So we waited about a week for the new dryer belt to come in from Amazon and even though I ordered it a bit smaller than the broken one measured, it was still too big. There was a pulley to keep the belt taut that had fallen off so we got a new nut and bolt to put I back in place, but the belt still kept slipping. My boyfriend, sorry, my fiancée, spent about an hour laying on the dirty basement floor covered in dust and dirt but the drum wouldn't turn. This obviously wouldn't be an easy fix.
I was done waiting to dry my clothes or having to go somewhere else to do my laundry. It was time to shop for a new one. I looked online at all of the deals and found the best one at ABC Warehouse. My fiancée and I made plans to meet up after work to pick it up. Luckily, I decided to call the store first. They didn't have it so I called another location - they only had the display and could order me a different, slightly more expensive one if I came in to order it. I had laundry to do. I wanted it that day so I called a third location who told me that all of the local stores only had the display which they wouldn't sell. Why does life have to be so hard?
I found one that was $80 more on Best Buy's website. I could pay for it online and pick it up in the store on the same day. That was worth the extra money to me. It took no time to get it into our basement and hooked up. It's strange to think how much I would have freaked out in my early 20s if this would have happened. There would be no way for me to afford a new dryer or figure out how to fix one. In some ways growing up is a good thing.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Sunday, July 13, 2014
...You go Ring Shopping
I feel like our generation has realized that getting married is an extremely important decision. We've seen divorce all over. Most of the people around now grew up in a time where divorce was no longer taboo and although it may not be easy, it's easier now than it was 50 years ago... unless you're Catholic and need the Pope's permission, then you're screwed. The point is that now we know that marriage isn't just about being in love. Marriage is a legal contract between two people. Marriage is sharing everything and splitting your assets if it doesn't work out. Marriage is a really big decision.
That being said, I don't believe that it's necessary to get married. Marriage has its benefits: lower insurance rates, it makes it easier to buy a home, awesome wedding shower gifts. It also makes sense if you're planning on having a child, adopting a child, or if you're concerned about your rights if your spouse needs serious medical care, but you don't need to do it anymore -- it's not the 1950s.
Since I was 19, I've had 3 serious relationships -- two of them lasting over 3 years, the third relationship being the one I'm in now. With the first relationship, we both lived with our parents and although I wanted to get married to him when we first started dating, eventually I just wanted to live with him and have dogs instead of kids. As for relationship #2, we lived together with dogs and I was getting older and thinking about marriage and children more and more, but he wasn't the marrying type and eventually it ended. Now I'm in a relationship where we're both on the same page. Marriage, house, children -- it all makes sense to both of us.
My boyfriend and I have been planning to get married for a little bit now. In order to relieve a little bit on tension about getting older and not having our lives completely together, we made a 5 Year Plan and marriage was in it. My boyfriend moved into my rented hours and when he moved in, the basement was a disaster. It was filled with old junk and water-damaged carpet. We made a deal that when the basement was redone, I would get a ring. The basement was done in May, but then there came the added bonus of saving the money to buy this ring.
I shopped around on jewelry websites looking for styles I like and price ranges. It made more sense to me to buy the set outright rather than have to go back and buy a wedding band. I found a few styles I likes and pinned them to my secret Pinterest board. I'm not a person of expensive tastes. I don't want a big ring -- I want something sparkly that won't be cumbersome and I don't think that a ring needs to be excessive amounts of money. I don't need something that says "I love you this many dollars worth" -- no one is going to know how much you spent on the ring unless you tell them. You could get cubic zirconia and sterling silver -- no one is going to be examining your ring that closely. Seriously. The rings that I liked were around $800-$1000 and that was fine with me.
In order to save money, I took over my boyfriends finances; I made him spend less money on cigarettes, whiskey and going out to eat and put more money in his savings. It took a few months, but we were able to save enough money. Personally, I just wanted to go to the store and find out what size I was and then order the ring online, but my boyfriend insisted that we shop in store because jewelry looks different in person. I think that I have a pretty good eye for buying jewelry online, but he's the one buying this thing so it's his choice.
The plan was to go look at the rings on the Saturday after the 4th of July, but on the 4th, we woke up early and had no idea what to do with ourselves on this bonus day off. We had a barbecue in the afternoon, but what were we supposed to do all morning? There is a mall a quarter mile away from our house so we decided to go ring shopping that day instead. It's an outlet mall so there aren't as many jewelry stores as other malls. The rings I really liked were from Zales and there was a Zales outlet so it was perfect.
The first jewelry store we happened to pass by was Kay. I had looked at their stuff online and wasn't very impressed by it, but it was right in front of us so we might as well check it out. Three different people helped us including the store manager -- they weren't pushy. They were very polite, but they never asked us our price range and were showing us $6000 rings -- those were a little out of our price range. Of course, they kept offering us a line of credit, but we aren't trying to get ourselves into any more debt than we're already in. I found a ring I liked but it definitely wasn't my favorite and it was on sale for $3000. We politely told them that we were going to look around some more and come back.
