Clean Clothes and a Scary Service Call

When Dan and I first bought our house, the decisions to replace the dishwasher and the refrigerator were no-brainers.  The washer and dryer were a little trickier.  They worked when we moved in, and they've continued to work since then, but they've left a little to be desired.  They were such basic models that the options were basically "on" and "off."  There was no option to adjust the water level, or to wash something on delicate, or to dry something on low.  I'm not terribly picky about how my clothes are washed, but when I just needed a few delicates to be washed gently and dried on low, they just weren't cutting it, and I was starting to worry that all of the high temperatures were eventually going to ruin  half our wardrobe.

Our tax refund gave us a little extra cash to spend, and Memorial Day weekend finally gave us the opportunity to catch some good sales, so we finally had the chance to get a new washer and dryer!  After much research, we settled on the high-efficiency model below, and so far we are pleased.  They were delivered on Friday and I'm so happy to have options when I wash my clothes now!

I had planned to take a picture of our latest new appliances and post them over the weekend, but we ran into a bit of a snafu.  On Sunday, when Dan attempted to plug a vacuum in to the outlet in the laundry room, the outlet stopped working and the laundry room light went out.  Oh dear.  Not good.  When we discovered that other items on the same circuit were working and that it wasn't just a blown fuse, we got a little worried that we could have a wiring problem on our hands.  There are two things I have been a bit afraid of: our first call to a plumber, and our first call to an electrician.  The latter came for us on Monday when we called up an electrician to have them come check it out.

Luckily, our home sale included a home warranty, so we were able to file a claim and pay only a small deductible to have an electrician diagnose the problem and see if the warranty would cover it.  Still we were worried about what they might find. . . . they came today, and luckily, it turns out that it was just some loose wires in the junction box!  Whew!  The electrician tightened up the wires, and we got away with only paying our deductible.  Crisis averted!  And now, thankfully, I can go back to doing laundry without a flashlight.