Water Water Everywhere, Not a Drop to Drink

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Saturday evening as we were eating dinner we heard the sound of rushing water coming from downstairs, so we rushed down to find water spewing everywhere in the downstairs bathroom. There were two inches of water in the floor within the five minutes it took me to shut the water off. 
We spent the next three hours cleaning up water and mud that came when the water blew. Yuck. 
We're on a well system, so when the water is off we have no drinking water, cannot shower, wash our hands or dishes, flush the commode, wash laundry. Any of the normal everyday activities. 
After this happened, I made three phone calls to find an emergency plumber. No one answered their phones, which I figured must have been due to the Easter holiday. So I called my brother in law.
My brother in law and friend came over on Sunday morning to look at the problem and determined we needed a new regulator. My BIL went to Home Depot for parts and had the water turned back on around 4:30 that afternoon. 
So, we were without water for around twenty-four hours, but it was long enough to make me postpone our Easter dinner because I still had dirty dishes from Saturday night and I didn't want to add to the mess. We will have that dinner another day soon. 
Not using an emergency plumber definitely saved us money. We only had to spend about $30 on parts, so in the end the problem was fixed very frugally. 
The first thing I did when the water was turned on was to wash those dishes. I don't like having dirty dishes in my sink, but that also helps me save money. I wouldn't want to go into a dirty kitchen to cook, so keeping mine clean ensures I will go in there and cook, which saves us money over eating out.  Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Window Air Conditioner Problem Fixed

We have finally found the solution to our air conditioning problem. 
All of our window a/c units have a filter behind the front grill, which I take out regularly and vacuum and then wash. This helps to keep the airflow going strongly through the units. 
The filter on both of ours come in and out at the top of the unit, but the cover doesn't come off the one that is failing, which was built by Sears. 
My Mom mentioned to me that one time they took the cover off their unit and it worked better, but as I said the cover does not come off this unit. 
It was so hot in the house yesterday that we were ready to go to Lowe's and buy a new unit. But then it hit me that I could try and do the same thing with the cover on this unit. 
So, I gathered some tools yesterday and went to work on the unit. No matter what I did the cover did not want to come off, so I took some pressure and bolt cutters and went to work on removing the plastic pieces that cover the coil system underneath.  
Then I took a soft toothbrush and my vacuum cleaner hose and carefully brushed the dust into the vacuum cleaner. I know they make a tool for this called a fin comb, but I didn't have one of those and the toothbrush worked fine. 
While it's a good thing to clean the filter regularly, they don't filter all of the dust and dirt from getting into the unit. That's why there are tools like fin combs to clean these areas. Cleaning that area of our unit definitely made a difference here. 
It was 86 degrees in the house when I started this project and I am happy to say that this morning it's very cool in the house at 69 degrees. I even have all of the fans turned off because it is nice and cool in here. 
If you're interested, Becky over at Becky's Homestead has a video on how to take a window a/c unit apart and clean it properly. I didn't do this as it would be too hard for us to do here. 

It's very frugal to maintain what you have. Keep it clean and in good working order and it will last longer and you won't have to go out and spend good money to replace things as often. 
We are both so tickled that this has solved our problem with cooling the house. 
This unit is over twenty years old and I know it won't last forever, but I do believe it will at least last the rest of this season, if not more, and that is like money in the bank. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

An Easy Kitchen Re-Do

We have a friend who recently moved, but wasn't too keen on her kitchen countertops as she thought they were outdated.

She couldn't afford to replace them right now, so she covered them with contact paper with a slick finish, so they would be easy to clean. 

She felt like the contact paper made a huge difference and I agree. I wanted to share this with my readers because it's such a great way to update countertops without spending much money.  

Before:

During:

After:

What do you think? I think they look great and didn't really think about being able to do something like this with contact paper. 
Please let me know what you think in the comment section. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~