Sudless

On Saturday, about 10 minutes after I started the washing machine, Liam came upstairs and said he smelled something burning in the basement. Colleen and I went downstairs and thought it was the furnace, but our noses led us to the laundry room. The motor on the washing machine had burned out, leaving us with a washing machine full of clothes and water.

We bought the Kenmore Series 80 washing machine and dryer when we bought our first home back in Oregon in 1998. That's 12 years, with about 6 loads a week average (or over 3,700 loads) and just one or two service calls. Unmitigated success in my book.

So, I was totally with Colleen when she said, "Let's go look at some new ones -- it'll be fun." We agreed we should buy a new washer and dryer together so both would be on the same lifespan. As luck would have it, Sears was having a great sale on their appliances. 25% off and free pedestals for front loading machines.

We kind of went overboard. We bought Chili Pepper Red Kenmore Elite front loading machines, complete with steam cycles and all other sorts of great advanced settings. Link to the washer here and the dryer here.

The washer has a 4.5 cubic foot capacity, which is 47% larger than our Kenmore Super Capacity Plus washer from 1998. And, with the higher RPMs of the spin cycle, the dryer will not have to work as hard. Colleen is excited about the steam dryer, since a couple of times a week she uses the dryer to take wrinkles out of clothes. She has a convenient iron phobia.

They get delivered on Saturday, and they'll take the old washer away for $10. We're giving the perfectly functional dryer to my brother- and sister-in law for their house on Cape Cod.

With all the rain we've been receiving, almost the whole state is experiencing flooding problems. I got a call today from my town asking us to not do any laundry until futher notice, so as to not tax the sewers. Well, that'll be no problem.

On the rain note, our house is surrounded by wetlands. They usually are contained pretty well, and at low levels, but this 72 hours of rain have swelled them so much that they have taken over all the wooded areas. Our house is on a hill and not in any danger of flooding, so it's kind of fun to see our landscape change so much. I'll post pictures a bit later.