As a bit of background, I have to tell you about something fairly mundane… a while back, my dad got married, as you may remember. My new stepmom had recently bought a new washer/dryer set, and when she moved from her house into my dad’s house, she brought the washer & dryer with them. They thus had an extra washer and dryer. Our new house came with a washer and dryer, but the washer was a low-end model and the dryer was older than dirt. So, a couple months ago when we visited my dad in Buffalo, we brought Frank’s uncle’s trailer and brought my dad’s washer and dryer back with us. We didn’t install them right away because we had a bunch of other house stuff going on and there was no urgent need.
Then our older-than-dirt dryer stopped drying, and we felt it fortuitous we had a replacement in the garage. And since we were taking the dryer out, we figured we’d put the newer washer in, too. And since we were moving the old appliances out, we figured we’d paint the room and put down new vinyl tile to cover the funky old vinyl tile that was in there.
We moved the washer and dryer out, and discovered that the drywall behind the washer and dryer was all busted up and moldy and rotting out, and the insulation behind it was moldy. So, the painting/flooring/move in new appliances project became a drywall/insulation/painting/flooring/move in new appliances project.
Then we decided since we were doing everything else anyway, we might as well go ahead and fix the completely funky plumbing that existed in there. (Our laundry room is also our utility room, and the boiler and hot water heater also reside there.) For example, because of the way the plumbing was, with the expansion tank on the pipe where the water comes out of the water heater instead of on the line where the water goes in, turning on cold water in our house would create a pressure disparity in the cold water pipe and hot water would siphon back from the hot water tank into the cold water pipes and after 10 seconds of cold water, we’d get a minute of hot water out of the cold water tap. So, so, so annoying. And on top of all that, the utility sink in there was ridiculously wobbly and just stained and beat up, so we decided we’d put a new one in.
So, the drywall/insulation/painting/flooring/move in new appliances project became a plumbing/drywall/insulation/painting/flooring/move in new appliances project.
Somewhere in there, Frank and his dad decided to replace the window in the room, too. Luckily they’ve further decided that the window can wait until the rest of the room is done.
We have therefore spent the last two weeks in various states of upheaval. We had no water in the house at all for 24 hours while all the plumbing got worked on. Then, the hot water heater that got moved out of the room stayed out of the room until the drywall and painting and flooring all got done, so we had no hot water for at least a week (but luckily we’ve been able to shower at my in-laws’ next door).
But I helped my father-in-law with the drywall and insulation (and proudly did all the insulation myself). I did most of the painting. Frank and I worked together on the new floor. The hot water tank got reinstalled. The utility sink is assembled and ready to be installed. After all that work and countless necessary trips to Home Depot to get all the random stuff we needed along the way, the laundry room was finally ready for a washer and dryer.
And then, Frank and his dad went to put in the washer and dryer… and realized that the dryer is an electric dryer. Which was not the type of dryer it was replacing. I had assumed my dad had a gas dryer, because there’s a gas line right behind his washer and dryer. But, no. I’m not quite sure why my husband didn’t realize my dad’s dryer was electric, since he helped my dad load it into the trailer. You’d think him noticing the wonky plug and lack of a gas pipe would lead to some brilliant conclusion. I seems I had said it was a gas dryer, and he holds me in high enough esteem that even with evidence to the contrary, he just took my word for it. Sweet man, but that didn’t help us on Sunday when we couldn’t put the dryer in because we don’t have one of those 240-volt plugs, or the spare amperage, to install an electric dryer.
Which led, somewhat happily I must admit, to the majority of Sunday picking out the new front-load washer and dryer we wanted, and the first part of Monday actually buying them. It’s a model that was JUST discontinued by the manufacturer…. but only in white. They still sell a spiffy blue color of the exact same model, and we’d originally picked out those blue ones… but finding the white ones on sale for like $500 less for the set sort of made the need for spiffy blue seem not so important. We already bought the pedestals, and the washer and dryer will be delivered and installed tomorrow.
I. cannot. wait. another. minute.
Ramblings of a pseudo intellectual 