The mall is set up like a race track which forces you to walk by every single store with an exception of two short cuts. We kept walking until we found the Zales Outlet. One of the woman's first questions was "What is your budget?" and when we told her, she directed us right to the section where we could look. I found one of the rings I had likes online and it was exactly how I pictured it. It was also under our $1000 budget so it was perfect. My boyfriend and I have an extensive collection of Chuck Taylors and there is also a Converse Outlet in the mall so we were able to each get a pair of Chucks and go out to dinner on the money we have saved.
Now we have to keep saving to pay for a wedding...
On the 4th, my boyfriend tried to get my dad alone so that he could ask for my hand in marriage because "it's the right thing to do." The whole ordeal made him extremely nervous and he never even had a chance to ask. I'm not interested in giant proposals with all of my friends and family there -- I just want something quiet and chill. I keep giving him ridiculous ideas like putting the ring in a pizza box or around the straw of a Slurpee. The ring will take 1-2 weeks to get sized. Then I'll be really nervous.
That being said, I don't believe that it's necessary to get married. Marriage has its benefits: lower insurance rates, it makes it easier to buy a home, awesome wedding shower gifts. It also makes sense if you're planning on having a child, adopting a child, or if you're concerned about your rights if your spouse needs serious medical care, but you don't need to do it anymore -- it's not the 1950s.
Since I was 19, I've had 3 serious relationships -- two of them lasting over 3 years, the third relationship being the one I'm in now. With the first relationship, we both lived with our parents and although I wanted to get married to him when we first started dating, eventually I just wanted to live with him and have dogs instead of kids. As for relationship #2, we lived together with dogs and I was getting older and thinking about marriage and children more and more, but he wasn't the marrying type and eventually it ended. Now I'm in a relationship where we're both on the same page. Marriage, house, children -- it all makes sense to both of us.
My boyfriend and I have been planning to get married for a little bit now. In order to relieve a little bit on tension about getting older and not having our lives completely together, we made a 5 Year Plan and marriage was in it. My boyfriend moved into my rented hours and when he moved in, the basement was a disaster. It was filled with old junk and water-damaged carpet. We made a deal that when the basement was redone, I would get a ring. The basement was done in May, but then there came the added bonus of saving the money to buy this ring.
I shopped around on jewelry websites looking for styles I like and price ranges. It made more sense to me to buy the set outright rather than have to go back and buy a wedding band. I found a few styles I likes and pinned them to my secret Pinterest board. I'm not a person of expensive tastes. I don't want a big ring -- I want something sparkly that won't be cumbersome and I don't think that a ring needs to be excessive amounts of money. I don't need something that says "I love you this many dollars worth" -- no one is going to know how much you spent on the ring unless you tell them. You could get cubic zirconia and sterling silver -- no one is going to be examining your ring that closely. Seriously. The rings that I liked were around $800-$1000 and that was fine with me.
In order to save money, I took over my boyfriends finances; I made him spend less money on cigarettes, whiskey and going out to eat and put more money in his savings. It took a few months, but we were able to save enough money. Personally, I just wanted to go to the store and find out what size I was and then order the ring online, but my boyfriend insisted that we shop in store because jewelry looks different in person. I think that I have a pretty good eye for buying jewelry online, but he's the one buying this thing so it's his choice.
The plan was to go look at the rings on the Saturday after the 4th of July, but on the 4th, we woke up early and had no idea what to do with ourselves on this bonus day off. We had a barbecue in the afternoon, but what were we supposed to do all morning? There is a mall a quarter mile away from our house so we decided to go ring shopping that day instead. It's an outlet mall so there aren't as many jewelry stores as other malls. The rings I really liked were from Zales and there was a Zales outlet so it was perfect.
The first jewelry store we happened to pass by was Kay. I had looked at their stuff online and wasn't very impressed by it, but it was right in front of us so we might as well check it out. Three different people helped us including the store manager -- they weren't pushy. They were very polite, but they never asked us our price range and were showing us $6000 rings -- those were a little out of our price range. Of course, they kept offering us a line of credit, but we aren't trying to get ourselves into any more debt than we're already in. I found a ring I liked but it definitely wasn't my favorite and it was on sale for $3000. We politely told them that we were going to look around some more and come back.
The mall is set up like a race track which forces you to walk by every single store with an exception of two short cuts. We kept walking until we found the Zales Outlet. One of the woman's first questions was "What is your budget?" and when we told her, she directed us right to the section where we could look. I found one of the rings I had likes online and it was exactly how I pictured it. It was also under our $1000 budget so it was perfect. My boyfriend and I have an extensive collection of Chuck Taylors and there is also a Converse Outlet in the mall so we were able to each get a pair of Chucks and go out to dinner on the money we have saved.
