What next? (aka the five-year itch)

Five and a half years. That's how long we've owned our loft. Coincidentally, that seems to be the outer edge of the life span on a lot of our appliances, all of which were new when we moved in.

As I've mentioned before, problems with our power-flush toilet and tankless boiler have been ongoing for most of those five years. Now I can add to the list the Insinkerator disposal and the dishwasher.

The disposal has acted up off and on for a while, sometimes refusing to process anything else and backing up into the sink. Because the dishwasher empties into the drain, this has sometimes caused problems with water spewing out of the relief valve. This valve is located at the top of the sink, next to the cold water handle, so you can probably guess the results (think pools of water all over the kitchen counters). After the last backup, we stopped running egg shells, coffee grounds and things like banana peels and melon rinds through. Problem solved.

Now it seems the disposal has sprung a small leak. It's located directly under the sink, along with a few other things like trash bags, lightbulbs, and a Swiffer we never use anymore. The leak is on the left-hand side where we store flower pots and other things we rarely use. Specifically, it's on the opposite side as the Big Bucket of Cleaning Supplies. So imagine my surprise when I went to crawl under the sink to install a new faucet and found a pool of standing (and very stagnant) water. The solution? Put a vase under the spot where the water drips. I know it's only a temporary fix, and it's worked ok for now.

Rewind to a couple afternoons ago. We usually run the dishwasher overnight, but this particular day, it ran in the afternoon. When I went into the kitchen to refill my water glass, I found a large puddle on the floor in front of the dishwasher. Cleanup became the first concern, and it involved taking the kick plate off the front and swabbing the (very cramped) space underneath.

Next came diagnostics. At first, it seemed that the leak was under the dishwasher, but that turned out to be wrong. Instead, it appears to be leaking from a spot on the bottom outside of the door. Not coincidentally, this is where a hose feeds into the unit. The sheer volume of water makes a "quick fix" like a catch-cup impossible, so we'll have to call in a pro. Until then, it's all about sopping and and wringing. Fun times.

If you're keeping score, in the coming weeks we're going to have someone come in to fix/maintain our boiler, dishwasher and disposal. The problem is, I have no idea who to call for the dishwasher and disposal. A plumber? Or is there someone in the area who services our specific brands?

To top it all off, one of our cars started shaking pretty violently when we drove it on the highway. This is going to be an expensive month ...