A couple of weeks before Christmas the dryer broke down. I’ve fixed it in the past, and I was ready to fix it again. It sounded like a motor bearing had failed. We were just about to have the utility room, kitchen, and our bedroom painted, so Ginger decided that she’d pop out and buy a new dryer and washer for the freshly painted room. And that’s when the work began.

First, the water shut-offs on the washer were frozen, so taking out the washer caused a few problems, and I called a plumber in to replace them (Yes, I could have done the job myself, but I’m busy doing other things).

Then we realized that the new drier was much deeper and would get in the way of the door to the garage. By moving the wall vent to the side of the dryer, we could get the drier pushed back closer to the wall and out of the way of the door. With the painter due any day, I removed the wall vent and patched the wall so it could be painted, and we’d worry about where to put the new vent later.

Then the painter called and told us he had COVID. That gave us some more time, so we researched different dryer venting solutions and finally found the slim telescoping vent, that was thin enough for me to mount inside the wall cavity. Which is what you see in the picture. Fitting it meant removing a large section of the wall (including the very good patch job I’d done a few days earlier). Oh well.

While I was at it, I moved an electrical outlet that wouldn’t be accessible when our plans for the utility room are complete — watch this space — and there was a bizarre switch arrangement for the outside light that I also fixed. Both involved removing big sections of the wall and then patching them up again.

Now, (January), we are having a new floor fitted too, and the painter still hasn’t painted the room.

The result of all this extra work was that my planned work on the hall gear closet was put on hold while it was dealt with.