Sweetie & Joy » Appliances

Introducing the amazing Mr D (it sucks) (which is a good thing!) (lots of similarly bad humour to follow)

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 10:00:54 +0000

A while back our vacuum stopped sucking. Which sucked. (Ha.) (You must have seen that one coming.) Sweetie tried “taking his air compressor to it” (I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I think he was trying to clear out any dust that had accumulated over time, in an attempt to improve the suckage) but that didn’t help. And as the layer of kitty fur grew thicker and thicker on our carpet (I’m pretty sure that Irwin prides himself on his rather impressive ability to distribute an even blanket of fur wherever he sits), it became apparent: we needed a new vacuum.

And as we chatted about the merits and downfalls of various vacuum cleaners, it became pretty clear: Sweetie (being a gadget-guy) really wanted a Dyson. As did I, truth be told (both my mom and my mother-in-law have Dysons, and both of them pretty much hug their vacuums every night before bed), but I was having a big problem justifying the cost. (If a Dyson was a car, it’d be a BMW, and we’re most definitely K-Car kinda folk.) And then we made the discovery that would make everything allll better: we still had gift cards from our wedding (like, 3.5 years ago) for the Bay (where they do indeed sell Dysons) to use up, as well as a much-appreciated monetary Christmas gift from Sweetie’s parents that was originally earmarked for a new barbecue (but that we quickly agreed would be better used for a new vacuum since our barbecue, albeit archaic, does indeed still function pretty well. Our vacuum? Not so much.) A little happy dance ensued.

After all the requisite research into which Dyson would be the best Dyson for us (upright vs canister, big vs little, pet-fur-approved vs standard model) we decided on the DC 37 Animal canister vac. And after many phone calls to various stores around Southwestern Ontario, and a quick trip to the Bay store in Burlington, we purchased what appears to be the only Dyson DC 37 Animal currently available within about a two hour radius of our home. Everyone was sold out (including the Bay store in Burlington, once we snatched up our little bundle of joy.) I’m assuming that’s a good sign, right?

And so, without further delay, please allow me to introduce you to the good Mr Dyson…

He’s pretty eh? We love him. :) And, he’s Sweetie-sized – the wand part elongates by almost two feet (making vacuuming a much more pleasant experience for my 6’4″ Sweetie.)

The cord retracts, which is also pretty awesome. You just press this button…

…and poof! No cord to wind or store. :)

Speaking of the cord, some reviews we read online mentioned that the cords on Dysons are rather short, but we didn’t really find this with our Mr Dyson. Albeit, our house is rather tiny, but we were able to do all the carpet on our main floor without once having to move where this little dude was plugged in.

The vacuum wand part (I’m pretty sure that’s not what it’s called, but you know what I mean, right?) attaches to the base for storage (since the wand part is otherwise a little unruly and doesn’t stand up on its own), so when all clicked together, it looks like this…

…and this from the front…

…he’s rather cute, non? :)

Another feature we like? The beater-brush is really easily removed if it gets gucked up with stuff. Have I ever mentioned that Sweetie has really long hair? Yep. He does. ‘Nuf said.

So yes – Mr D is indeed pretty. And, yes, that’s important in a vacuum. (Well, to me, at least.) And he has some nice little handy features too. But, MOST IMPORTANTLY, he sucks. A LOT. I won’t post the picture I took of what came out of our tiny little area rug in the living room on the inaugural vacuum with Mr Dyson, but let’s suffice it to say that it was indeed gross. GROSS. And the carpet even looks better and cleaner now. I’m totally sold.

Of course, mere moments later, someone was back at work, making things furry again (sigh… It’s a good thing they’re cute.)

So there you have it. :) Likely way more info than you ever needed/wanted to know about our fancy-pants new vacuum, but I’m just SO HAPPY with it that I had to share. We’ll see how he holds up over time to three very furry cats and a Sweetie who works in construction. With Mr Dyson’s five year warranty, I have high hopes. Updates will follow!

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Project Laundry Room: Done-ish (finally some after shots!)

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:00:22 +0000

A few months back we had a (very minor, but still rather scary!) fire in our basement laundry room (actually, technically the fire was in the washing machine itself) that started a bit of a mini laundry room reno, because:

a) the laundry room was dark and dreary

b) due to its apparently flammable nature, we decided the old washer might not be the safest appliance on the block

c) because our dryer was nearly as archaic as our washing machine, we figured we may as well buy an entirely new pair (my first ever new, and not just new-to-me, appliances – yay!)

d) see point a :)

The whole shebang ended up seemingly taking for-ev-ver. There were (rather expensive) decisions on new machines to be made (read about that HERE.) And then there was the sad sad moment when I noticed a scuff on top of my brand new shiny washing machine (I whined a wee bit about that HERE.) I even succumbed to some Pinterest-inspired daydreams over what my little laundryroom could look like (HERE.) And then there was painting and patching and shelf-hanging and all that fun stuff in between.

