once a week for nearly every week of the past 4.5 years of living here, i have taken my clothes up and down flights of stairs, paid up to $6.50/load for a washer, always 8-minutes-per-quarter for a dryer... and dealt with the "excitement" of sitting my sunday afternoons or my friday nights at the laundromat. i've trekked through snow and rain, and could never let hot summer days and blistering cold winter evenings stop me from just doing the simple task of doing my laundry, only to have them come out smelling like hot metal (not matter what brand or scent of dryer sheet or detergent i use). on average i spent around $15/week just to use the washers and dryers, which works out to be about $750/year. guys, when they say the "cost of living" in NYC and surrounding areas is expensive, these are the ones that add up that are often forgotten. you say "why don't you just get an apartment with a washer and dryer then", and i say "that apartment is probably $300 more PER MONTH just for the 'laundry in unit'".
like i said, having a washer and dryer of our own is a really big deal, especially in a home that's 150+ years old. with that said, it doesn't mean that i was excited about actually using the ones we have. you see, when we moved in, the room with the washer and dryer was caked (and i mean CAKED) in lint. the back wall is exposed brick, and it was almost solid lint. it was stuck to the ceilings, in between the dryer and the wall, it covered the floor so much it peeled up like carpet, it covered the pipes in the room... the dryer has a vent system on it that i had never seen before... one that vents INDOORS. i didn't even know this was possible until i researched dryer systems and found out that it is indeed a real thing. people vent regular dryers indoors with the help of a water reservoir that is supposed to collect the lint that passes through the lint screen that you empty with each load.
our first thoughts were
