gitterdone

I got my xmas early today when Sears delivered the new dryer. Of course, it wasn't without cost. When I approved the replacement, they told me to go to the SEARS website and look at the model they were going to purchase for us (they = home warranty company) to make sure that the measurements were OK. This is important, they said, because this is non-returnable, non-refundable. I'm thinking "It sits out in the open, not in a closet or enclosed space, how could it possibly not fit?" so I called back and said, "Yeah yeah, looks great. Gimme."

Today the delivery guys show up and I wave them around to the side door so they can take it straight down to the basement. The guy whips out his tape measure and measures the doorway. Uh....uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh. He says, "I think this door is going to have to come off. In fact..." he looks down the stairs and measures the width of the stairway at its narrowest point. "I think you need a flatback dryer. This ain't gonna fit." no no no no no no no.

"Well, this is a warranty replacement and its non-returnable, so its gotta fit. Tell me, what do we need to do?"

He looks at the stairs. "Well, I guess if this could come off it just might fit." He's pointing to the sort of mantle-like piece of wood the runs along at the top of the staircase. I don't know how else to explain it....maybe as a "ledge" where I tend to set tools and other stuff that needs to go downstairs. Anyway, I get my hammer and give it a few whacks on the bottom lip and up it comes. "Well....OK." He says. I take off the door as well while he and his partner uncrate the dryer. By the way, at that moment it was starting to actually snowing the first real snow we've had this year. The attach their lifting straps and whatnot and start to move the dryer in. The round the corner and are starting to ease down the stairs when they stop. "It's not wide enough," the one guy says. "Whaddya mean? It looks like you're already on the way down?" I say. "Naw, it's starting to rub, it won't fit. We could force it but it'll get scratched."

"Scratched, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Will it dry clothes?"
"Well....sure."
"Then f-ing scratch it. I've got a 5 month old baby who's diapers we've been drying on the damn radiators for a week and a half. If you guys showed up with a blow-torch I would have been happy. I don't care if it has scratches, just et it down there. Christ, the OLD dryer was crap when we bought the house, a few scratches aren't going to bother me. I'm the only one who's going to see the thing anyway."
"OK, here we go."
And the pushed and there was the noise of scraping, but it turned out mostly to just be paint and wood on the stairs. The dryer was delivered to my laundry room and they gave me a power cord. Yeah, weird how dryers don't come with the power cord attached. Then the guy looks, "Oh, you've got a 3-wire outlet....this is a 4 wire cord." Uuuuuuuh.
"No problem, I'll go get a 3-wire from the truck." whew.
The new dryer is beautiful.
I put on the power cord, the feet, an d set about trying to level it. Then I attach the vent from the old one. Its tight, but it works. Probably want to get some new venting, but that's no biggie.
I level it, make some adjustments to the feet and plug it in....
...except that the cord doesn't reach the socket. No. no no no no no.
So I move the dryer enough that the cord just reaches and, of course, the vent pipe comes off. I climb back there and reattach vent. And find I'm trapped between a tightly stretched power cord and a tightly stretched exhaust vent. I end up doing some limbo action to get myself out of there. The dryer is about a foot more forward than the washer and, in its new location I'm going to need to adjust the feet again....but anyway, I power it up and it works. Smells like burning something, but apparently that's to be expected on a new heating element.

So, next small project...replace the ledge in the stairs. And get a longer power cord and exhaust vent.