BUT, I’m happy to say she’s done. Well, done-ish. Our little laundry room doesn’t look A THING like my inspiration images (I’m blaming the smallness and lack of windows for that!) but it looks a lot better. :)

Here’s where we started (prepare yourself for overall laundry room ugliness)…

Ack, eh? Not a pleasant (little) room for doing ANYTHING, let alone something already as arduous as laundry.

A couple coats of Benjamin Moore Gossamer Blue paint (leftover from my dining room painting project – aka free paint), a shelf, and a few other additions later (baskets! I love baskets!) and it’s a far more pleasant place to be…

For the record, the room is TINY. In case you’re wondering why all of my laundry room pics only show a few feet of the room at a time. Without removing walls (which I’ve considered, but I don’t think Sweetie would approve) this is just the way it is! Here are a few other angles (for the really ambitious, I’m pretty sure if you cut and pasted all of these pics together, you’d get a pretty complete picture of the room!)

I painted the wooden pedestal our laundry tub is perched upon (and bolted to, we found out!) Just made things look a lot cleaner (Snowfall White paint fixes everything!)

The shelf is just a piece of knotty pine that Sweetie picked up and put a routered edge on for me (that Sweetie is pretty handy, you know!) and then I gave ‘er a good painting. It’s amazing how a little organization can make a laundry room a much friendlier place!

I repurposed a couple old jars (leftover from my pre-Slom-ed pantry) to hold paint brushes and that sort of thing. And the white basket holds extra roller refills quite nicely!

And, of course, no room in our house is complete without a picture of one of the cats. (We’re a little weird like that.) This picture was taken over 10 years ago (when Jacob was just a young lad!) with our very first ever digital camera.

I hate ironing. A whole lot. But at least my ironing devices are nicely organized in the newly organized laundry room. It almost makes me want to iron. (OK. I’m totally fibbing. The room could be clad in marble and platinum and I’d still avoid my iron. But at least it has its own spot now. Where it will probably stay, untouched, for a really really long time.)

As the wife of an electrician who seems to collect electrical stuff throughout the day, I was constantly making little piles of marrettes and screws and other random electrical things (ie: I have no idea what they are, but I’m pretty sure Sweetie uses them for something) on the washer. Oh. And piles of change too. Because apparently electricians carry a lot of change around in their pockets. These jars (also leftover from the Slom-ification of our pantry) have meant the end of the random change/doodad piles. Thus making me a rather happy electrician’s wife!

We even replaced the light in the room (er, rather, the naked hanging lightbulb) with a sweet (and inexpensive – I think the globe part was only $5) light fixture. I don’t have any pictures of the light installed in the room itself (since, well, that would involve turning off the light, which would plunge the room into darkness, which would make picture taking a bit of a challenge!) but here she is before Sweetie got all electrician-ish and got her all functioning and stuff…

(I think the design kinda looks like lace. Prettiest $5 light ever!)

And there you have it! My tiny little laundry room (divided up into many many images.) I mean, I wouldn’t want to hang out in there for HOURS, or anything like that, but it’s better at least, and (quite importantly!) neither dark, nor dreary now (such a pretty paint colour could never be dreary!) The best part (I guess, from a practical position) is that we are pretty sure this washer will operate sans fire. (Excuse me while I go knock on wood.) And it gets to do so in a cheery little room (because I’m sure that having pretty teal walls makes my washer happy too.)

Have a great weekend all!

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Project Laundry Room: Part Two-ish (one step forward, two steps back)

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:00:35 +0000

A happy update! My eagerly-awaited and much anticipated (isn’t that a line from something?) (I think it is…) (anyway…) washer/dryer delivery took place over the weekend. Hooray! Well, kinda. I was in bed while the whole move-in (new appliances) and move-out (old appliances) took place – let’s just say it was a long dark day in migraineville. :( When I finally managed to drag myself out of bed, I ran (quite literally) downstairs to soak in (ha ha – funny washer pun) the view in my laundry room. That’s when I saw this…

Scuffy-wuffy was my washer

Yes. That’s right. My washer was scuffed. (Insert a very sad sigh here.) Right on top. Right near the front. Right about where I would be looking EVERY SINGLE TIME I do laundry. Like the mean old movers had dragged something rough and metal across my lovely and perfect new washer. :(

I won’t lie: some tears may have actually fallen over my now less-than-perfect-washer. I KNOW… it’s just a machine. And I know… it’ll likely get banged up over time, but this is the first time I’ve EVER (ev-ver) had my own, brand spanking new appliances. Purchased full price (kinda, minus the sale), not scratch-and-dent, not hand-me-downs, not new-to-me. New. And perfect. At least until I noticed the scuff. I kinda freaked out just a little (shhhh… don’t tell.)

