I've been slowly working on some of the unfinished projects in the kitchen again. I crawled into the attic and finished wiring the outlets for the under cabinet lighting and finally reinstalled the dishwasher. It appears that the seals in the water valve have dried up, so now I'll have to deal with that, but it's in place for now.
I also got a high efficiency front load washer from Facebook Marketplace last week for $80. The guy said it wasn't draining but everything else appeared to work. I thought that that's no big deal, my old washer did the same thing. It was usually the filter that was clogged with lint or dog hair or whatever else went through the cycle. I figured it was either that or the drain pump died, and the pump costs $20 - no problem!
So I got it home and started investigating. Pulled the filter and it had a penny and a bunch of what appeared to be coarse sand in it. I thought that that's most likely the problem, he had younger kids and they had a bunch of sand in their pockets that went through the wash and destroyed the pump. So I ordered a pump, take the pump and housing out of the machine, clean the housing, remove a large piece of what looks like plastic from the pump section of the housing, then check the pump and find out there's nothing wrong with it. So I go ahead and put it back together. I get it all hooked up, try to run a cycle and find out that the drum won't agitate. So I open it up again, try to manually move the drum and find out it's hitting something and locking it up. Back to Google I go for more research! Come to find out that the spindle and arms that hold the drum in place are made of cast aluminum. Laundry soap enters the tub that contains the drum and slowly eats away at the cast aluminum causing the arms on the spindle to fail.
SO.....I ordered a new spindle. Now I'm into this washer for about $200 - as long as that's the only problem with it! If it is, it's at least $400 saved. If not...... well, let's just not go there!! Lol
The only reason I do what I do now is because finding a toolmaker job that doesn't run the risk of being shut down and moved overseas was/is becoming a serious problem. It took me 2 years after graduation to find a job, lost that one about a year and a half later. Then it took another year to find another. In 2008-09 they announced that the plant was closing. And we all know what it was like at that time - I was out of work for another year again. I said F this and went back to school again, figured health care was a lot more stable - and here we are! 1000 miles from home working 6 and 7 days a week. I guess the point is we all get burned out and tired of working on projects for a multitude of reasons. For you it's because you do it day in and day out, the last thing you want to do with your time off is do the same thing again. For me it's because I feel I never have a lot of time to myself to just sit back, relax, and do other things that don't require "work." You'll get to it when you get to it - it's a hobby, something you do because you enjoy it. If you're not enjoying it, then you can take a break from it and come back to it later. I'm sure you'll get to it at some point....
