Wash me and I Shall be Whiter than Snow

Before we got sick, our washing machine broke. We've been without a washing machine for about a month now.The boys really couldn't care less, and for those weeks we were sick we all pretty much just wore our pajamas, so we've been doing alright. But you can only do your laundry at a friend's house so many times(like, once) before it gets awkward.

Yesterday we had a fix-it friend come work on it, to no avail. So Dad made the last minute decision to take the actual machine to the big city and have it worked on there. Now, understand, we live in a hundred year old house, not made to hold washing machines. The laundry area, when it was added on sometime along with the (gasp, yes, we have indoor plumbing)bathroom, was originally under the second staircase off the kitchen. To get the machine in that space, the original owners had to cut out and then replace the wood trim of the doorway.

Now, when we bought the house we inherited that same and by now rather old washing machine which was very much stuck in that area. About seven years ago, we had a baby and decided to make things even more interesting by taking out the second stairway and make it into a pantry, since it was always covered in stuff anyway, and we bought a new washing machine as well. The old one was a good twenty years old at least, and I seem to recall it had the intermittent problem of gushing water all over the floor. So, at that point, to get it out and the new one in, not wanting to cut out the woodwork, we had the stairs tore out and had to drag it through the completely empty pantry-to-be. Today, our pantry is very much fuller, and that is still and always will be the only way to get a washing machine in or out to the only place a washing machine can ever go in our old house. This is probably more detail than you've ever wanted. Anyway, last night we had to take out three whole shelves in the pantry and completely empty the floor so the washing machine could go.

We're still waiting the verdict on the fixability of our machine. I pray we won't have the expense of buying a new machine; we've already invested a bit into having this one fixed. Meanwhile, our fancy plates and canned good sit stacked on the kitchen floor while we wander about in our unwashed clothes. Please, no visitors.