When I got back from the school run, I found a toilet outside my front door. It made me laugh. Our builders were here working hard all day apart from a short break at lunchtime to pick up the shower screen. Toilet, shower and screen are now all in place.

Decluttering morning

I had the morning off so decided to use the time to continue some decluttering… popping into the garage to put things in there and taking other items back to their places around the house. The sun was shining, which meant that I could hang out the washing. It was all going well.

Insinkerator Troubleshooting

On one of my trips into the garage, I brushed past the box that the Insinkerator (food waste disposer) came in.

I’d destroyed most other boxes but some reason I’d kept this one. Maybe it was because I didn’t know how it worked and there were a few diagrams on the box, and plastic piping and instructions inside. I took it into the house because there was a phone number on it. I thought that I’d take the opportunity to call the company and see if they could help me fix it as it was making a loud grinding noise the other day and had eventually ground to a halt.

The lady told me about a reset button which at least got it running but it was still making a grinding noise. She then asked me to get a 6mm allen key. I always have allen keys in the utility room but didn’t know if I had a 6mm one. I tried the ones that I had but they didn’t fit, so I went upstairs to ask the plumber who loaned me his.

I started turning the allen key from underneath the unit and when it had done a full turn, she asked me to try and switch it on again. It still made the sound so she asked me to see if anything was lodged in the chamber. She didn’t suggest putting my hands down there (which I’m going to confess that I have done before!). It was at that point that my husband came into the kitchen and I asked him to help.

Between us we couldn’t find anything lodged. Then he noticed a couple of tiny screws lodged in the blades. We said to the lady that we’d continue to find ways to get them out and ring back if we were still struggling. My husband ended up disconnecting the whole waste disposer unit and and trying to open it up. I was wishing that I’d never started the job. The kitchen was a mess, the cupboard door was off, all of his tools were all over the hallway upstairs, and everything from under the kitchen sink was on the floor.

The good thing was that he got one tiny screw out and then the other one got lodged and when we tried to get it out it went beneath the metal plate.

There was no way of getting it out. In fact we even rang the company back and they didn’t know so they gave us a number for a service engineer.

We couldn’t use the sink for the rest of the afternoon. We had two options (1) completely get rid of the unit and put in a normal sink strainer or (2) Put it all back to how it was and pay to get a qualified Insinkerator service engineer in (and put up with a slow draining sink for a while). We went for option 1 as the disposer unit has caused us so many problems over the years snd we didn’t want to spend money getting a replacement one. We put all of our food waste in our small lidded bin now anyway.

Our plumber sent me a link to the exact sink strainer that I needed to get from B&Q. As he needed to get on with our bathroom, he said that if I picked the part up, he would fit it this evening. I ordered it via click and collect and picked it up after I’d finished work.

This evening he fitted the sink strainer and connected it to the main bit of piping and got it working. He said that he’d come back tomorrow and connect it to the overflow and finish it off.

I have extra space!

The most exciting part about all of this is that without the large disposal unit under the sink, I have more room to put all of the cleaning stuff. It was always crammed in and I couldn’t buy those shelf units that I see other people using to organise their cupboards. Watch this space for a tidy cupboard under the sink one day!

The en-suite bathroom

I know that I said this yesterday but the ensuite bathroom is nearly finished. Just a bit more silicone sealant and other fittings. The electrician is coming back with them tomorrow to wire up the mirrored cabinet and radiator. We’re nearly there and I should be able to share updated photos with you tomorrow. Apparently the shower is ready to use in the morning if we want to.

I felt so exhausted after the afternoon we’d had and still had lots of work to do which I’ve been doing this evening. I didn’t have the energy to cook so I went and got fish and chips.

Tomorrow is just as busy, so I’ll try and have a relaxing bath and go to bed.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra