If your dishwasher is leaking from the center bottom of the machine (underneath, right in the middle) then check this blog post.
Dishwashers are notoriously prone to breaking down and leaking water all over the kitchen. Part of being a landlord is learning how to diagnose and troubleshoot some of the most common issues that plague dishwashers.
If your dishwasher is leaking from the bottom of the front door or from both or either corners of the door, keep reading. There is a simple and cheap fix that will save you an expensive service call.
I am way behind on blog posts so here is a turbo catch up.
Shae’s maternity leave ended a couple of weeks ago. It was a great taste of what early retirement could be and served to strengthen our resolve to save and be frugal to reach that goal.
Part of going back to work and leaving a baby with a sitter means pumping milk. Under the ACA, breast pumps are covered by insurance. Medela is the most well known brand, but Shae opted for a Spectra. According to her it is a much better machine.
A few weeks ago I turned 30 years old.
Quite a bit of family came to celebrate and spend time with us. We had a good time.
Shae, Frugal Boy, Frugal Girl, and I did our first camping trip. Frugal Boy was so excited he didn’t go to sleep until 9:30. There was a giant raccoon lurking around in the trees to the left of the tent. Naturally at 3am when he says he has to go pee I tell him to go to the right side. Does he listen? Nope!
Summer is definitely here. It has been hot and like clockwork Shae and I have had the conversation of whether or not we should get air conditioning. It always goes something like this.
“It is so hot”
“and the kids just want to snuggle”
“ya they are total hot boxes”
“we should get air conditioning”
“no the forecast says it is going to cool off soon”
“yep, let’s just sweat it out”
And then we’ll go outside and make a slip n slide.
This summer we have a nice basement room for the first time to retreat to and even sleep in.
We have also made a couple of trips to the swimming pool. Frugal Girl did a lot of grunting in the zero depth kiddie pool.
Mulberries are in season right now. I have a favorite spot to go picking that is about a mile away from our house. Frugal Boy went with me last year and is now a fairly independent picker. I’ll have to take him blueberry picking later this summer.
Mulberries are really tasty and healthy. They are packed full of antioxidants. The only way to get them is to pick them yourself. Grocery stores don’t carry them because of their limited shelf life and fragility.
We did our first family 5K. It was a bit of an operation to load two jogging strollers into the car along with four people.
It was girls vs boys. Frugal Boy and I did well enough to medal in my age group.
Back at work, Shae needed an adaptor for our laptop to do a presentation for the employers internal ‘shark tank’ competition. I had Frugal Boy tag along with me to the ‘tv store’. He was majorly disappointed that we did not buy a tv.
Finally, the library’s summer reading program is in full swing. Frugal Boy is an avid ‘reader’ and thankfully he enjoys ‘reading’ to his little sister.
That about does it. I still have some big gaps from earlier this year. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything that I want.
About five weeks ago our neighbor gifted us their used swing set. Their kids had grown out of it after about 12 years of enjoyment and it had gotten to the point where Frugal Boy was going over to their yard and playing on it more than their own kids were. With the help of a few muscular neighbors and a little disassembly, we shuffled the structure across the property line and placed it in its new home.
We are incredibly grateful for such an enormous gift, because even though it looks a bit rough, Shae and I knew we could refinish it and make it look like brand new.
Here’s a view from the other side.
To make this shine again, you are going to need a few tools.
A 5″ orbital sander
40 or 60 grit sandpaper for the sander
impact driver
hearing protection
safety goggles
respirator
paint brush
1 gallon of solid waterproofing stain & sealer (I used Behr Premium sold at Home Depot)
Start by removing all of the hardware. For our playset, that meant the rock holds for the climbing, the steering wheel, and the green plastic reinforcers. Spray down all the plastic bits with the garden hose and save all the hardware in a 5 gallon bucket.
Next, put on the protective gear and sand down the entire structure using the orbital sander. Depending on the size of your swing set this could take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days. I spent a couple of nights working on this one. You should see good wood underneath all the dirt, mildew, and crud after sanding.
After it is all sanded down, you’ll need to stain it. If you don’t stain it, it’ll turn gray again within a year.
I used Behr Premium Waterproofing Stain and Sealer. You can tint it any number of different colors at the store.
Follow the instructions on the can and apply the stain. Even though it is advertised as 1 coat, I needed to do two coats. The old cracked pressure treated wood is just too hard to get one coat coverage on.
After you are finished staining, reattach all of the hardware.
Tada! It is now ready for another decade of fun, enjoyment, and the elements. The total cost of refinishing is around $50 making this much cheaper than buying a new set.
