I have this apartment that I built in our basement when my son was attending Purdue. He was struggling with some things and needed a place to be which did not have any friends around. He lived in it for a couple of years, got things sorted and graduated. then daughter #3 needed a place and lived in it for a couple years. After that we rented it to a good friend's nephew who was from Columbia. He lived here three or four years and is now an Engineer with Rolls Royce I believe.

I have been thinking about upgrading it a little and decided to install a stack washer and dryer in the large walk in closet. I bought the unit about a month ago and proceeded to have the hookups needed installed. It has been a bit of a chore getting all the plumbing done and so forth since every body is busy. But I had all that done and with a new tenant coming in yesterday all that was left was to physically get the heavy stack unit into the closet and hook it up.

I was puppysitting yesterday as the Mrs. was in Indy at a conference with the #3 daughter. Around 845 am I was asleep on the couch taking my after breakfast Siesta with the puppy curled up against my chest when the new tenant knocked on the door. Jerking awake I knocked the puppy on the floor and opened the door.

Along with his very pretty mom I showed them the apartment, signed the lease and was explaining to them about moving the washer into the closet when it hit me that I had forgotten the doorway was 2" too narrow to accommodate the 27" at its narrowest point stack unit.

So while they began moving things in and hanging shower curtains I went into emergency remodel overdrive. The opening was a simple opening with no door or frame but the framing was wrapped with drywall and corner bead. It appeared there was no wiring or anything in the way so I began to peel things away, cutting drywall, peeling corner bead and cutting the first 2x4 with my tree trimming saw since I did not want to take the trip to my building to get the sawsall.

I called my brother to come and reinforce me with his skills and more tools. After I uncovered the first stud I discovered my notes from 22 years ago when we built it that I had requested of the framer an additional 2x4 on both sides (Had I planned for it to be big enough to accommodate a washer in the future?).

By 530 in the evening we had everything in and buttoned up. The water, drain, exhaust vent and gas line all buttoned up. Nothing leaked and it all worked.

All that was left was to apply drywall mud over the corner beads, paint and fill the double stud width hole in the floor with bondo.

A good day. My brother is six years younger than I but we are both basically broken down old men and by this time we both were on the verge of simply falling over from fatigue. I was so tired I realized this morning that I completely forgot about my usual shot of bourbon before bedtime.

I did not need it to sleep soundly.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

How's the puppy?

__________________
Jim

Nice work.

Always a pleasure to get the rental finally done so you don't need to attend to it on a daily basis.

I'm not a fan of the stackables. The washers never do an acceptable job in cleaning and the dryers are worthless at 115V. Some tenants manage to use them successfully. Others just go to the laundromat.

They are very, very costly for what they actually do. Repairs are a nightmare.

I won't bother with them anymore. Either fit the full sized units (which are cheap to buy and cheap to repair) or it's laundromat time.

I use full size stackable units. My tenants find them fine. In thirteen years of them I can count the repair visits on one hand. This one is gas fired. Having them separates having excellent tenants to having not so excellent tenants.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Maybe that is the difference. I never used a full sized stackable. Sounds like it's very difficult to move, however.

Gas is terrific.

The little ones are not very high quality I don't think.

While the big ones are very heavy, using leverage and leaning them and walking them you can put them wherever you want but it takes two broken down old men. A large fit young man could probably do it solo.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

You'd get a kick out of this:

My departed disaster of a tenant left what I believe to be a 65" Mitsubishi flat screen TV. This was the original flat screen that sat on it's own pedestal directly on the floor. The unit was 6' high and almost 6' in length and I'd guess the weight at over 250 lb. It did have wheels on the bottom.

I had to get it out the front door, one step down onto the stoop, and two steps down to the walkway...............by myself.

That was a bit of a trick............but after about 30 minutes of planning and wrestling with it...........it was on the road (for trash pickup).

Tenant stories..... A friend of mine grew up near Bridgeport, CT. When we go to the Fall AACA meet at Hershey, we always meet up with some of his old childhood friends. One of them is a great story-teller. Every year he retells some stories to whoever is new to our group, and I can't wait to hear them again. One of them is about him repossessing a washing machine from a rental property for his boss who owned the appliance store. The third floor apartment was infested with cockroaches. The washer was, likewise, infested with them. He tried to get some kind of a partial payment, but couldn't, so he and his partner got the washer out of the apt, and onto the porch. He sent his partner to the ground floor as a safety watch as he lifted the washer up over the railing, and let it spatter onto the ground, three stories below. The boss asked him what happened to the washer, and he replied " You really didn't want it back...."

__________________
1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Oh man, I am big on measuring doorway openings early on. Often you can just take the door off and get an extra coupe of inches. Redoing the drywall is a serious intervention.

Glad that you landed on your feet.

__________________
1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Craigslist or Freecycle ... "free to the poor SoB who successfully gets it out of the apartment."

Right........one of those idiots can surely be depended upon to show up at a specific time and date.

The house doesn't remain open to all who decide to come over.................

Brian, what are the dimensions of the room in your rental a 65" TV was located in

It's amazing what some 'poor' renters spend their money on. I guess not owning frees-up a lot of disposable income.

Fine.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

yeah, using blocks and a floor jack I have loaded engines solo onto trucks before. I'd rather not since its dangerous but I've done it.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

No door, just a wrapped opening. I did measure early on and knew it was too small but forgot in all the hubbub of getting the plumbing work done etc.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.