Making a Bad Situation a Little Better: The Tale of the Exploding Washer

I was doing laundry over the weekend, as I’ve been known to do, when my washing machine decided to explode. Hmm…maybe I should back up a little bit. The first load of laundry went fine, but when I went to switch the second load over to the dryer I noticed that there was some water on the laundry room floor coming from the washing machine. I had just washed a load of sheets and bathroom towels, so I figured I must have overfilled the load causing it to leak when it went off balance. So, I wiped up the floor with a couple beach towels and threw them in the machine to do my third load of the day.

MISTAKE!!

Okay, in my imagination it goes like this:

Anyways, moving on. I went back downstairs to check the dryer and there was a HUGE pond of dirty water filling the laundry room! Like a two inch deep pond. Not cool. This is when it finally dawned on me that my 20+ year old washing machine was broken. No, not when it initially leaked. I had to submerge my laundry room before I got a clue and realized that we have a problem.

So I did what any thrifty person would do, I started googling around for deals. I checked a bunch of local big box stores and even clicked around on craigslist. I then took a trip to my local Home Depot and Lowe’s stores to check for any floor model sales. Typically they have a few random appliances hanging out in the aisles that have been refurbished or returned as an ‘open box’ item.

I got lucky at Lowe’s and found a refurbished washer with a couple marks on it. It was a great deal – marked down about half price to only $280. I got even luckier when the sales associate pulled some strings to have it delivered to me the next day. The delivery went super smooth and my new washing machine was in my house and ready to go about 12 hours after I plonked down my credit card to buy it.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

Now I’m getting super annoyed because I didn’t WANT to buy a damn washing machine in the first place and now that I went through the effort to go and buy the stupid thing, it doesn’t even WORK! So I call up my friendly Lowe’s manager and tell him how annoyed, frustrated and inconvenienced I am.

At this point the story could go either way – I could go off on a tangent about how awful Lowe’s treated me and that I’m never shopping there again, or I could tell you what a great job they did fixing my situation. I’m happy to say that I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the second option.

The manager asked me to give him an hour to figure out what they could do for me and call me back. When I spoke to him again, I had found another washer on their website which had great reviews. However, it was brand new and almost $200 more then the one I had purchased.

The manager got the priced discounted down so that I only had to pay $20 more. Understanding that I work during the day, he also arranged for a special delivery truck to bring my order to me after 6pm on Wednesday. He took a really crappy situation and did everything in his power to make it right.

Now, I’m reserving my final judgment until I actually get the washing machine delivered to me tomorrow and do a load of laundry with it. However, I have to say I really respect the fact that Lowe’s so obviously wants to keep my business. Their manager was friendly and helpful when I called to complain on Sunday and has even checked in with me a couple times since then.

A little good customer service goes a long way with me. I’ve been a Home Depot girl for most of my life, but I think I’m leaning towards cheating on the old HD with my new luvah, Lowe’s.

Dropping Prices & Chasing Dogs

I realized I haven’t given a house update since the end of May and it’s pretty much because nothing has been happening.

The woman who was interested in our house and came by four times apparently fell off the face of the earth. Same goes for the guy who came to see our house twice. We had a bunch more showings, but all the attention dried up right before the holiday weekend.

It’s annoying and frustrating and crappy all rolled into a ball.

Our new & improved front garden

In our downtime, I added some fun to our back deck with some new deck chairs, pillows and a cute little lantern for our patio table. Our front garden was also looking a bit rough, so my mom and I spent last Friday afternoon planting new bushes and flowers. Everything is looking great, so now I just need a buyer to come by and fall in love with the place!

In order to sweeten the pot, we decided to reduce our price from $242,000 to $229,900. The other houses in the neighborhood are in the $238,000 – $242,000 range, so hopefully this will draw some attention over to us.

I actually hadn’t really been obsessing on the house not selling because we were distracted by our Vegas trip and then with all the Potter drama.

Speaking of Potter drama, he’s been acting pretty close to normal (for him) the last week or so. Last time we went to the vet, his tests showed that he doesn’t have diabetes or pancreatitis. However, his protein levels were low, which could apparently be an issue. The vet asked me to wait two weeks and then bring in a urine sample for him to re-test.

Yes, you read that right I’m supposed to bring in a urine sample from my dog. And not just any urine sample, I’m supposed to get a sample from him first thing in the morning.

Which means, this Saturday around 6:30 am (which is apparently the magic time that he likes to wake up, go outside and eat), I’ll be standing outside half awake waiting for him to find something to pee on. The moment he starts, I’m going to have to jump him mid-pee to collect his urine in a Tupperware container.

I don’t anticipate this going smoothly. In fact, I’m imagining myself wrestling my peeing dog to the ground while the neighbors point and laugh.

So, we’ll see how this goes. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he won’t care what I’m doing while he’s thinking about the deliciousness of his dog food breakfast. One can only hope.

And yes, in case you’re wondering… I’m going to throw the Tupperware away afterward.

An example of when business casual is a bit TOO casual

Want to know a little secret about me? Well, I’m one of those hot weather people.

Ok, it’s not that much of a secret, but I’d so much rather it be 95 degrees outside (even with the Maryland humidity) than deal with that windy 20 degree crap we get in the winter.

I love to indulge my inner lazy person on the weekends by throwing on a pair of gym shorts, tank top and flip flops. Add in a pool or beach and I’m ecstatic about lazing around in my swimsuit with a drink in one hand and my kindle in the other.

However, please note that this is how I dress on the WEEKENDS – not when I come to work.

I’d like to take this opportunity to share a true story with you. At one of my previous jobs I worked with a lady that we’ll call Ms. SassyPants. She worked in a customer service position and was quite sassy (hence the name) in her dressing style, even changing things up with natural-ish looking wigs every now and then.

Well, one beautiful summer day she decided to wear a strappy tank top with her work pants. The light and silky tank top was so strappy that her brightly colored bra straps were quite visible as they stuck out on her shoulders. Sounds like a situation for Clinton and Stacy, right?* Well, I guess she must of thought so too, because a few hours into the workday she decided to keep those distracting bra straps from ruining her look. By taking off her bra.

So, now she’s running around the office and meeting with customers braless. And she wasn’t exactly a little sprite of a girl. Oh, and the office was cold.

Totally inappropriate, right? Well, she must have thought so too because she decided that the best course of action was to put some Band-Aids on top of her nipples in order to ‘hide the chill’ she was so obviously feeling.

For the rest of the day, she bounced around the office in a thin, silky tank top with weird square nips sticking out from her body. Classy.

Did I mention that Ms. SassyPants worked in the customer service department? She was the person that represented our company to a customer.

*Sigh*

Ok, I admit that I laughed my butt off at the time. I still giggle a little as I remember the look on the bosses face when he realized that he needed to speak to her about her interpretation of business casual.** But I wonder even years later, what the hell was she thinking? You know that old adage, “dress for the job you want, not the job you have”… was she aspiring to be an exotic dancer?

I know I’m not the only one who has noticed that some people’s business casual attire is a bit more, um…casual than others. The morale of the story is, don’t be THAT girl (or guy). If you’re digging around your closet in the morning and your fingers land on something you wore to the club a few weeks ago, put it back and keep searching.

* This is a “What not to Wear” reference. If you did not know that, you really need to park your butt on the couch and watch more TV.

** The funny part is that the boss was too afraid to say something to her and instead sent an email to the entire company about how “beachwear” was not acceptable for work. According to the rumor mill, she grumbled that her outfit wasn’t beachwear because it was expensive…