Fun with appliances and tight space continued...

So the installation is not finished. Why? Well before they left, the Lowes guys said we'd need a 6' dryer cord to reach the plug from the other side of the closet. So I had Aaron pick one up on his way home. Only problem... the cord we already had that didn't reach WAS a 6' cord. We would need an 8' to 10' foot cord. So Thursday morning, I went on the hunt. I found some 10' online, but they weren't UL listed and well, Aaron wasn't gonna touch them with a 10' pole. I scored a big goose egg calling around to all the local specialty stores and a couple of those guys even told me that 10' dryer cords don't exist!

Finally, some kind soul on Facebook posted a link to a 10' dryer cord at a supplier I hadn't seen before. The description did not say it was UL listed, so I called them up. A very nice man confirmed it for me - it was UL listed! It could be ours for just $30 + shipping.

I told Aaron of my success, thrilled to have found a solution. Which is when he said he'd rather move the plug. Which involves electrical work AND drywall. Ugh. So right now we've got the washer/dryer set up in the middle of the closet - it had to be done, I was out of socks.

It's half-in, half-out of the closet so Aaron can move around behind it.


And the garage door JUST clears it, so you have to skirt around it to get out that way.


Did I mention that we still don't know for sure that we'll even be able to get the closet doors back on? And that was sort of the whole purpose of getting a pair instead of just replacing our washer...

Fun with appliances and tight spaces

This is our 5 year old washer/dryer set.

On Saturday morning, the washer started making a weird noise while I was doing a heavy load of towels. So I put in a light load when Aaron got home to show him the noise and he determined that it was the rear bearing. It hell by Sunday morning. Aaron discovered out that fixing it himself would cost at least half the price of a new washer and take him 12+ hours.

We went washer shopping Sunday afternoon.

And that's when the logistical fun began... Our current set barely fits in our laundry closet width-wise. We had to push everything over about 1 1/2" just so the detergent tray could clear the doorway. Well, we discovered that all the new models (all brands we saw) now had trays that were flush to the left side. The only way to assure that we could fit it into our little closet is to stack it - and our old dryer isn't stackable. So we purchased a new set. And the new set is 5" deeper than the old set, so it may not fit in the closet with the doors attached. At minimum, we're going to have to move the closet door out to the far edge of the frame.

Here is our new set after the Lowes guys left - still pulled out so Aaron could finish up the install.


More to come when we finish the install...