To my rescue? The fine folk at Home Depot. One rather sheepish phone call later (during which I admitted that the scuff is only about an inch long, and mentioned that my hubby thought I was a little OCD for getting a wee bit upset over a scuff) and I have a replacement washer being delivered next week. Yes. Really. :) Brenda, the Home Depot appliances-section lady: you are my hero. She empathized with me. She stated that new appliances should be perfect when delivered to the customer. She agreed that the scuff-spot could rust over time (my main concern.) She was awesome. She has a big hug coming her way the next time I venture into HD. :)

In the meantime, we were told to go ahead and use the new (slightly imperfect) washer. And I’m loving it. Loooooving it. We actually stood there and watched the washer go through the entire wash cycle with our first load of laundry. (Yep – we’re big huge losers like that.) It’s stupidly quiet, and sings a happy little song when the load is clean. I do the laundry dance every time I put a new load in (um, yeah… really.) I’m so in love with these melodious and fantastical machines. And will be even more in love with the non-scuffed version of my washer coming later this week. :)

In the meantime, here’s a quick peek at the laundry room progress to date. Shelves still need to go up above the machines, and the new light needs to be installed still too (the hanging bare light bulb just isn’t fitting for such pretty machines) but the walls are coated in lovely Gossamer Blue-ness…

Laundry room loveliness to date

Big happy sigh. All’s well that ends well, right? More progress updates to follow. :)

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Washer woes (when your washer starts smoking, it’s either been hanging with the wrong crowd, or it’s just time to say goodbye)

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:22:19 +0000

So, my washer has turned against me. In rather spectacular fashion, in fact (it’s a bit of a drama queen like that.) Suffice it to say it’s a little unnerving to suddenly smell smoke coming from your laundry room mid-Saturday-lunch-grilled-cheese sandwich. The entire basement had filled with smoke by the time I realized that something, um, wasn’t quite right. There was no actual fire that I could see (insert relieved sigh here), but the smoke (stinky smoke, might I add) was enough to let me know the washer was done. DONE. Like my dinner.

So last Saturday’s events inspired Project Laundry Room. Project Laundry Room has taken up the better part of my (non-working/-sleeping) week. Project Laundry Room has two parts:

1. Find functional (and, well, pretty LOL) washing machine/dryer combo

2. Make laundry room a happy cheery place

It’s been a long week of appliance shopping/researching. Washing machines are hard! I’d much rather shop for a nice refrigerator or a snazzy stove any day. Washers and dryers aren’t nearly as fun. With a fridge, you can kinda tell if it’s going to meet your needs just by looking at and in it. Open the doors. Are there shelves? Great. Are they spillproof? Awesome. Does it get cold when plugged in? Perfect. Sold. The same is true for stoves. (Does it get hot? Yes? Ok – it works.) Washers and dryers are way more complex. There are front loaders. Top loaders. Energy efficient machines. Motors that are belt driven or something else (can’t remember the term, but let’s call them not-belt-driven.) Machines that do something (not sure what) with steam. There are a gazillion different functions (got the plague running rampant through your house? There’s a “sanitary” setting for just that!) It’s pretty crazy. And the price points vary so much too. Don’t care if your machines are energy efficient or have decent ratings online? You’ll pay waaaay less. Unfortunately (for our pocketbook) Sweetie is an electrician (and therefore all about energy consumption/saving) and I’m a closet environmentalist (same consumption/saving dilemma), so in the end we went with the best machines, with the best reviews, we could afford (spread over 12 monthly payments, interest free, of course. :) Got everything all set up last night purchase-wise, and they arrive next Saturday. CAN’T WAIT.

Here’s what we got…

My pretties :)

They’re by LG (which every sales person we spoke with said were absolutely awesome machines.) They aren’t the high-end LG machines (holy pricey!), but the reviews online for this set were really encouraging. Just in case, though, we got extended warranties on them both (I’m the front-load guinea pig for my family), so if they self-destruct in the next 5 years, we’re covered. And the motor on both is covered for 10 years, so I think we’ve pretty much wrapped ourselves in warranty-bubblewrap with these machines.

We didn’t get the pedestals that are optional with the machines. At $200 per (so $400 for the set) (I rock at math btw) we couldn’t justify the extra cost for options that basically just make the machines sit up higher. I’ve seen blog posts about making your own pedestals (which could absolutely be an option down the line if we find we hate stooping to get into the washer) but for now, we’ll risk it. We stoop right now to get into our dryer, so I can’t imagine we’re suddenly going to develop back issues from the second stoop per load. I’m most worried about Sweetie (did I mention he’s 6’4″?) but he says he’ll be fine, so we’ll test the waters sans pedestals for now. Plus the pedestals almost make the machines too high to use the top for folding on and such (which, with our tiiiiiny little laundry room, is a necessary function.)

I’ve never ever had new appliances of my own. And I’ve never had matching appliances either. I kinda want to just pet them a bit. I’m in love. :) I mean, ter-rust me, I’m in sticker shock too. But mostly I’m in love. Sweetie says to look at these as an investment. It’ll increase the value of our house (when we go to sell in a couple/few/several years.) And he’s probably right. The old (50% busted at the moment) and mismatched washer/dryer definitely weren’t a selling feature when we bought this house. Hopefully someone will fall in love with our tiiiiiny little laundry room when we eventually list.

Which segues really nicely into Part Two of Project Laundry Room: make the tiiiiiny little laundry room pretty. Part One accomplished, I start Part Two today. So off I go to take before pics (brace yourself for my before pics btw. NOT PRETTY. Kinda scary in fact.) Photos and details to come. :)

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