Back in this post, I foreshadowed that the next thing to break was the washer/dryer. Since we had a one-piece washer/dryer, once one broke (in this case: the dryer -- the barrel somehow fell off the back of it!), the whole thing broke. So, of course this happened this summer while we were busy with a bazillion other things. While it was a bit stressful to get a new one, we are so happy with the result!
It started making a weird sound on Thursday (I think this is when the screws fell out), actually broke broke on a Tuesday, and I went out bought new ones that day. As with our previous appliance purchases (microwave and dishwasher), we went to Lowe's. We got a nice deal and paid only $1300 for everything. As you can see above, the options between our old washer/dryer and the new one (the dryer settings are up above the picture -- Sorry) are SO much more improved. Nate even told me he was glad that we met so many years ago in college because it eventually brought him to this amazing washer and dryer. I think that means he likes the washer and dryer over the Chase, but whatevs. They are AMAZING!
So, to get from the before to the after, there was quite a debacle. While they did deliver the washer and dryer the next day (Wednesday), they forgot the mounting bracket. So that meant that we had a washer in the bathroom and a dryer ind the kitchen. Oh, and no door, since the door had to be taken off to get the appliances in/out. But, the fact that they forgot the bracket was actually a blessing, because once we got the old washer/dryer out, we discovered that there was only one outlet behind the washer/dryer and it was only 220V! This was fine for the combination washer/dryer but the separate units we had purchased required a 220V for the dryer and a 110V for the washer. The person who brought the washer said we could "just use an extension cord across the whole bathroom." Yeah, that's not safe. Or convenient. Both Nate and I had to work the next day so we had scheduled a sitter to come, therefore asking the delivery people to come back on Friday (when I was home).
Unfortunately, here are the only pictures I got of the process. The bathroom looked so large without the washer/dryer! And I was finally able to clean the floor underneath the washer/dryer (not cleaned in 5+ years!!). The 110V plug was put in to the right of the 220V plug.
Wednesday evening, I started calling around to see if I could find an electrician who would be able to put in a 110V plug next to the 220V plug. I called a guy who came out that night at 10 or 11 pm. Our downstairs neighbor thought I was going to get killed because Nate was still in lab. The guy came and put in an outlet there super easily (the circuit breaker is on the other side of that wall) and charged a very low price -- for coming an hour after I called him in pretty much the middle of the night. With that in place, we plugged in our washer and the delivery guy came on Friday to attach and place the dryer (and level the whole thing). All in all, it was quite stressful for those two days, but worked out great. We are even more thankful this happened while we were still living in the apartment because having the tenants deal with getting a new washer/dryer and outlet would have been super inconvenient.