Now we have to keep saving to pay for a wedding...
On the 4th, my boyfriend tried to get my dad alone so that he could ask for my hand in marriage because "it's the right thing to do." The whole ordeal made him extremely nervous and he never even had a chance to ask. I'm not interested in giant proposals with all of my friends and family there -- I just want something quiet and chill. I keep giving him ridiculous ideas like putting the ring in a pizza box or around the straw of a Slurpee. The ring will take 1-2 weeks to get sized. Then I'll be really nervous.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
...You Go on Quests for Appliance Parts
So there I am doing my usual Saturday routine of laundry, vacuuming, sweeping and Swiffer wet-jetting. (I don't consider using a Swiffer Wet Jet equivalent to mopping contrary to what the ads may have you believe.) This particular Saturday included the added treat of cleaning the bathroom. I ran down to the basement to grab something and the dryer was just humming. There was no clanking of change or buttons against the side of the drum - no movement whatsoever; just the hum of the heating mechanism. I opened the dryer and the top clothes were mostly dry, but the clothes at the bottom were still wet.
Like most people, my first instinct was to hit the dryer to get it to work. In this case, violence was not the answer. I shook it a little bit to try and get the drum to turn over. No dice. My initial reaction was "well, it had a good run - time to shop for a new one." I texted my boyfriend to let him know that we'd have to pick up a new dryer when he got off work. He asked some of the guys at work about it and they said that it was probably the drum belt which you can easily fix on your own. I just wanted my clothes dry, but I would wait until he got home.
In the meantime, I got to work on getting the clothes dry. I grabbed all of the hangers from my closet and started hanging the things I didn't want to wrinkle. Of course, I hung too many things from the shower curtain rod and it fell so I had to put that back up. All of the socks were laid out on the kitchen table, the towels and jeans were draped over tables and chairs, t-shirts on hangers were hung on cupboard doors. I pulled my hoodies and jackets off of the coat rack and replaced them with undershirts - the same with the towel racks. They 36 hours to dry completely.
When my boyfriend got home, he took the back of the dryer apart and we couldn't find a belt at all. We never claimed to be mechanical geniuses. We eventually found a broken belt through a hole in the back of the dryer. I found a YouTube video on how to change a dryer belt and apparently the top of the dryer comes up. Now we're cooking with oil.
Going to Home Depot on a Sunday makes me realize that I'm an adult. I look around and think "there are my new people." We couldn't find the dryer belts on our own so we asked an associate and Home Depot doesn't carry dryer belts in store. We went to Lowes, Kmart and Hawthorne's, but our dryer belt odyssey was unfruitful. The fact of the matter is that no one fixes their own appliances anymore. You either buy a new one or pay someone else to do it.
We went home exhausted from our quest and I ordered the part online. It shipped on Monday, but it still hasn't come because of the holiday. I'm writing this post from my parents' living room since I have to do laundry here until the dryer is fixed.
Like most people, my first instinct was to hit the dryer to get it to work. In this case, violence was not the answer. I shook it a little bit to try and get the drum to turn over. No dice. My initial reaction was "well, it had a good run - time to shop for a new one." I texted my boyfriend to let him know that we'd have to pick up a new dryer when he got off work. He asked some of the guys at work about it and they said that it was probably the drum belt which you can easily fix on your own. I just wanted my clothes dry, but I would wait until he got home.
In the meantime, I got to work on getting the clothes dry. I grabbed all of the hangers from my closet and started hanging the things I didn't want to wrinkle. Of course, I hung too many things from the shower curtain rod and it fell so I had to put that back up. All of the socks were laid out on the kitchen table, the towels and jeans were draped over tables and chairs, t-shirts on hangers were hung on cupboard doors. I pulled my hoodies and jackets off of the coat rack and replaced them with undershirts - the same with the towel racks. They 36 hours to dry completely.
When my boyfriend got home, he took the back of the dryer apart and we couldn't find a belt at all. We never claimed to be mechanical geniuses. We eventually found a broken belt through a hole in the back of the dryer. I found a YouTube video on how to change a dryer belt and apparently the top of the dryer comes up. Now we're cooking with oil.
Going to Home Depot on a Sunday makes me realize that I'm an adult. I look around and think "there are my new people." We couldn't find the dryer belts on our own so we asked an associate and Home Depot doesn't carry dryer belts in store. We went to Lowes, Kmart and Hawthorne's, but our dryer belt odyssey was unfruitful. The fact of the matter is that no one fixes their own appliances anymore. You either buy a new one or pay someone else to do it.
We went home exhausted from our quest and I ordered the part online. It shipped on Monday, but it still hasn't come because of the holiday. I'm writing this post from my parents' living room since I have to do laundry here until the dryer is fixed.
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