I'm Not Complaining...OK, I AM

I'm having a hard time today forgiving my husband for something he did - he really didn't mean to, but in any event he did it. And now I'm going to suffer for it.

Let me back up a little...

It's been cold for the past few weeks. I'm guessing that the ground is probably frozen, which is why our dry well for our washer has been backing up. It's the only thing I can think of, other than a blockage, that would cause the rinse water to come back up the pipe. Obviously, it would be a rather cold and nasty job to see why the water isn't going down the pipe all the way. (We put the dry well in ourselves when we moved in and it's never done this before!)

So after a few garage flooding incidents, Ric attached the hose from the washer to a PVC pipe that goes right outside the back door and into the back yard. It's only water from the washer, so I'm not worried that anything might contaminate. In the process, he moved the washer closer to the door a little and changed the hoses for the cold and hot water to the steel hoses that we've had hanging around since we bought the washer almost 5 years ago.

One reason that we hadn't changed the hoses was because we were told that it would void the warranty if something happened and we weren't using the factory-supplied hoses.

Now...our house is over 50 years old and we've learned in the 5 years that we've lived here that most things are backwards. Any time we've had to rewire, what you would normally think would be the "hot" wire wouldn't be. The same is true for the hot and cold water in the shower AND behind the washer.

Ric forgot about this - and as he was changing the hoses, accidentally hooked up the cold water to the hot, and the hot water to the cold in the washer.

Not knowing this, I ran two loads of laundry yesterday - after the 2nd one came out steaming hot when I hadn't chose that option, I called Ric to see if he had swapped the hoses. In the meantime, I think that running the hot water when it wasn't supposed to be hot must have melted something inside the washer.

Why?

Because now...you can only choose a few of the wash options, AND when you try to press the "start" button, NOTHING HAPPENS!

So here's the deal, we've essentially voided the warranty, because any repairman will ask what happened with the hoses and why they were switched. We don't have money to pay for repairs or a replacement. AND, it's MY job to do the laundry. So I'M the one that's going to be dragging the clothes WITH the kids to a neighbors, or the laundromat to get our clothes clean! Not Ric. (We trade - I do laundry, he does bathrooms.)

Am I ANGRY? YOU BET YOUR SOCKS I AM! I'm so angry I could just spit nails!

I know that Ric didn't mean to make the mistake, but there was no reason in the first place to change the hoses, the others were working just fine. This is an expensive mistake! Not only do we have this to add to the list, but my van needs new tires, Ric just had a flat on the way to work on Wednesday, AND we have very little money to spare until I get paid in 2 more weeks! (Ric's paycheck pretty much goes to the mortgage every other week.)

OK, I'm done complaining...this wasn't something that needed to happen. I guess I know what I'm getting for my birthday in a few weeks! :) A nice washer repair bill! Woo Hoo!

PS - Thanks for listening while I air our "dirty laundry!" heh