Conquering the laundry.

Here's a shot of my little bathroom. The shower is cool, two sliding glass doors meet to make a corner of it, something I'd never seen before. I discovered its reallyeasy to clean and the black bits around the caulking you see here cleaned up with just a little scrubbing and hot water. Something else new is the way the toilet flushes - it has a little knob on top you pull up for flushing, no push down handle here. The sink here is definitely bigger than the kitchen sink too.

However the most unique thing in my bathroom is the washer/dryer. Now when i saw this place advertised on craigslist, I'll admit it caught my eye that it included a washer/dryer in it, not many little apartments do. I should have paid a tad bit more attention. Theres just one machine that does the work of both, and you can see it on the left there. Its a Malber WD 1000, and am I ever grateful the instruction booklet is here.

So on moving day, I'll confess there was some wet wash that came with me - a few things that just didn't make it through the dryer when we packed the last things out. As we're moving boxes, trying to assemble the bed (it was trickier than it looked) and we were starting to turn our attention to Lunch... we had this laundry to finish doing.

I recall handing the instructions over and several folks crowding around the Malber. A couple of folks gave it a try, we did manage to get it to spin and to wash the load again... but the dryer continued to elude us. We finally gave up shortly after lunch and went on with our day. Once it was all completed, We returned the U-Haul, did some last minute cleanup at the farmhouse and came back to the piles of boxes. It was then that Jp managed to determine how the Malber worked. We had to put the laundry through another wash cycle, but we did get it to switch over and then dry afterwards. (Success - Yeah!)

The following week I did some research online. I read and reread the instructions. There must be a way to just dry things - especially since it said it could wash 10 pounds of clothes, but the dryer worked better with just 5-7 pounds of clothes. That seemed to indicate to me it could do a "dry only cycle" even if I couldn't figure it out. I did discover an extra spin helped it dry more, and keeping the spin speed under 700 would reduce wrinkles. I fingured out orange was for more sturdy stuff, the blue was more gentle, and the gray was the for the delicates. I could wash only... I could lightly wash and dry... I could spin & dry...but the dry only was my quest.

It was two days of trial and error and it suddenly hit me (DUH, i can be so clueless!) Malber has a web site, I had looked at it and there were no extra instructions there, so I had crossed it off my list as a place for help... but when I went back and looked at the web page again, they had an email address. Lo and behold, when iIsent a note out to them, the next day I recieved an email back with very simple directions, the wash dial need to be in the stop position, except only the stop position at 6 o'clock on the dial would work for a dry only cycle. I tried it that night and sure enough, it worked. I sent a thank you note out to the Malber folks right away. I just wish the instruction booklet had been more helpful. I'll leave a note with the instructions when I go for the next tenant, thats for sure.

Anyhow, thats been my excitement - figuring out how the Malber washer/dryer works. It doesn't hold much, it does seem to take a while to work, and if you over load it it wrinkles like you wouldn't believe. However it is supposed to be very energy efficient and as a front loader, uses very little water for each load. I can do a small load every couple of days and that seems to be working out fine for me now. In Reenacting season, I might find it helpful to stop at a laundromat or something, but I've got a few months to figure that out yet. Anyhow, here's a glimpse of another corner of the new place for you.

I have a new home!!

I have found an apartment and will be moving next week to the new place. Anyone up for moving a few boxes??

UPDATE

I am ever so thankful to Marc, Eddie, Jp, Sue & Rob Rowell, Wally, Debbie, Lydia, Johanna, Rich, & Richie for all the help moving things out of the farmhouse, moving the piano to Lydia's and moving things into the studio apartment. I could not have done this without the help of my friends.

Moving Day

I have to thank all my friends who made Moving Day possible: Christine, Randy, Debbie, Dave, Jp, Sue B, Rob, Sue R, Johanna, and Eddie. They are my heroes.

Moving day didn't start off all that well, I got up off the cot (the king size bed was already dismantled) and looked out the window to find a foot of snow had fallen overnight, and there was still snow coming down. ACK! We got lucky and it stopped mid-morning just like the weather man said it would. It didn't get all that warm, the temp was somewhere in the teens. I was mighty glad to see my buddies show up despite the less than perfect weather. Once we had a car or two, we started the actually hauling of things out of the apartment.

