Christmas is here. I’m so excited, it’s ridiculous. For some reason, finding out that Santa Claus doesn’t exist didn’t deter from the magic of the holiday season for me. I still get all watery-eyed when I see a house decked out in lights. I can’t help but pick up wrapped packages and shake them. I’ve managed to fit seven Christmas trees — of varying sizes — in my home. It’s sick really.
This year, the fact that money is tight hasn’t gotten me down a bit. Instead of buying pre-made gifts for loved ones, I’ve resorted to sharing my talents. I’ve done some drawings and paintings for family members, offered up my husband’s photography skills to others and baked cookies and other goodies for the rest. I had to make sure I was able to get all of this done though, so there was some preparation needed. Before any baking could begin, I checked the List and find someone to service our oven — I can’t have my good-baking name marred by burnt sugar cookies!
Jackie is editor of
Quality + Design, the
Angie's List newsletter.
She's currently owned by three Great Danes named Silas, Eppie and Augustus Merriweather as well as two angry tabby cats, Bob and Polly. Her favorite album is anything by Radiohead.
I consider myself a DIY’er. Having grown up on a farm, I like to get dirty and do things myself.
The latest example was when my dryer stopped drying. I didn’t want to pay a repair person $200 to replace a $20 part, so I decided it was time to learn a thing or two about dryers. Two hours of Internet research later, I narrowed my problem down to two possible causes — a busted heating element or a bad thermostat.
Charred edges on the thermostat gave me a hint that it might be bad and a quick test using a multimeter confirmed my suspicions.
After a two-hour tour of the city, I found the right part and began the mission of getting it connected. In only 60 minutes of being hunched over my dryer, I got it installed!
I beamed with pride as I pulled out my first load of warm, dryer-fresh clothes. With everything right in the Stacy household once again, I cracked open a cold one and reflected on my experience:
• Two hours of diagnostic research
• Two hours spent finding and buying the part
• One uncomfortable hour of installation
This added up to five hours spent on a beautiful Saturday trying to fix something a professional could have done in 20 minutes. Upon that realization, my celebratory brew didn’t taste quite as good.
Don’t get me wrong, I told everyone and their sister that I fixed our dryer myself. But, when it was all said and done, I lost out on a day I could have spent watching football, hanging out with my wife or doing anything besides fixing an appliance.
I’m always going to do a lot of the work around the house myself, but if it’s going to take me more time to diagnose the problem than it would to have someone come fix it, I’ll probably just refer to the List.
Jeremy is the online production artist for Angie’s List magazine. He is going to be a first-time daddy in March, has a love/hate relationship with running and despises mayonnaise.
I’m homeless. Actually, both my husband and I are. Well, admittedly, that’s a bit of a stretch. We have a place to live, but we simply could use about 1,000 square feet more of it.
For the past several weeks, we’ve been scoping out the wonderful land of Central Indiana, hoping to MapQuest or TomTom our way to our new dream house in the potentially money-saving realm of foreclosed homes. Continue reading ‘A house hunting we will go!’
YaShekia is an associate editor for
Angie’s List magazine. Her favorite movie is The Temptations, and she loves riding roller coasters, singing and dancing.
