A few features of homeownership will now get their turn among the updates on all things Roediger House, in part because they occurred so close to one another. Well, that and the fact that the blog is very much my record-keeping chronicle to help me track the events of homeownership.
While doing laundry back on March 6, I tossed the second load of the morning into the dryer and tried to crank it up but the drum failed to start turning. The washer and dryer are pretty good machines and have held up well, given that I got them in 2007 or 2008. So, when the dryer took a turn toward the inoperable, those damp clothes then found themselves draped over all the kitchen table chairs and on the generous spread of stair railing that this old house boasts, because I was headed to Virginia the following week and there was no time to get it repaired.
Of course, the first service I called and scheduled did not show up the following Wednesday. The second company I called does not work on LG appliances. So I had to make a smarter choice and call Affordable Appliance Service and get on Mr. Rod Cory’s agenda...while working around more travel.
Mr. Cory came first thing back on March 19, diagnosed quickly that the belt had broken, and he also gave the whole dryer a much needed cleaning and tune-up. He was excellent and I’ll be happy to have him to call on again when the need arises.
The other recent service call involved plumbing. For a year or more, the main kitchen sink faucet has been swinging fairly freely because its securing nut was corroded over but was also loose. Delta had sent me a lifetime guarantee replacement, but only after they’d first told me my damage was not covered and I’d bought another one myself.
There was also a leak in the water supply lines under the wet bar sink, so that also got addressed.
Finally: with all the toilets having reached the ripe old age of 17 or 18, I wanted their innards evaluated and, where necessary, replaced. A couple of them get a little cantankerous (yes, that’s a pun) when there is a heavy presence of guests (or a houseful of amazing UNCSA film students!). I wanted them back on their game for when nature calls your name.
They also flushed the hot water heater tanks and, for the upstairs unit, that’s its first time since it was installed, so it was definitely overdue.
And since this is 2026, and not 1976, an appointment for service is not a guarantee that the service provider will follow through. It took two weeks to get the dryer fixed because of the no-call/no-show by the first appliance repair I contacted. But were you hoping the plumber would be better? Nah. That appointment was made about a week-and-a-half in advance, and two minutes after the scheduled time, as I waited outside in the morning chill to greet the plumber, I was informed nobody was coming. So that got pushed back another week.
I find it interesting that I’m supposed to understand that these things happen—that a technician might fall ill or have a sick child—but the plumbing company itself then acts like this never happens, because they have no back-up plan to manage it. I don’t think the one who runs the business is supposed to have no system in place for what the customer is supposed to accept as a matter of course.
Sometimes this is a blog, and sometimes this is an extended whine. But I can’t help but conclude that what service providers would like to pretend is a fluke begins to feel an awful lot like a philosophy.
Side note: while I very much want to patronize local businesses, that’s becoming increasingly impossible. Is there such as a local business anymore?
After changing pest control companies after my long-time provider was bought by a UK global corporation, I just got word that my “new” pest control was acquired in late 2025 by Lookout Pest Control of Georgia, which owns a lot of local businesses like Ray’s. And Lookout Pest Control is a “portfolio company” of the private equity firm Percheron Capital of San Francisco and New York.
PF Plumbing was founded in 1985 by Paul Freer, but in 2023, the company was acquired (in whole or in part?) by Hidden Harbor Capital Partners and its large corporate entity Air Conditioning Specialists of Georgia. Is that in any way noted or prominent on the PF Plumbing website? Of course not, but if you click on their “Privacy Policy” link, you’ll find yourself magically transported to an ACS page.
Even my love-hate relationship with long-time HVAC provider Webb Heating & Air Conditioning appears to have begun the courtship and dance with being subsumed by a much larger entity: Turnpoint Services, which itself is owned by OMERS (originally, Ontario Municipal Employees' Retirement System) Private Equity of Ontario, Canada.
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