The Dryer Queen

Remember that one time when I fixed my own dryer? And then we sold it. It took us a long time to sell that dryer. With the washer I think Ben sold it for $125. What a deal. But we couldn't have them sitting in our backyard anymore. We sold them to one of our neighbors. Well, a week or so ago they approached us and said the dryer wasn't drying, and never had. They'd taken it down to their second home in St. George and hadn't tried to use them until that weekend. Knowing as much as I do about dryers (you laugh, but seriously, I'm like an expert), I figured the heating element had gone out. When I'd originally fixed it I replaced all the thermostats and fuses, but although the heating element looked awful, it was still working. I guess all the moving of the dryer busted it. So, we decided to buy a new heating element for the old dryer, which was no longer ours. Luckily, Amazon has pretty good deals on dryer parts and free two-day shipping. They replaced it over Labor day weekend, and then told us it was working like new (remember these are 15 years old, but KitchenAid deluxe model). And I kind of missed them, because I knew they'd probably last another 15 years.

And then, as fate would have it, our dryer stopped working the very next day. Well, I say "our" dryer, but it came with the apartment and our landlord owns it. It wouldn't turn on, so we were pretty worried the motor had gone out (bye-bye dryer). So we took it apart and cleaned it all out, there was some stuff stuck in the fan. Eventually it did start up, but then we realized it was overheating and shutting itself off. So now I was pretty convinced it was actually the cycling thermostat. Or at least I hoped. The real bummer is that Amazon doesn't carry cheap parts for this dryer. I guess because it's newer (I'd say 7-10 years) and gas. It's also a Maytag. I've pretty much decided I'll never buy a Maytag dryer (um the one with the cracked drum, it was a Maytag). So we called our landlord who said something like, "....Are you wanting me to pay for it?" Um, yep, it's your dryer. He then decided that he's not paying to maintain washers and dryers anymore (wow, thanks for that info BEFORE we sold our good matching washer and dryer), and that we could have them. Gee, thanks.

So we borrowed a multimeter thingy, and disassembled the dryer once again, and I checked thermostats and fuses. (I should probably mention that Ben helped, it's not like he was watching the Mentalist while I was taking apart the dryer). Yep, it was the cycling thermostat. I'm pretty cheap and didn't want to spend $25 on the part, and another $10 on shipping. After a little more shopping, I found the part on Ebay for $5, including shipping. So I guess we just bought a washer and dryer for $5. Not too shabby, assuming it really is the thermostat and has nothing to do with the motor.

Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to rant about my newest pet peeve. When we tell you that we are renting a basement apartment, please do not reply with, "Oh, I loved renting. Owning a house is so much work." Wah, wah, cry me a river. First, if you ever did rent, you were either deaf or stupid if you loved it. Neighbors that share walls are loud and obnoxious, no matter how wonderful of people they are. Sure, there's less responsibility in renting, but it's a little like taking a crazy amount of money and flushing it down the toilet once a month. Maybe you just forgot that. Understandable. But what you don't know is that we're doing pretty much all the maintenance on this house. We care for the lawn (um, it is nice to have a "practice" lawn). Ben spends his weekends building fences and removing hornet nests. Last night he was out in the dark with a flashlight fixing a sprinkler pipe. Sure, we get discounted rent, but it's still more than a mortgage (ok, obviously not as much as the houses in this neighborhood, but we only live in 1/3 of the house). I'm not complaining. We really don't mind the maintenance. In fact, I'd say most of the time we like the maintenance. We'd like it even more if we knew that it was increasing the value of OUR home. We also feel extremely blessed to live in such a nice place, and be able to afford it. But someday I want to live in MY own house, where I can paint walls red, yell as loud as I want, have my own mailbox, control my own thermostat, and be excited about planting things that we'll be around to see the net year. Eventually we will get there. And I'm pretty sure we'll never wish we were still renting.