If it's going to screw up, it's going to be on a Friday

Late Friday, the front loading washing machine made this godawful industrial blaring alarum sound that about squeezed my brain out of my nose and cause my ears to bleed. I even took video just so I could share it with you. There may be a reason why the audio didn't come through. Probably so I don't subjugate you to the same unholiness.

Had to ask ourselves

So we spent a lovely chunk of time on Saturday morning doing this:

Carefully removing offending and overlarge noise maker from under counter without messing up the balance. And you know I swept behind that damn machine without a Swiffer! Only had to kill one spider. Not bad.

First line of defense was stupid. But honestly, it was my first time so it's bound to be a little stupid.

Since bukkit was stolen, the mixing bowl was chosen. No, I'm kidding about the bukkit. 

And I love that man for doing the majority of the work. All I had to do was mop up the excess water that didn't make it into the pan and bowl.

Oh, it was so gross which, amazingly enough,  surprised me. There were weird little beige specks in the water.

The smell. Oh sweet Jeebus, it was offensively odoriferous. Stagnant, tepid, fungal... and pouring straight out of a machine designed to clean with that water. Didja know that front loaders can develop lovely moldy spots on the inner seal ring? I didn't until I moved here.

But it wasn't all bad. Apart from the smell and generally ickiness... it got fixed. It works like a champ. Rewashed the clothes that were in there and was able to wash the towels used in the line of duty.

 And the cause?

Me. My fault. Two hairpins and a paper clip.  They got into the filter and were jamming the draining functionality of the filter and valve. Moral of the story? Clean your pockets out each and every time.