i watched on the webcam as the delivery truck arrived. they worked quick, dropped of the washer and dryer, removed the old dryer, in all under 10 minutes. my father called me later to let me know everything was delivered.
i was debating if i should head over to belmont to install the new appliances, but with less than 2 hours before i was supposed to go work at the cafe this saturday, i decided to hold off until after work.
DC was still asleep by the time i left around 10am. last night's rain finally stopped by this morning, and although the sun was out, the streets were slippery with wet leaves. i also tried to avoid riding through puddles because i didn't want to splash mud on my pants. after moving out all the tables and chairs, i cooked 5 cups of rice and started cooking the charsiu pork in the air fryer. i also boiled the 8 remaining eggs in the fridge, to add to the 14 tea eggs already in the slow cooker.
business was slow today. we were trying to figure out why that was. was it because of the veteran's day holiday yesterday? people using it as a long weekend getaway? or maybe it was the unusually warm weather, folks going out to take advantage of the mid-november heat. it wasn't all slow though, there were periods where we were busy, but much of today was just sitting around waiting for customers,
which made the day seem to go much slower.
i was eager for closing time, so i could head to belmont and install the washer and dryer. the first thing i did when i got there was go down to the basement and see the new appliances. my father and i decided what additional materials we needed to get. since we had an hour to kill before dinner, we drove down to home depot to pick up the supplies.
the watertown home depot is the worst. items that are supposed to be in stock aren't, prices are mislabeled, and some of the workers there are kind of rude. first thing we needed to get was a new 3-prong plug for the dryer. next we searched for a replacement symmons laundry shutoff switch. on the website it said there was more than a dozen in stock, but no aisle or bay numbers. we ended up grabbing a different brand valve. finally we needed to get a pair of washer inlet hoses. for some reason the shorter the hose, the more it cost. also we couldn't figure out the prices, and when we searched for a price check machine, they were all broken. when i asked an associate for help, she basically ignored me, like she couldn't be bothered to run a price check for me. i ended up scanning it at the self checkout station. i found a different associate for help in tracking down the symmons shutoff valve. he brought us to the plumbing section we had just visited. he couldn't find it either, and pushed a ladder so he could check the bins above. it was my father who spotted it though, hiding with the other shutoff valves and faucets.
when we went to go pay, the inlet hoses we picked up that was one price ended up to be way more expensive (everbilt $36). by then we didn't care anymore, we just paid and left. in the car i decided we would reuse our old inlet hoses, and return these more expensive hoses in exchange for something cheaper i might find on amazon.
back at the house we had dinner. my mother made a stew of beef and seaweed, along with a tofu stirfy with some the serrano peppers i picked from my garden yesterday. we've never really considered serranos to be very spicy, but they were no joke tonight, even the green ones were super spicy.
after dinner my father and i were eager to go down to the basement to set up the new appliances. we started first with the washer, replacing the water shutoff valve. it was easy to be quick and dirty, but the two screws holding the old valve in place did not want to come out, no matter how much we tried. we sprayed it with WD40, we tried to warm it up with a heat gun, we used a combination of wrench and screwdriver, none of it worked. in the end the only solution seemed to be desoldering the whole shutoff switch and resoldering the new ones. it was a drastic solution, one that my father didn't seem to want to do.
instead of trying to replace the valve, we didn't to just live with it for now. it wasn't like the valve was leaking, it just wouldn't shut off. but we could still connect the washer, just had to shut off the water main to the house. so we went ahead and did that. we had everything connected, the legs leveled, the washer plugged in. we went upstairs and turned on all the faucets to force the air out of the plumbing. before we ran a washer test, i checked the water connections one last time to make sure it wasn't leaking. it wasn't, but my father had connected the hot water inlet to the cold, and vice versa. so we had to shut off the water again, switch the hoses, turn the water back on, bleed all the plumbing upstairs, and only then could we run the test.
