A proud brag..

[schwarzie]

Great job!!! I love my central vac! Uh, can I have your recipe for homemade fabric softener?

[KrazE]

Great job!!! I love my central vac! Uh, can I have your recipe for homemade fabric softener?

It's actually quite simple - 4L of white vinegar ($1.97 regular priced at Walmart) and a 25mL bottle of essential oils added to the 4L (these are also available at Walmart in the craft aisle for $1 or less - lots of scents to choose from!).

[ninna]

Awesome brag! And yes, if you're willing to do the research, learn, get dirty doing it, and sometimes even make a mistake or two in the process, you can save bucket o' cash on repairing stuff. I wonder how much an official central vac certified repair person would charge to have diagnosed and repaired something like this! Would be worth knowing. I bet it wouldn't have been cheap either!

Honest to god, I don't know how I would function any more without the internet. My DH is pretty handy and has taught himself to repair vehicles over the years. Recently, my car has increasingly been having issues with going into reverse. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th are no problem. But reverse? omg. Had to do a friggen dance just to find it. Anyway, one YouTube video later and my gear issue is fixed. For free!

Congrats to you for fixing it yourself! It's so empowering, isn't it?

[schwarzie]

Awesome brag! And yes, if you're willing to do the research, learn, get dirty doing it, and sometimes even make a mistake or two in the process, you can save bucket o' cash on repairing stuff. I wonder how much an official central vac certified repair person would charge to have diagnosed and repaired something like this! Would be worth knowing. I bet it wouldn't have been cheap either!

Honest to god, I don't know how I would function any more without the internet. My DH is pretty handy and has taught himself to repair vehicles over the years. Recently, my car has increasingly been having issues with going into reverse. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th are no problem. But reverse? omg. Had to do a friggen dance just to find it. Anyway, one YouTube video later and my gear issue is fixed. For free!

Congrats to you for fixing it yourself! It's so empowering, isn't it?

It is true! You can find almost anything on YouTube. I learned how to properly sharpen my knives, and you can even search the sound for your car problem and listen and figure it out! Having said that, I am not QUITE ready to cut my own hair, fix my own brakes, deliver a baby, or do a liver transplant!

[schwarzie]

It's actually quite simple - 4L of white vinegar ($1.97 regular priced at Walmart) and a 25mL bottle of essential oils added to the 4L (these are also available at Walmart in the craft aisle for $1 or less - lots of scents to choose from!).

Really? That works? I use vinegar for alot of things, but never thought of using it for fabric softener! How much do you put in a load of laundry??

[KrazE]

Really? That works? I use vinegar for alot of things, but never thought of using it for fabric softener! How much do you put in a load of laundry??

I use 1/4 of a cup in the fabric softener dispenser (I have an HE machine), so that means if you buy the vinegar & essential oils at full price ($2.97 total) = 4.025L = 17 cups = 68 loads @ 1/4 cup per - $2.97 / 68 = 0.04 cents per load

[anisa]

good for you!

there is such a wealth of info online these days.

thanks to youtube, hubby sanded and varnished the floors 3 years ago
i checked my transmission fluid and found the &*@$% at mr. lube was lying to me about needing it changed.
i climbed up on a ladder and took my BIG AC unit apart and put it back together again, determining that i did in fact need to replace the sucker.
got my dishwasher up and running.
learned how to fix holes in my front door.

the best thing is that you don't have to pay someone to do 15 min. of work and charge you an arm and a leg for it.

makes you a lot smarter in the process as well

[KrazE]

Awesome anisa!

I don't have much polite things to say about Mr. Lube - the first one I visited did not properly close the housing on the air filter, and my van started acting seriously wonky on the drive home (once the engine cooled I popped the hood & immediately saw the issue), so when I went to a different one, I told them they were not to touch the air filters at all, but then on the sheet they have you sign for the work they did, they listed that they topped up my windshield washer fluid, and I immediately called them out on it cause I had JUST filled it to the top 10 minutes before going for the oil change, so it was IMPOSSIBLE for them to have topped it up; I haven't done business with them since.

[anisa]

the only reason i even went was because of a coupon in the mail.

what was i thinking? haha

[coupongirl99]

That's the way to do it. Excellent job. I can't tell you how many items I have saved from the trash when all they needed was a good cleaning to make them useful again.