Burton Speaks

And now for the first in what's sure to be a long series of new home ownership posts. This particular post is about a set of homemade washer and dryer stands.

The problem started when I bought a new washer and dryer to go in my house. Being a home of modest size, the downstairs half-bathroom also doubles as the laundry room. Well, despite the measurements that I carefully took, I neglected, when purchasing the washer and dryer, to think about both the space the dryer door needed to open and the space behind the dryer for the ducting. Imagine, then, my dismay at the installation when I found that the dryer door opened about two inches before slamming into the side of the toilet.

The solution had two parts: first, change from solid ducting to flexible ducting, which would allow the dryer to scoot back a couple inches. This allowed me to use the dryer temporarily, but there was the the issue of hitting the toilet and further clearance. Clearly the dryer need to be elevated... but at what cost? The associated pedestals for the washer and dryer were over $200 each.

But a quick Google search yielded the result I needed. I found a site called Instructables.com which had an entry for exactly what I was looking for: a do-it-yourself washer and dryer stand.

I set about building this set of stands (with my dad's help.) Along the way, we lightly customized the instructions, but the essence of what we built is featured there. For about $60 in wood and screws from Home Depot, we built a set of strong platforms featuring 1 1/8" plywood, a bunch of 2"x4" supports, and a couple coats of primer with a finish of high-gloss, shiny white paint. (I'd like to thank the Home Depot for cutting the plywood for me, too.)


Getting the stands in place was no easy task, but upon completion, the finished product looks... finished. It looks good. The washing machine still shakes with the vibration of cleaning, but I monitored it and it didn't actually move at all. If I were building it again, I might add an extra half-inch to both the length and width, just to provide a little wiggle room. However, I'm satisfied at how they're working... for now.

I'm going to start out this post by announcing that I bought a house. Yay.


Now, aside from having just signed the next 30 years of my life away, I've also purchased a nearly infinite array of small projects. Despite the house being less than three years old and being in fantastic condition, I find myself spending hours every night (not even having unpacked yet), fixing things and just generally trying to do it better than the last guy.

For instance, I now know what a rotational limit stop is in my showers and how, if not set properly, it can prevent hot water from being used. I assure you, I did not enjoy finding out about this. For the record, the rotational limit stop is designed as a scalding-prevention device; by keeping the water from getting scalding hot, it's keeping babies safe. However, by keeping it from getting warm, it's just making me take a cold shower. So year, I fixed that pretty quickly.

Anyway, that's just the start of the list. Since closing on it, there have been many, many late nights of painting, moving, fixing things, planning, and generally NOT enjoying having my own house.

I'm sure I'll have a bunch of house-related posts in the future now. Can you feel the joy?