Joseph asks…
What’s a good site for finding a part for my dishwasher?
I have a KitchenAid Archetec Series KUDS01FLSS2.
The support that keeps the door from crashing down when you open it has busted.
The sites I’ve found so far make you look through 484 parts only to find they don’t have what you need.
James Conley answers:
Hi Kat…
The site I like to use for all appliance repair parts is: repairclinic.com. There, you can search for parts using a very intuitive drill-down procedure. The page link below is the result of a search for the door hinge assembly for your Model # Kitchen Aid DW.
It’s the best I could find without having the part to visually compare. They give you a photograph of the part taken on a 1″ grid pattern, so you can compare for yourself.
I’ve used these guys before and saved a lot of money!
Mary asks…
How much do you know about plumbing?
This is a question on plumbing. Most of us know how to change our house taps. They can range from the simple small tap in our sink to the kitchen sink tap. Likewise, many of us also know how to change our shower.
However, how many of you know how to change your bathroom or kitchen water pipes? How many of you know how to use the olive ring? How many of you also know how to change the sink drainage pipe or the mechanism inside your toilet flush?
How many of you even know how to change the toilet flush tank or install the heater?
So, if I do not know everything, will I be the odd one out?
James Conley answers:
Yes, I can do all that and more. I believe anyone who owns a house should educate themselves about the mechanical systems in their home and equip themselves to do at least basic and emergency repairs. Professionally, I am a licensed electrician but I also had my ex-boyfriend (who was a certified building contractor and expert old house renovator) teach me to do such things as drywall, flooring, HVAC duct extensions and al types of plumbing (including fitting and sweating copper pipe and installing PVC drain and vent lines.) You can buy all of the required tools for doing your own plumbing for under $100. I bought two good illustrated books on the Code requirements and techniques of plumbing and completely rearranged and re-piped my last house and part of my newest one. I do know an excellent Master Plumber now who I gladly pay to do most major jobs around my house now (I really only did the work on my last house myself because I lived in an area where building was booming so much at the time I could not get a plumber to schedule the work on my house) but at least I know I can take care of any crisis that comes up before I can reach him. I keep several of the new compression fittings in case of emergency leaks.
I too am puzzled why people who are normally informed and mechanically competent about things like car maintenance (men), sewing and dressmaking (women) and computers and electronic devices (both genders) are so willfully ignorant about the homes they live in. I think everyone should know the following, at the very least:
– where the electrical service panel is and how to operate circuit breakers or change fuses
– where the shutoff valves are for ALL the sinks and appliance hookups in the house and how to turn them on and off
– how to correctly set or program your thermostat and how and when to change the filters on your forced air furnace or bleed the system if it is hot water
– how to clear a clogged sink drain or trap
– how to replace the washers or gaskets in any taps
– how to repair the insides of the toilet flush mechanism
– how to remove an old toilet and reinstall a new one
– when and how to replace water feed hoses to taps and appliances
If everybody would take the time to learn these simple tasks, there would be millions of dollars saved in costly emergency repairs, wasted water and energy and much damage to homes could be prevented.
Mark asks…
Does a Habitat for Humanity home come furnished in any way, appliances, etc?
We’re going to apply for a home at the next meeting, but I wanted to know ahead of time what all comes in the home.
We lost everything to a fire & have been in a small rv for months until just recently getting in a small mobile home, (only 2 bd when we need 4-5), so a home would be great.
We work & pay bills & qualify $ wise & the sweat equity would be no problem, so I’m not concerned with the application process or stuff like that. We even own the burned home, land & all, so there wouldn’t be any land payment added to the mortgage.
I just wondered what all actually comes in the house.
* Is it completely finished inside?
* Do they include appliances, heat & cooling units, etc.?
* Do they offer pkgs that actually furnish the home, like with beds etc.?
* Do they only build certain blueprints or can you decide anything on the home, like if you want the bedrooms clumped together or seperated etc?
* What about colors?
