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