The dryer died while Steven was biking in Washington, DC. Somewhere around 15 years old. Served well in at two houses. But after at least two major repairs, the smart decision is to get a new one.
Jacquela got a killer deal on a model that Samsung discontinued — a model that just happened to be the mate for our Samsung washer.
Lowe’s took away the old Kenmore Elite and installed the new Samsung.
Last week, Ron and Odell from Ranserve walked the house with Steven to organize the punch list.
Two days ago, Odell and Cris began adjusting pocket doors and experimenting with how to fill the holes around the balusters.
Today, Aaron arrived with Chris and Bani to begin working on the kitchen cabinets — smooth edges, filling holes, adjusting drawers and slides. Aaron remeasured for replacement panels.
Above, Chris, left, and Bani, right, adjusting utility drawers between the cooktop and sink.
Chris arrived from Granite Security to install the glass break sensor missing from the ceiling in Steven’s office — outlined in the black box in photo above.
Chris also added “water bugs” at the washer and both tankless water heaters — sensors that alert us if the washer and heaters overflow.
Thomas arrives from C&W Appliance Service to finish repair of the Wolf induction cooktop.
Step 1, C&W replaced the glass top, which displayed tiny fractalizing cracks. The glass was not packed with a replacement gasket. To remove the glass top, the team sliced into the existing gasket, leaving this rough edge, visible in top image and below:
Step 2 — today. Thomas begins by lifting the cooktop out of the counter, then uses a knife and razor blade to remove what remains of the gasket from the top of the counter and underside of the cooktop. Steven stepped in after with paper towels and Goof Off to remove traces of the gunk left behind.
Check off that box on the punch list.
Chris, left, above, and Richard arrived today to replace the glass top of the Wolf induction cooktop.
Why? The glass sometimes displays a fractalizing crack that travels from element to element. It appears. It disappears. We reported this 26 June to Ranserve and to Kristin at Harway. The cooktop is covered under warranty. Harway set up a factory repair.
To remove the cooktop, Chris and Richard used a knife to slice apart the rubber gasket that goes between the underside of the glass and the quartz countertop. This gasket apparently compresses over time and begins to resemble silicon sealant. In the process of slicing apart the seal, several sections of the original gasket were peeled and sliced away, leaving a ragged gasket behind.
Wolf supplied the replacement glass — but not a replacement gasket. “Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t,” Chris said.
They will need to obtain a replacement gasket. Chris said he would order this and schedule a second service call when it comes in.
Steven is surprised that a replacement gasket was not shipped automatically with the replacement glass cooktop.
Steve the electrician is back in the house, this time to solve a mystery — why does the breaker for the oven not turn off power to the oven in the kitchen when the breaker is flipped to the off position?
Steve flips breakers while Steven in the kitchen watches to see which one actually turns off the oven.
We find it quickly. The “dryer” breaker is mislabeled; it is the breaker that controls the oven.
And, oh by the way, the breaker labeled for the furnace is actually the breaker that switches off the induction cooktop.
Problem solved. Quality control.
With that, the Bosch oven is now, finally, powered off. Steven flips the breaker to the on position about 30 minutes later. The oven appears to have re-set, with the keypad now responding to commands and entries. Jacquela will have to test this to her satisfaction. Steven does not cancel the service call scheduled for 5 July.
Jacquela is standing at the Bosch Benchmark oven in the kitchen, angry, short-tempered, pushing buttons on the keypad. The oven responds with unhappy beeps and refuses to comply with commands.
Steven calls Bosch tech support. They instruct: “turn off power at the breaker for 30 minutes; that usually solves everything.”
Steven goes upstairs to the electrical panel and flips to the off position the breaker that the electricians labeled for the oven.
The oven still has power. The control panel is still lit up. The light inside the oven still switches on when you open the door.
Hmm.
Steven calls Kristin at Harway. She will contact her office in the morning to arrange for a service call.
Steven calls Mark at Ranserve to alert him there is an electrical problem — “the breaker to the oven is not functioning.” Mark contacts Capstone Electric. Scott Breen calls Steven to ask for details. Steven sends pix. Scott arranges to dispatch Steve the electrician.
Steven speaks with Karen at K&N, the service company authorized by Harway and Bosch. A tech is scheduled for 5 July.
Saturday morning. Jacquela and Steven visit Emerald Hill.
Above, Jacquela set the correct time on the oven. It’s the only appliance that is powered, so far. Along with the GFCI circuits. The electricians are scheduled to arrive next week to test everything, now that the residential meter is installed and power is delivered to the house.
David Garcia and his team of painters are pulling up the heavy paper that has protected the floors through construction, sweeping out debris and vacuuming the baseboards, then rolling out new, clean paper. It’s amazing to see the hickory floors exposed, however briefly.
Above, Luis from Landers Flooring is back to remove and replace one stair tread. The balusters for this tread were drilled in the wrong place. Today, Luis removed the balusters and existing hickory tread, then fitted the replacement. At the end of the day, he clearcoated it with polyurethane.
The microwave, oven and dishwasher arrived last week from Harway Appliance, but the storage drawer to be located under the microwave was MIA.
Steven called Kristin at Harway. Arnold delivered the drawer today, above, set into place temporarily to check the fit.
In this special Sunday edition of the remodel that is almost done, Jacquela and Steven discovered that the dishwasher is installed. We missed it, distracted by all the other bright shiny distractions.
For the first time, we are able to confirm that we will in fact be able to stand at the sink, alongside the dishwasher, pull open the drawer for plates or cutlery opposite the dishwasher, then easily unload the dishwasher straight to the drawers, just a short reach away — almost like we planned it.
The other big activity for this visit … Jacquela and Steven measured the interior of each drawer in the kitchen and all the bathrooms. As a result, we believe we need 230 linear feet of shelf liner to protect the drawer bottoms.
