove.  The outlet found a home tucked in the back left corner of the dishwasher housing, beneath the stovetop.

     It took three tries to get the dishwasher into its slot.  Hoses and wires kept getting caught under the motor, the wheels, or some such thing.  The only thing left to do to finish the installation is fastening the kick plate in place.  It didn’t come with the screws, and I have no idea what size screws are required.

      The dishwasher worked fairly well.  Dishpan hands may once again fade into the past.

     On a related note, I took on a concrete problem.

      The big chunk of concrete that serves as the approach to the front door step has sagged about two inches.  The downspout was discharging its contents into the area just off the cement.  It didn’t flow away from the house.  A puddle always formed in the area beside the sidewalk, next to the house and the air-conditioner pad.  The previous owner must have wanted to save some of the runoff from the roof.  The water ran into that area.  I directed the downspout into a pipe that must lead to the storm sewer system.  Since then, we haven’t had the puddling problem.

     I still wanted to raise the slab back up to its rightful place.  It would help with a “trip hazard”.  The slab has teeter-tottered, raising the opposite edge above its neighboring sidewalk sections.

      Like most jobs, getting things ready took more time than the actual job.  The rocks and the plastic plant barrier had to be removed so I could dig a hole deep enough to get the jack under the slab.

       I jacked it up into place, then started tamping dirt under the slab to try to get it to stay in place.  It went up and down several times before it finally stabilized.  I jacked it up, packed dirt under it, and let it down.  The first few times, it did sink.  Eventually, it did stay in place.

  I let it stand for a couple of days and elevated it one more time, again packing dirt under it.  It has stayed in place for a week or two now. 

     Next on the agenda is raising a couple of sidewalk segments to try to ameliorate further the trip hazard.   It’s also hard on the snow shoveler to be gliding along and hit the raised cement with the shovel.  Everyone should have such perplexing problems.