The Best Day Of Our Lives

If you asked the three of us whether we felt like we've had good lives so far, I think all three of us would say that we have been blessed, for sure. We've traveled to many wonderful places. We've had fun times with wonderful friends. We're all healthy and happy. But nothing could compare to the day we finally got a washer and dryer.

If you've had to use a laundromat, you understand. Even if you had access to units in your building, you understand. Nothing makes life easier than a washer and dryer. Not even a dishwasher.

We've had some tough stretches. We spent six years in our old apartment without a washer or dryer in our building. Then there was the dark era of no laundromat in our neighborhood, which lasted about six months or so, if memory serves, back when a sales office for an expensive new condo took over the space of the one laundromat in existence within a mile of us. Nothing changes a neighborhood like losing a laundromat.

For a time we took our laundry on the subway to a laundromat near one of the stops on our line. We did this once or twice. It was miserable. Then whenever we had a rental car, we took laundry to the 24-hour laundromat the next neighborhood over. That was miserable, too. Then we finally found a pick-up service that wasn't completely overpriced. We used that until a new laundromat opened in our neighborhood. I was so happy when the new laundromat opened.

But here's the thing about using a laundromat: It sucks. It sucks to bundle up all your dirty shit and traipse down the street to do laundry. I avoided it as much as possible. We'd go four, five or even six weeks between doing laundry. And then it would take me all day to do the laundry. No kidding — about an hour to sort the stuff, 15 or 20 minutes making trips hauling it back and forth to the laundromat, another ten minutes stuffing it into the machines, a half-hour for the cycle (which, I now know, is totally chintzy and doesn't do much for getting stuff clean), another 15 minutes to load the dryers, an hour for that cycle and another 15 or 20 minutes making trips back and forth from the laundromat. Then the folding. I could spend hours folding all those clothes. It was horrible. Horrible.

So the first big ticket item we got for the house was a washer and dryer. Best thing we did. We could have spent $30,000 and it still would have been worth it.

We did have to get a little bit of work done to prepare the basement for the washer and dryer, but we had some great recommendations, and the work went well. First, they took out a utility sink and changed the drainage so it wasn't flowing into the vent pipe:

Kawama, Astoria, Queens

Kawama, Astoria, Queens

Then they ran a gas line for the dryer and a vent out to the backyard:

Kawama, Astoria, Queens

Then it was turkey time:

Kawama, Astoria, Queens

Kawama, Astoria, Queens

We spent the next week just doing laundry. Felt so good. So damn good.

Now I know what people who have washers and dryers think when they see you busting your hump trying to peer out from four weeks of laundry over your shoulder: You sad chump. You sad, sad chump.

Posted: February 4th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: The Cult Of Domesticity | Tags: ,

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