* How basic are the designs, such as do they only have bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, & living room or do they have utility rooms, pantries, & dining rooms too?
* Do they do anything to the yard, like fences etc? (ours burned with the house)
* Can you determine your energy source for the house, like can you decide if you want natural gas or electric for your stove, etc?
* Do they do “green homes”?
* What about under the houses, the pipes & stuff in the ground, (ours are very old clay & would have to be upgraded per city code for us to rebuild or repair), do they add the cost of digging up all the old utility stuff onto the cost of your house? (I know they have to run new lines & foundations on all of them, but what about that old stuff being removed?)
* Do they do basements or attics or garages?
And I guess the most important question is, the sweat equity that you accrue, how is it calculated? * Do they count each hour at a specific rate, like at minimum wage or something, then take it off your mortgage like real $, instead of a wage kinda thing?
(I don’t understand that part except that there’s a minimum of 300 hours at our local chapter.)
* What about if we have 10 friends that all put in 100 hours each, does that count as 1000 hrs off our mortgage or are they just counted as volunteers & only our hours count?
* How old do you have to be for your hours to count, like if our 9, 11, 15, & 16 yr old help does that count?
* And what about AFTER our house is built & we’re in it, can we still do the sweat equity thing to pay toward our home or is that only before the house is built?
Just, if anyone knows things like this, I’d appreciate the information.
I can find questions of the app process & what it’s like to volunteer but I really need someone that knows these kinda details too.
Thank you
Thank you for all the info in the 1st answer, do you know if they tear down & get rid of the old house or if the property must be cleared by us before they’re willing to build?
I was asking about the possibility of furniture because we were told they may work with Salvation etc to help replace some since we won’t have enough basics. We’re on craigslist couches at the moment.
And I was asking about the garage & fence & basement because it’s in a “historic district” so there are a lot of older but larger homes & they all have those so I didn’t know if the code required it, if it would still be approved. The code does require a fence.
And I wasn’t worried about colors, just a basic house would be a Godsend, I was just curious how involved the new home owner got to be in planning or design or anything like that.
It would need to be atleast a 4 bd, but as we were wanting to become foster parents before the fire, if we get a home we’d want to continue
James Conley answers:
A Habitat for Humanity home is “simple, decent housing”.
It’s finished inside
It often includes appliances. It definitely includes a heating unit. Depending on the area, it may include cooling.
They do NOT offer packages that furnish the home with furniture.
They only build from certain blueprints, and if it’s a four-bedroom home that is needed, there will probably be only one style available.
The house is generally painted a basic white inside. You want colors, you paint it yourself.
No pantries. Generally a dining area, not a dining room. Possibly a utility area somewhere in the house.
No fences for the yard.
No, you don’t get a choice of energy source.
They sometimes do green homes.
They do all the prep work for the foundation, etc, and if that includes removing old pipes, that’s included.
They generally do not do garages unless the local zoning requires it – it’s “we build houses for people, not for cars”! Basements depend on the area as well; up here in the Northeast, everyone has them, so the houses do as well. Down South, the houses are generally built on a concrete slab.
The sweat equity is simply calculated in hours. No, it’s not taken off of your mortgage; your mortgage is already lower than market value because of all the volunteer hours put into the home. And generally, it’s only the hours the people living in the house put in that will count toward your total. You can’t work on a Habitat site till you’re 16, so your younger kids won’t be able to help. You have to do a portion of your sweat equity before your house is even started, working on the houses of other people, and all of your sweat equity must be done before you get to move into the house. It’s part of your “down payment”.
There’s quite a cost involved in tearing down and getting rid of an old house. You’d have to talk to them about that.
I’ve never heard of a Habitat affiliate “working with” the Salvation Army to get furniture for a house. That’s not to say it isn’t done – or that you couldn’t work with the SA to make it happen.
As for the requirements of code in an historic district, they may be onerous enough that your Habitat affiliate would not be willing to work with them. To put it bluntly, the extra money they might have to spend to do that could be spent helping another deserving family.
Powered by Yahoo! Answers