Group 6 2 minutes Read

spring cleaning

Lauren Zerbey

Maybe it’s early nesting, the change of seasons or Kyle’s recent trip to the allergy doctor, but we spent all of last weekend purging, organizing and cleaning our little house. (We also took lots of new photos, so look out for that in the coming weeks!)

One of the items on the to-do list was to have our ducts professionally cleaned. The ductwork was installed with the rest of our heating system 3 1/2 years ago, but between remodel projects and a large shedding dog, it was due for some attention. Clean ducts not only extend the life of your furnace, but they also help keep contaminants out of the forced air system (a major plus for people with allergies). The whole process took a couple of hours and scared the bejesus out of Felix (we actually thought he ran away at one point but he finally came out of hiding later that day).

The truck basically acts as a giant vacuum, with a large hose that ran down the side yard, through the basement door and connected to where the return air ties into the furnace.

Now that we’re breathing easier, let’s move on to the next basement topic – laundry. With a baby on the way and Kyle’s newly discovered allergy to dust mites, we’ve also been considering upgrading our washer and dryer. Our current mismatched set came with our home and appear to be from the late ’90s. As you can see, they are one of the few remaining relics from the last 5+ years of remodeling.

Although I doubt they’re that efficient when it comes to water usage, we haven’t been able to rationalize replacing them because they still work. The downside of course is that they’re small (compared to front-loaders) and with a center spindle (agitator?) you can’t wash large items like comforters and pillows (which gets back to the allergy issue).

So ok, let’s get some new ones! But of course we just can’t swap them out for something new. No, no…that would be too easy. You see, whoever installed the original units seems to have taken the most amount of shortcuts possible when it comes to plumbing and electrical. So we’ll need to run new plumbing and wiring and since we eventually plan to finish out this half of the basement, we might as well build out the furring wall while we’re at it (which would be an extension of the media/electrical panel you see above).

Sigh…nothing is easy in remodeling, is it? Damn you old house!

But back to appliances. It seems like the hands-down favorite is the Whirlpool Duet. What do you guys think? Any particular models that you love? Also, any tips for scoring amazing deals? Let’s hear it.

Finally, on a somewhat related basement note I thought it would be fun to do a side-by-side comparison of “mission control” and how it’s evolved over the years.

On the left, you have the 2006 version which consisted of a few fuse boxes and some questionable electrical decisions (we actually had to have the electrical service that comes into the house upgraded before we could move in. I don’t think our little house had seen a computer before). Fast forward to 2012 and we’ve got ourselves a pimped out wall o’ power. It’s pretty, right? Our architect-electrician does good work.