New Washer/Dryer - Blood, Sweat and Tears

Got a new washing machine and dryer yesterday. We bought the set at Lastman's Bad Boy Furniture in Barrie. They are the Maytag 2000 series washer & dryer, Dark Grey.
While we were waiting for them to be delivered to the Bad Boy Warehouse in Barrie, we had to get the laundry room prepared for both. That meant getting the old washing machine and dryer up the stairs and out the back door onto the deck. At the time it seemed like a simple task. Turns out that the machines were not going to leave without a fight. In lifting the washing machine up the stairs, gripping it from the bottom wasn't a problem. However trying to lift it from the top was almost impossible. There just wasn't any place to hang on to. We had to open the door in the top of the washing machine to find a place to lift from. While the door was opened my hand was gripping the top to balance it on a stair. That's when the door slammed shut right on the fingernail of my middle finger. That didn't feel too good at all! We finally got the washer to the back door, only to find out that the water intakes on the back of the washing machine had to be removed. We managed to shove the washer through the patio doors and onto the backyard with no room to spare on either side.
The dryer, now that was a different story! It wasn't as heavy as the washing machine, but it was more awkward. We got it half way up the stairs and realized that it was a little wider than the washer. We had to fight like hell to get it around the corner in the stairs. In doing so the wall took a couple of dings.
When we had it at the top of the stairs we knew there was no way that it was going to fit through the door. We had to take the back off it to try to get it thin enough to get it through. We took the back off, and still it wasn't small enough. So we had to take the air duct off the back. Still not enough. So we had remove the heater unit from the back. In order to take the heating unit off the back of the dryer, you have to go in through the front and remove the dryer drum and then you can get at the screws to take the heater off. When I removed the drum to get to the heater screws, I found $4.00 and change laying in the lint of the bottom of the dryer.
So when all was said and done and I had all the pieces off to get the dryer narrow enough to get out the back door, I had pretty much dismantled the whole thing. I found it funny because the dryer was still in working order, it was the washing machine that died. Yet the washing machine was pretty much in one piece.

BRINGING THE NEW WASHER / DRYER HOME

We went to the Bad Boy Store for to pay for the two machines. To pick them up we had to drive a few blocks to get to the Warehouse where they were. When you pick up the appliances at the warehouse, they have you go behind the building to the Receiving doors. And this is where I had the problem. Is it written somewhere that anyone picking something up drives a vehicle high enough to reach the receiving bay dock? The loading dock is about 4 feet off the ground. He had the washer/dryer sitting there waiting for us when we pulled up. You think he offered any assistance to get them into our car? NO. he stood there with the paper work in hand with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Not the most professional if you ask me. He stood there the whole time while Steve and I struggled to lift the washing machine down and into the car. Like that wasn't exhausting enough, we still had to get it home and out of the vehicle and into the house so that we could come back and pick up the dryer.
When we got to the house with the Washer, we could not get a hand hold anywhere on the washing machine. We kept picking it up and putting it down. It was awkward as hell. We ended up sliding it across the drive way as close to the house as we could. We had to poke holes in the plastic wrap around the top edge to make a place to hang on to. We finally managed to get it into the house and into the kitchen.
When we got back for the dryer, it was much more simple. Unlike the Washer that was wrapped in plastic, the dryer was in a card board box. It was much easier to hold on to.
After both units were home, we were faced with the daunting task of getting them down the basement stairs and into the laundry room.
The dryer went down with a little fight but it wasn't too bad. Opposite of the way the old ones came up. The Washing Machine was horrible. It was so heavy, and there was no place we could hold on to it. We were just going to ease it down the stairs letting it slide down a stair at a time. It didn't work out that easy at all. It did not want to go around the corner. Steve couldn't grip it to help and I had all the weight on me. I fought and twisted it around every which way I could. It just didn't want to budge. More than a few times I would hear the crunch as the corner of the washer broke into the drywall. We eventually got the thing around the corner of the stairs and let it slide down the stairs. Halfway down the second section of stairs, Steve says " Can we get this thing down without bleeding to death?" I assumed that he had cut his finger. We managed to get it downy he stairs to the point that one corner was on the floor. That's when I looked down at the side panel of the washing machine and saw the red streaks of blood. I looked at the wall beside me and thats when I saw more blood, splattered on the wall. I said to Steve "Where the hell is all the is blood coming from" He said "YOU" and pointed to my middle finger on my left hand. (The same finger that was slammed int the washing machine door earlier.) When I looked at my finger, the blood was dripping like a slow leaking faucet. I also noticed that all the skin was gone from the 3rd knuckles of my middle and fore finger. It looked like I had just been in a bar fight. Once I got the bleeding to slow down, We got the Washing machine almost into the laundry room. This is where the fight continued. The corner of the washing machine smashed into the small drain pipe coming out of the side of the furnace. So we ended up having to fix that.
After going almost a week without a working washing machine we had quite the back up of laundry. So we got started right away as soon as the machines were levelled and hooked up. Just about all the laundry is done now. Having the new Washing machine ALMOST makes doing laundry fun. ALMOST. If only they had one that would fold the clothes after too. That would be great!