to run the test, we first power on the washer, then press the spin and soil buttons at the same time. i did that and the machine did nothing. i had to look online for answers. turns out, you're supposed to put the machine in normal first, turn off he power, turn it back on, and then press spin and soil, followed by the start button. the washer then went into a test mode, filling the tub briefly with cold then hot water, followed by a drain, then a spin dry. we realized that the drain hose just barely reached the basement sink, and when the washer initiated a drain, the water coming out from the pump was so violent i had to grab the drain hose otherwise it would've sprayed water everywhere. the spin cycle was mesmerizing, the washer actually locks the door during that time, to prevent injuries. with the led light shining into the tub we could see it spinning, but take the light away and inside the tub was just a blur.
another thing we realized was just how big the washer was. so big in fact that if i were to stand on the floor, i wouldn't be able to reach the bottom of the tub. we had to get a step stool. we invited my mother downstairs to test out the new washer. i asked her if she thought it was too big, she said it was fine.
next we moved onto the dryer. that was easier to set up because no water was involved. all we had to do was level the machine and install the power cord. the spot where the dryer was was already leveled, so that was easy. for some reason dryers don't come with the power cord and you're supposed to put in one yourself. it was pretty easy. when i went to go plug it in though, i realized the plug was wrong. yes, it was three prongs, but three straight prongs, not the L-shaped prong of the 240v outlet. how could we have made this mistake? fortunately i removed the plug from the old dryer and we installed that instead. later i found out we accidentally grabbed the wrong plug at the store; the one we installed was for a kitchen range, not a dryer.
there was also the issue of the dryer duct. i bought an 8-ft semi-rigid duct online, but we took a measurement, and the distance from the washer to the exhaust vent in the window seems to be more than 8ft. so instead we put back the old flexible pvc duct, which is a fire hazard (filled with lint), but it's only a temporary measure, until we can figure out a better duct system.
we put the dryer in test mode as well. what was cool was the light inside the dryer as it was spinning. the only thing left to do is to change how the door opens. right now it opens to the right, but we want to open to the left, to take into account the washer is on the right side. by that point it was almost 9pm.
so basically everything we purchased from home depot for the washer and dryer, we ended up not using for one reason or another. symmons replacement laundry shutoff valve? can't use it because we can seem to remove the old valve. brand new water inlet hoses? too expensive, will find cheaper options. 240v 3-prong plug? we got the wrong kind. semi-rigid duct? too short. despite it all, we still managed to get the washer and dryer working, at least able to test them. hopefully tomorrow we can actually wash some clothes and see how they perform. we'll return all the unused items, but saving the symmons valve with the hopes that we can still replace the old one. these valves are expensive too - $43 - for a big hunk of brass.
i finally left belmont by 9:25pm, get back to cambridge by 9:40pm. although it wasn't raining, rain was forecasted for later tonight, so i went out and put the cover over the bike. i spoke with DC, asked him if we went out today. he said he visited mt.auburn cemetery tot ake advantage of the nice weather. he used to go pretty often. i asked if he managed to accomplish everything he wanted in his first week, he said he still had some things left to do. he's been meeting up with a lot of friends here, and i was surprised to learn that none of them were astrophysicists. they were also all taiwanese. i asked DC if he was drinking anything, because i've never seen him use the kitchen. he says he's just been drinking the tap water. as for groceries (he has nothing in the fridge), he said he put them in the office fridge, since he's there most of the time anyway. so that explains it! i also asked about the rent. he said he had a bank of america account here before he left, and went to the bank last monday to withdraw his money, but because the account had been inactive for a while, BOA actually locked him out, so he's been dealing with that this week. he said it should be resolved by monday, and he can pay me then. his school will reimburse him for his trip.
nothing good was on television, so i spent the night looking up washer dryer equipment, like drain hose extensions, washer inlet hoses, and various types of duct work. i also looked at ways of removing seized screws, and came across the manual impact driver tool. it intrigued me enough that i ended up buying a cheap one off of amazon, due to arrive monday. will it work in removing the stuck on shutoff valve? i guess we'll see.
i forgot to check the news until very late, was happy to learn that catherine cortez masto will keep her nevada senate seat, which means the democrats will keep control of the senate, regardless of what happens in the georgia runoff next month. i'd still love to see a warnock victory though, just because having herschel walker go to washington would be a travesty to the senate chambers.