A couple of things still needed packing; folks pitched right in. I loaded some stuff in cars & trucks myself but most often to be found in the kitchen answering questions of this person or that one while moving things out from the back rooms to the front. I didn't even see the piano going until they had it on the porch maneuvering it onto the trailer ramp. We had an open trailer; everyone brought tarps (& I bought one - for the cost of the thing it should outlive me)One of the funnier moments was watching the king size bed being wrapped like a Christmas present before going out the door. constant flurry of activity, and then suddenly there weren't any more boxes. Most of us headed out to the new place while the Barbers and a few others stuck around to help John move the remaining furniture around to his liking.

We traveled the 4 or so miles up the road to the new place in Waterbury Center. Our "plow guy" had done a great job clearing all kinds of room in the yard. My roommate Z was out running some errands, so we had the place to ourselves. The neighbors did call the house though, to find out what all the commotion was all about. What with the local speed trap being a 100 yards from the driveway and the neighbors checking things out, I'm feeling pretty safe here, even though it is not on the main road.

I called in a wings and pizza order for lunch, and we emptied out the vehicles in record time. The back porch has a ramp on it, which made it somewhat easier to move the big stuff in. The Parlor ended up the resting place for most the boxes until I could go through them. A lot of the furniture went right up to my bedroom, a 15 X 14 room with a couple of windows and a hole in the floor (this appears to be the place a stovepipe once went up to the chimney) which was "covered" by a Frisbee. We got all of it unloaded by the time lunch arrived.

An enjoyable meal was had by all, or so it seemed. the party broke up after the eats, as most folks had a bit of traveling to do to get to their homes. I found out later Dave had been bested by my office chair - it gave way at the wrong moment and he took a tumble. He was shook pretty hard but survived it just fine. Apparently the piano move wasn't perfect, even with the two furniture dollys - there were a few spots where it still needed to be lifted. The fellas made it look easy though. I had a few tense moments when I realized there only was an inch to spare around the sideboard as it went up the stairs as I hadn't measured the width of the stairwell, and although the glass lamp made it intact the other ones needed to have the bulbs replaced.

All in all though it was a very busy day, and every body worked hard. Eddie, Sue B & Jp stuck around and helped me set up the electronics and set up my bed. Sue was was intrigued by the furry sheets mom had found for me down in Pennsylvania. We also were able to set up the rugs Canadace had given to me; everything fit just so, and except for the hole in the floor, It was turning out pretty good. We all went out for dinner at the local wings place, and then since Sue & Jp had a room at the Best Western, we went over there to do some swimming and met back up with Johanna who was also staying there.

I eventually found a piece of plywood that currently resides over the hole in my floor: Eddie is working on a better fix for that. Jp came up and helped us re-caulk our shower. I replaced the dark shower curtain , and Eddie put in the handheld showerhead I got. Its better than it was, but its still the smallest shower I've ever seen. I managed to empty 20 or so boxes within the next week; another 12 or so last week, and the remainder are things that probably won't be used here as the house is fully furnished (in Early American hand-me-down style), with dishes and everything. I'm settling in and this big 4 bedroom farmhouse is beginning to feel like home. Here's hoping I'll be here a while. Look me up if you're in the neighborhood!

Moving Right Along

In case you didn't hear, John & I are splitting up. We've been having issues for quite some time now, and to make a very long story short, I am moving out. January 3rd is the move date, lets hope for clear and maybe a balmy 30 degrees? (only in Vt would 30 degrees be considered balmy!)

Some genealogy friends, co-workers and reenacting buddies are all coming on the 3rd to help move me out of the apt. I found on craigslist a homeshare type situation in Waterbury center, only a few miles from where the apt is. Big house, another single gal (by name of Z) who describes herself as quirky, enough room for the piano, the king sized bed and even all the boxes. If you don't have the new address or phone #, and would like it, email me at the new email (mizrebecky@gmail.com) and I'll send it onto you.