APPLIANCE REBELLION of 2011

What else could go wrong in this house? Fri/Sat we had issues with the furnace. While out for Dinner on Friday night, the circuit board on the furnace apparently shorted out and burned. Upon returning from dinner later Friday night the entire house smelled of burning plastic. I rushed around the house looking for some signs of smoke or fire or something burning. I couldn't find anything that looked out of place. I couldn't even see smoke in the air. I had given up on looking. It wasn't till after Steve had come home from driving his sister to the airport. He got home and started investigating the furnace and located the smell. We didn't know the extent of the damage, we just assumed it was the blower motor had burned out. The furnace still turned on and heated up, and then would just itself down. The following day we put in a call to Direct Energy to have them send someone out to look at it. In the mean time we would be without any heat. Direct Energy told us it would be Sunday between 3pm - 8pm before someone could be here. We spent the afternoon sitting around the house with the oven on and the oven door open to let some heat out. Lucky for us there was a guy in the area around 4pm that could come and look at it. When he showed up for the inspection that's when he found the burned out circuit board. He had the parts in his vehicle and was able to swap them out. He showed us the old circuit board, it was charred pretty good. So it was great, because we had heat once more.
After we dealt with the furnace guy, we decided to go out for a few things. One thing being some Febreeze to spray the furnace filter to eliminate the odour of burned plastic that was now recirculating the house. We asked Mikayla to take the whites that were in the washing machine and put them in the dryer. Just another day right…?
Sunday morning, after waking up with a decent hangover, and knowing that I had to work just after 3pm, I went to the basement to get my work shirts out of the dryer. I figured they should be dry by now. I When I opened the dryer, there was a sock hanging in there in front of the opening. It was jammed in between the dryer housing and the drum. Took me a couple of mins to get it pulled out. It was also wet. So I looked at the other clothes in the dryer, they too were wet. And not just damp either. They were sopping wet! There was a puddle in the bottom of the dryer at least an inch deep. How does that happen without someone saying "Oh I think there is something wrong here!"? Apparently the clothes were left soaking wet in the washing machine, and then transferred to the dryer that way. So being so wet and heavy, they didn't dry in the dryer and the sock got jammed in the side and torn to shreds.
So now this meant, maybe something is wrong with the washing machine. If the clothes were that wet going into the dryer, then obviously something happened in the washing machine that caused it, maybe the washer top was left open, or someone opened it during the spin cycle? Oh no, these occurrences were just wishful thinking. After filling the washing machine partially to run a short cycle, the agitator didn't move at all. It just sat there motionless and humming… GREAT! So now I figured ok maybe something is stuck around the shaft under the agitator. So I drain the washing machine and remove the agitator. Yeah thats right, I used tools and stuff. LOL. Everything was fine under the agitator, no stray socks or threads. Turns out, the motor just decided it wasn't going to work anymore!
Steve's mother agreed to give us the money to go out and purchase a new Washer/Dryer. So thats the good thing. I don't do laundromats. I've watched enough TV/Movies to see what kind of crazy shit takes place in your local laundromat. No Thank You. For now I will just wash my underwear at home by hand lol!
Maybe I am seeing conspiracies where they do not exist, but don't you find it kind of weird that in the same weekend there are furnace problems and the washing machine dies, and they are both located 6 feet away from one another? There is some kind of appliance revolt I think thats starting in this house So in two days we had two major appliance malfunctions. I can only imagine whats going to go next. I got my eye on that Dishwasher in case it steps out of line!