Laundry Quarters

Does the title of this post bring back nostalgic memories of the days when you used the laundromat? I didn't think so.

Today's post is about the handy skills of the Lynchs. I am sure many of you are saying...WHAT?! The Lynchs are not handy!

WRONG! We ARE handy!

Yesterday, as we were running 1 of our many many loads of dirty laundry, the washer suddenly made a terrible noise like someone stuck a piece of metal in a fan while it was running. This is not good for a fan and certainly can NOT be good for a washer. After successfully repairing our fancy (yet crappy) dishwasher a few weeks ago we decided that we would give it a try on the washer. I started scouring the internet for a solution to our washer noise. It seems that most people who reported hearing the awful grinding had a coin or some other foreign object in the drain pump. Everyone said, "It was simple to remove the drain pump, dump the coin and put it back in!". So, surely the Lynchs can do that. After unstacking the dryer from the top of the washer in a closet that is only about 2" wider than the W/D itself, getting to the bottom of the washer and unscrewing the 4 screws... sure enough it was a quarter causing all the ruckus. We successfully reassembled the washer and restacked the unreasonably tight fitting dryer and ran the test load. IT WORKED! Thus proving my theory...

The Lynch ARE in fact handy!

Now on to the treadmill...it seems that the walking belt is in need of replacement.

Where once there was a...

Where once there was a playroom, a guestroom, 2 boys....

This seems to be the continuing story of the old beautiful house that we live in. The collage above is composed of pictures from each of the different functions the huge open attic space has had here. When we moved in we were sure that this space would be the family room, replacing our big basement family room at the old house. Unfortunately, the couch wouldn't fit up the stairs and after a good cry on moving day we had to rethink our plan. This landed the family room on the main level in a sun porch very crowded with furniture.

Once we knew the attic couldn't be our family room we decided that we would use it as a playroom/guest room. What we didn't realize was that the guest room function would be it's most important use. For several months we had another family living in that attic space which never could have happened if that couch had fit up the stairs. Funny how those things work out, isn't it? (The picture in the lower right corner is of the attic when John and Ellie were here. )

When the guest room was vacant again we realized that we were not maximizing the space we had in this new bigger house. Jim was still working in our room, we were cramped in our family room and we didn't really have a playroom. SO, we rearranged again. The boys moved up to the attic to share a room, a very daring thing for their parents to attempt. Quinn's old room gave Jim his 1st actual in home office space and Nolan's old room turned into the guest room. (the bottom left 2 pics are of the boys' attic room) While Jim, the boys, and our guests loved this arrangement there was still the problem of a cramped family room and no playroom in the main level to be dealt with. So.....

After much discussion about how we could solve these problems we rearranged again for hopefully the last time. We moved the 2 big arm chairs and the very very very heavy TV from the main level up the attic and made that our new family room.(see top right pic) We love having carpet in our cozy space and we love that the neighbors can't see us watching TV everytime they pull in the driveway. The boys are now bunked in a bedroom on the 2nd floor and love sharing a room closer to us. We made that sunroom into a glorious bright and sunny playroom with all sorts of room for superhero and race car action to take place and a cozy red couch to watch it all from becuase after all.... it still doesn't fit up the stairs.