Sunday, March 21, 2010

More plastering


We got back to plastering the stairs this weekend. The first coat of plaster took a bit longer than anticipated because well... plastering on a 16' ladder is a little tricky. Hopefully now we have the hang of it, the next coats will go better.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Dear lazy-Web...

I'm just wondering if anyone else out there is watching House and drooling over the loft House and Wilson share. I've been searching for any info on it online but haven't found anything. Anyone find anything? I'm getting desperate... I may have to resort to screen captures... *ugh*

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Dishwasher saga begins...

After discovering steam leaking from our dishwasher damaging our cabinets (thanks to another local blog!) we quickly got on the phone with Fridgidaire and got in contact with our local repair company (for some on-warranty repair). From other sources online we were concerned that this issue is a fundamental flaw with the dishwasher and only bandaid solutions would be offered. But given that we don't have the time to seriously research another dishwasher or the desire to spend yet more money on the house we figured it would be worth taking advantage of the warranty to hopefully buy us some time.

After the repair person attempted for quite a while to determine the cause of the steam leak he got on the phone with another repair person and progress seemed to be made. Apparently this steam problem with our dishwasher is especially an issue when this dishwasher is installed at the end of a run of cabinets (e.g., against a wall or trim piece). Normally if it sits mid-run (both sides blocked) the steam is pushed out the bottom of the unit by the fan successfully but if one side is not blocked the steam is not forced out the bottom with enough force and it just sits there accumulating.

It seems since this issue has surfaced Frigidaire has worked to solve it. The repair person has ordered a new door panel to be installed that is designed to get the steam to vent out the bottom of the door more effectively (something about where the fan is placed etc.)

I'm glad to report we now have some hope that we may be able to keep this dishwasher and not have our cabinets reduced to paper mache. We'll update again once the new door is in and let you all know if the fix is successful.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Stairway progress

This weekend was spent on ladders drywalling the area around the stairs.
While we were hanging drywall in the stairway and upstairs hall we figured we would take this opportunity to laminate some drywall over the grossness that was our linen closet.
We also finally finished demo of the main stair railing. As a cruel joke on us the newel post encased in the veneer at the base of the stairs is totally different from the one at the top. Not a huge surprise given the pile of crap the rest of this house has been. We officially do not feel bad not saving much of the original trim work etc. :oP

In unrelated news, we're cheap bastards. We bought our dishwasher because it was the least expensive all stainless on the outside dishwasher. It has a spotty history, but from what we read online before buying it. We figured it would die in 1 spectacular event (e.g., electrical short, big water leak etc.). What we didn't realize is that this dishwasher's flaw is more subtle. We actually found this out from Jen and Dave's Reno, another local blog. The dishwasher leaks steam out the side of the door which is pretty destructive.. especially for our Ikea cupboards (luckily the damage so far seems minimal). We've got an appliance repair company coming to do some fixing on Wednesday. Hopefully they can put a good enough fix in that we do not have to take more drastic measures like buying a new dishwasher...