The "Never Good" Smell

There are a few smells that instantly tell you something is wrong...wrong in the way of, "I'm going to be losing a lot of sleep tonight" (vomit), "This is going to be a messy/ugly job" (dead smell in cluttered shed), or "I'd better find that before the house burns down" (burnt/burning plastic).

The night before last, DH got up to get DD back to sleep when she started crying sometime close to midnight. He smelled...something in the air, but couldn't quite figure out what it was. It was bothersome enough though that he got up again, about half an hour later, to see if he could figure out what it was. It smelled like...burning plastic? His nose got desensitized, but he ruled out any electronics. He came back into our room for a few minutes, then checked again...the dishwasher. Which had completed its cycle and was just cooling down. Hmmmmm. He found a bunch of what looked like green mesh in the bottom. Odd--maybe a kids' toy that DS put in, and we didn't notice until it burned onto the element? It being past midnight, he just turned it off and told me to check it in the morning.

Well, I checked. The green "mesh"? The molten remains of a sippy cup lid, whirled around the dishwasher by the arms. A ceramic plate, covered in the drippy remains of a spatula. The plastic surround of our cheese grater, completely deformed. All sippy cup lids were melted together, and the plastic insert for our blender lid was misshapen. All stuff which we had washed many times before without any issue. Yep, our dishwasher was toast. The thermostat was shot, the cost to repair it nearly that of a new unit.

I spent the day hauling the kids to every appliance store in our area, checking prices and figuring out what we needed in a new dishwasher. We raided the emergency fund to the tune of $500 (I'm including the cost of a Red Robin dinner to appease DD after about four hours of appliance shopping, plus the Dora the Explorer decor from the clearance rack at Lowes) and DH spent about three hours, cussing and sweating, installing the new one. Our neighbor's brother works at an appliance wholesale parts store and he came down and helped remove the waste line with a special set of pliers, but it was all up to DH when it came to cleaning up the MOUSE DROPPINGS GALORE (hantavirus, anyone?) with diluted bleach and sealing up all the holes & cracks behind the cabinets with steel wool & construction adhesive while I ran back to Lowes to get a universal water line hook-up kit for the new dishwasher. Yeah, honey, that's the price you pay for having a Smirnoff Ice after getting the old one out. Too bad sweetie!

He's gotten the new Whirlpool installed now, with its shiny new stainless steel front. He had asked at the store, "Why can't we get a black one? It's cheaper. Do we really need a stainless steel one?" I explained that if we ever had to sell the house in a hurry, for whatever reason, then with a black dishwasher I would feel compelled to remove the (crappy) Kenmore stainless steel fridge and replace it with our black GE Arctica fridge that is currently in the cottage...and if he was willing to sign up for that little job if we ever have to sell the house before completing a kitchen remodel, I was happy to spend $50 less and get a black dishwasher. He said, "But the range is still almond bisque." I explained that if we did in fact have to sell the house in a hurry, the almond bisque range would be removed, in favor of a stainless steel range for about $500, to match the fridge, which is right next to it. He opted to spend the $50. Wise...very wise.

From whatever combination of factors (the disruption, the total deviation from routine, etc), both of our children were constantly popping up last night. Sleep deprivation is never kind, but it is especially unkind to the logic and reasoning centers of the brain. Sometime at around 4 am, after DH got DD to be quiet AGAIN and go back to sleep, he decided that the drip in the shower was "bothering him". This would be the drip we've had in our shower for over a year...the drip I mentioned when it was 'bothering' my sleep and nothing was done about it, and I just learned to live with it. Even sleep deprived at 4 am, my rational brain clicked on long enough to think, it's just because you're tired and your brain is rebelling against another attempt at sleep. I didn't say it, though--one of those 'poke at the bear' dilemmas. Well, I am paying a price for that. DH came out and said, "It's stopped. But the cold water knob is spinning freely now." Oh goodie. Because that is exactly what I want to do today, drag our kids to the big box home improvement store again and also try to find out how to fix the knob online. Yip-pee. *eye tic*

Murphy, go home!