Teresa Santoski

When something in the house breaks – whether it’s an appliance, a fixture or part of the house itself – the experienced homeowner sighs and starts checking their credit card limits. Sure, it may only be one thing that needs to be fixed or replaced, but they’ve learned over the years that that one thing will just be the tip of the iceberg.

Our family started down this path a few months ago when the shade that hangs over the bay window in the dining room decided it was no longer going to go up and down like it was supposed to. Now, we’re waiting for a new washing machine to be delivered after being washer-less for the last three weeks and counting.

It sounds like quite a leap, going from a busted shade to the loss of one of our household’s most significant appliances. But trust me, we’ve worked our way up to it.

Once the broken shade made its presence known, Mom took inventory of the other window coverings in the house to see what else might need to be replaced. She decided it was finally time to get a shade that would cover the sliding door in the kitchen – something she had been wanting for years.

To properly install the shade over the kitchen door, some minor structural changes needed to be made to the built-in desk next to the door. Otherwise, it would be impossible to open the desk’s file drawers due to the shade being in the way.

And since the desk required some work, Mom figured we might as well have some other kitchen projects taken care of that had been on the backburner for years. We technically have a concealed trash can that pulls out from a cabinet underneath the counter, but the cabinet door came off its hinges years ago due to the constant opening and shutting.

It was also past time for us to upgrade to a new microwave, but to do that, the microwave shelf above the stove would have to be rebuilt, and so would the hood above the shelf.

Lastly, the cabinets above the refrigerator had to be dealt with. We thought we had measured everything correctly when we replaced the refrigerator a few years ago, but the hinges at the top of the doors ended up being just high enough that we could no longer open those cabinets, cutting us off from some long-forgotten Tupperware.

It took several months to complete these projects. First, Mom had to research different contractors and contact their references. When she found the right contractor for the job, she had to wait for openings in his schedule and coordinate between our family’s schedule and his.

At the same time, Mom had to coordinate the installation for the shades she had ordered. She spent one particularly hectic afternoon running back and forth between the contractor in the kitchen and the shade installation technician in the dining room.

And then, just as it seemed we were all set with the projects in the kitchen, the stove stopped working.

Well, at least that’s what the fire department told us when they came to our house because we smelled gas in the kitchen. According to them, the safety valve on our stove was leaking, and to properly deal with the safety valve, we needed to replace the stove. They shut off the gas for us, and Mom made an appointment with the appliance store.

Thank goodness we’d been able to upgrade our microwave to a model that can also be used as a convection oven. But there are some things that can only be properly cooked over a burner, and two weeks is a long time to go without scrambled eggs.

When our new stove was delivered, the technician discovered that he couldn’t complete the installation because there was gas leaking from the hookup behind the stove. Talk about the icing on the cake – or perhaps, the penguin on the iceberg.

He shut off the gas for us – again – and Mom immediately called the gas company to find out when they could send someone to repair the hookup. They sent someone out the next day to replace the hookup and connect the stove, and then the installation technician came back to make the final adjustments. Scrambled eggs were officially back on the menu.

Before we could breathe a sigh of relief, the washing machine gave up the ghost. I would say that it had been making strange noises for quite some time, but that would be an understatement. When the washer hit the final spin cycle, it sounded like it was going to blast off and go into orbit.

If you happened to be watching TV in the first-floor family room, you had to turn up the volume in order to drown out the mechanical tantrum happening in the second-floor laundry room. If you were having a conversation on the first floor, you had to raise your voice in order to be heard above the rumble of the laundry-quake.

Since Mom and Dad knew that the washing machine was on its last legs, they had picked out a new one when they went shopping for the new stove, just in case. They had had some minor repairs done to the washer in hopes that it would hold out a little longer, but alas, it was not to be. And so, they called the appliance store to place their order.

The washing machine has been on backorder for several weeks now due to manufacturing shortages, which are in turn due to COVID-19. According to the staff at the appliance store, we’ll be dealing with these shortages for years to come.

Thankfully, there are laundromats in the area that we can use while we wait for the washing machine to become available. And if we find ourselves in an emergency situation, we can always take our laundry to the nearby fire pond and scrub it against the rocks.

I’m not going to discuss the current level of functionality of the dryer, as I don’t want to tempt fate. Three major appliances in as many months aren’t good for anyone’s wallet.

If the broken bay window shade was the tip of the iceberg, it is my hope that the washing machine is the end of the iceberg. But as I was finishing this column, I went to open a drawer and the knob came off in my hand, so I suppose we shall have to wait and see.

Tete-a-tete is published monthly. Teresa Santoski can be reached at tsantoski@gmail.com or via www.teresasantoski.com.