I knew those textbooks would come in handy eventually....

With the washer working it was time to move on. Faced with having to replace our carpet due to kit cat damage, we chose to get to the root cause. The kit cat. She's not changing her scratching behavior....so we must change ours. Instead of buying new carpet (she would destroy) we are installing wood on our stairs. I'm not yet sure this is a good idea. A few weeks ago I fell down the steps (slipped) as I was sliding and bouncing I was thinking how much harder wood would be than carpet! Stay tuned for the furniture choices as we replace the couch she has also destroyed. Remember that guy that made furniture from FedEx boxes? Contemporary.

Where did you learn to Solder?

To be fair, this is the second attempt - after the first where we saw sparks and melted some of the copper track in another area - afterwards the washer stopped working completely. We also blew the light-bulb connection to the 'on' light. The good news is we bought another board - the washer works again with a slightly dim 'on' light. It took a little more than $13, but still less than a new machine. Keep in mind a new washer would have required a new dryer. Can't have our appliances not matching now can we?

The rest of the story is that even after installing a new board the stupid machine still wouldn't work! So after pouting and sulking over the loss of two weeks, getting in trouble at the laundry mat for folding while my clothes were in the dryer...and the pain of buying a new washer instead of a new stove....I gave it one more try. This beast isn't going to beat me. I jammed a screwdriver in the door device so I could watch the door lock function work real time (I've always wanted my dryer to work like this so I figured I could trick the washer too). I did and at full 850 rpm spin I noticed the problem. WE had installed the wax motor incorrectly so it wasn't fully engaging the spin command. Seriously voila, now we can get the UPGRADED stove!