Lather, rinse, repeat...and repeat...and repeat...

When we moved into our house we knew our washer and dryer needed to be replaced. They were the oldest appliances and we were lucky to get another year out of them. When the washer finally kicked the bucket, we decided it was best to replace the pair.

Our washer and dryer are actually in a closet in our kitchen, hidden by a pair of bi-fold doors. Before we purchased anything we measured the length of the closet so we knew how much space we were working with. An hour later, we had picked out our dream washer and dryer. We anticipated they might be a tight squeeze into the existing space but we figured we would deal with that should the time come.

The store delivered everything and they stacked them on top of one another (we had dreams of extra space for storage.) Mike went to close the door and---nothing. We forgot to measure the depth of the closet. I got home from work and we unstacked them. Nothing.

I will spare you the details, but the next few days were very frustrating. The store agreed to let us return everything but no other machines fit the measurements we needed. Nothing. Mike talked to people at all of the home renovation stores about extending the doors out a few inches or building out the walls. In the end, we decided we would rather keep the machines we loved and take the doors off the closet.

Mike went to hook everything up and...nothing. The dryer hose wouldn't fit. The previous owners had just shoved the hose into an existing hole and the drywall had worn down. Fearing a fire hazard, we asked the store to come back to reinstall but they were no help. A few more days, a whole lot of swear words and a small fortune later, Mike somehow had everything assembled. I don't know what magic he worked, but behold our beauties:

Front-loading! Energy efficient!

They sing songs when the cycle is done. They have fancy buttons and lights. Makes doing chores a whole lot more entertaining.

Action shot!

We still have a little problem. We took the doors off the closet so when you turn the corner of the kitchen you see this:

We have a vision of shelves and storage baskets and maybe a bamboo blind to cover it all. But one step at a time...we're just happy to have clean clothes!