The Saga Continues

Well, our heating was fixed last week. It turns out that our thermostat is so old that the slightest bump would make it click on and off, thus burning out the motor on our heating unit. We fixed the unit and got a new thermostat. The thermostat is awesome and I never thought I'd be so excited about one, but it's digital and programmable so that's cool. The bad part is that we found something out when it was replaced. Basically there's a gigantic hole in our wall directly behind the thermostat. I'm not sure how the old one stayed on, but luckily the repairman had a few tricks up his sleeve installing the new one.

This week our dishwasher was fixed. The GE repairman came out to take a look. At first we even considered getting a new dishwasher, to match our new-ish stove, and because just the visit to take a look at our old one was going to cost $70 in labor. In the end we went ahead with the repairs. It turns out that the problem was with our sump. And that problem was that it had been chewed through by rats. I'm not sure why they would chew on it (bored?) but they did quite a job.

The replacement sump cost only $20 but our total for labor and parts was about $200. Yeah, sucks. Our next step is getting rid of the rats. We have two dogs and a cat, so you think they'd have done their job in scaring the buggers away. But no. Instead they completely freak out whenever the doorbell rings.

Bill bought a bunch of traps and set them out underneath the dishwasher the other night. In any other situation, I might have pondered a way to get rid of them humanely, but honestly I just want them out of my house! The "willies" are surpassing any altruistic feelings I may have had towards the rodents.