Recently we discovered that the clothes dryer in the Vicarage was really past its prime - so much so that the dryer drum had worn a hole about five inches long and an inch wide in the inside door frame! It's a wonder it worked at all. A parishioner had an extra one and graciously agreed to donate it. Another parishioner ("M")showed up last evening with the new dryer to swap out the old one and put in the new one. Should have been the work of about fifteen minutes, right![Cue insane laughter here!]
Well, it turns out the old dryer was just small enough to fit through the door to the laundry room, which is a sliding pocket door off the kitchen. No problem there. But of course, the new dryer was about an inch or so too wide an each side! M (the parishioner) and I looked at each other. M suggested we break out the trim on one side of the door in order to get the dryer through. I was dubious, and suggested, since M is a certified electrician, that perhaps we could take the top and front off the dryer and fit it in that way. he agreed to try, and we scraped up the tools needed from down the basement. We disassembled the dryer and in the process gave it a thorough cleaning. M is nothing if not very complete in whatever he does. So we then tried to get it through the door. Of course it wouldn't fit - there were some protruding pieces on either side. So we got both pieces off, and it still wouldn't fit! So we concluded that yes, the trim had to go too. So M took a big screwdriver and pried the trim off on one side - four pieces of wood with probably thirty nails. We then barely got the dryer to fit through the door - basically it was just the metal shell, with the drum, top, and front completely taken apart. Even then it was very tight, and we had to shimmy the dryer through the opening a bit. But it finally got in.
We proceeded to put the dryer together and actually had to do so twice, as the first time we forgot to put back some important pieces of equipment. So we got it hooked up and plugged in, and voila! It started right up. Much quieter than the old one, definitely!
There was only one teensy-eensy problem: no heat. The dryer was merrily spinning away and putting out no hot air. Arrgghhhh! By this time it was 9:30 at night - three hours after the beginning of a fifteen minute job. At that point M had enough and plus had to get an early start to work the next morning. So I have a disassembled dryer in the laundry room!
More as it happens, and many many thanks to M for taking the time to work on this!
RFSJ
5 comments:
Reminds me of the time my one handy friend and I decided to install our apartment-sized dishwasher... measured the width, cut out the cabinet, brought it into the kitchen and discovered it was an inch TALLER than the counter.
Well my friend -- like yours -- was not to be defeated... he cut ramps out of the floor to get it under that counter. We finally got it in, and it wouldn't start!
He pooh-poohed my suggestion that it may just be the latch and fell asleep with the manual on his lap. The next day the store came and confirmed that -- in fact -- there was a wire in the latch disconnected and (thinking the door was open) the machine wouldn't start. So I'm not TOTALLY useless.
happy tumbling!
Oh the perversity of inanimate objects!!
Well, they are perverse, but appliances are a paragon of ease compared to windows-based computers....
RFSJ
This is indicative of the peril that he-who-shall-not-be-named places in the paths of new shepherds. The insidious aspect of this tactic is the often involvement of the innocent and helpful. It is notable that direction of this assault is always oblique, never frontal. The adversary always plays the scene like a chess master. At his best he utilizes a series of simple, but time consuming, setbacks to inexorably guide his victim to some ultimate perfidy. Should the sufferer fail he celebrates. Should the prey prevail he simply collects his tools for yet another go around. The experienced proceed directly exorcism.
What an interesting thing to occur on my birthday! How lucky you are. I've had similar troubles with my apartments in Manhattan, none of which could ever house such a luxury as a dryer. Luckily we had dry cleaners to pick up and deliver (like Benny's in Bay). I'm sure I've seen this episode on some britcom or other (Black Adler?). Very well, have a pleasant evening my friend. -RS
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