Saturday, July 9, 2011

plumbing one oh one - Jes

"Sinkmaster?" More like STINKmaster. One of the worst things I've ever smelt in my entire life was what was being cultivated in our sink when we first moved in. I know I mentioned the hamburger helper that the family ate as their presumably last meal given the forensic evidence found atop my stove, but I do not know if I mentioned what they did with the food and apparently much more before that...dump it down the sink. I don't know if you are aware of how a garbage disposal works, but it runs on this silly little thing called electricity. Which had been turned off. We dumped a gallon of bleach down there to kill whatever was living, but it didn't help the smell. Luckily we weren't staying at the house before the electricity was turned on, but we were coming by to clean things up and get the garden prepared so we had to smell it. Nothing like the smell of rotted beans and hamburger meat growing in a hardened pile just below your sink. We had to keep the windows and doors open wide until we got the power turned on.

And then. That poor poor garbage disposal that was so abused shouted its last clattering bang of disposaldom, ridding us of the hardened bean rot but taking its own life in the process.

Actually it turns out the reset button worked when we got up under there to take out the defiled beast. But the thing needed replaced. It makes a gosh awful racket and our new one has the rubber guard in it that keep you from accidentally dropping spoons and sponges down into it when you're trying to do dishes. It's a fancy one too. And by fancy, I mean new.

After a few spills of nasty water (we need to just throw away the dishwasher), and a hammer to break the sink part free we got the old one out. The new one wasn't too hard to get back in, but I wouldn't have wanted to install it on my own. A little duct tape here, wire cutters there. Some grunting and some screw drivers, and ta da! Disposal that works. No longer will the macaroni bits be tossed in the trash. Oh no, they will be chopped into oblivion by our handiwork.

All of this started when we went shopping for a mattress, stove, oven, and refrigerator today. We haven't decided on any of those, other than the dire conviction that we WILL have our own new ones soon, but the disposal was one small step toward kitchen comfort. Which I desperately want.

2 comments:

  1. So glad you replaced that. Just the thought of the old renter's gunk in there was haunting. Knowing you will have full control of what goes down your new disposal is great! Woohoo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. "That poor poor garbage disposal that was so abused shouted its last clattering bang of disposaldom, ridding us of the hardened bean rot but taking its own life in the process." EPIC! Love it. Also totally jealous that you have a disposal. I do not.

    ReplyDelete