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Airing Out The Laundry…

Every year, Wifey™ and I set out on a new adventure in home improvements. Typically we’ll set aside a few thousand dollars for a home improvement project and then after months of planning, we’ll just get working on it. This time around it was the addition of a laundry center in our small abode.

We have this space under the stairs that was outfitted with a half-bath, when we moved in. It’s near the front entrance, across the hall from the main service box that feeds electricity into the house. When we first saw the place, we knew that this would make the perfect space for a laundry center. Three years later, our vision became reality.

It all started off when we gutted the half-bath and put new flooring down. The flooring project actually began with this laundry room project in mind, but extended to the attached entry hall and then to the kitchen to keep some kind of uniformity. We also hired a plumber to come in and make some adjustments to the bathroom sink plumbing so that it would be suitable for operating a clothes washer. Initially we considered removing the sink completely, but the more we thought about it, having a sink in the laundry area would be helpful.

Next came the electrical work which involved wiring up a 240V outlet. It sounds more difficult than it actually turned out to be, because we had 240V service in the adjacent hall closet. That outlet was actually service for a dryer a previous owner had installed. The work was simply a matter of bringing the wiring up the wall, into the crawl space above the hall and then straight into the laundry room. A quick connection and we were in good shape.

The next phase involved feeding a dryer vent and this also turned out to be less harrowing than one would think. I was able to knock out part of the wall that goes directly under the stairs and, using a four-foot piece of venting, feed it through the front of the house where I’d previously knocked out a hole in the stucco. Once installed it looked like it’d been there forever. And a quick drywall repair job in the laundry room finished that part of the job off.

With the room ready for some appliances and a new sink, we placed our order for the only washer/dryer pair that would fit into our 24-inch doorway. We could have probably widened the doorway, but it could have compromised the staircase and landing above. Our order was completed online through a home improvement center whose name could rhyme with Blowes and the ETA stated a 14-17 day delivery.

Our experience with this particular retailer was less than exemplary. Not once throughout the process did we get a call to notify us of the progress with our order. Wifey™ called them after two weeks to find out the status and we were told that they’d have to check on the order and call us back. Of course, no one called us back. A second call yielded similar information, as did a third. Throughout these conversations we were told numerous stories, none of which were similar to the person we’d spoken to previously.

One person told us that the warehouse had refused the order, another person told us that the delivery person left because they didn’t want to wait and another promised that that the order would arrive Friday, for delivery on Saturday. Mind you, no one ever called us to let us know. And… they couldn’t even confirm that OUR appliances were on the delivery truck. Yet, they promised we’d have our washer and dryer by Saturday.

A month later… our washer and dryer arrived on that Saturday. Minutes after the delivery truck left, the store called to confirm that our order would be arriving on Monday. Erm.

Regardless, we installed the appliances ourselves and Wifey™ has been doing laundry ever since. I’ll have to link to some photos once I get a chance to take some.

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