After Efiwym, my wife, finished with Thursday’s wash, the time clock was set to get the flooring done in the laundry room. I had until Tuesday morning to complete the project. I had a good three days to finish, so I thought I could easily get it done.
The first thing that needed to be done is to get the washer, dryer, and laundry tub out of the room. I removed the laundry room door. Which appliance should I remove first? I needed all the room I could get to remove the dryer vent. So, the washer should be removed first.
That task was fairly easy. I removed the hot and cold water hoses and took the discharge hose out of the laundry tub. I borrowed the hand cart from work to remove the appliance. I slid the washer out so I could place the hand cart under it. Unfortunately, I was unable to lift the washer off the ground. I yelled, “Efiwym, I need your help!” She has heard that cry before. I just needed her to get on the other side of the washer to lift it while I pulled back on the hand cart. She did not lift it, instead pushed it and the washer slid across the floor. We tried it again and I asked her to lift it. Success! At least until I dropped it when I put it down. She gave me “the look” and said. “You didn’t want that to happen, did you?” No comment.
Next was the dryer. I pulled the dryer away from the wall just enough to get to the vent. That duct tape job I did before was designed to NOT remove the dryer vent again. There were multiple layers of tape, and it was on really well. I gave up on removing the tape and moved to yanking the cover off the dryer. After some pushing and pulling, I got the vent off. I moved the dryer to get to the part of the vent that was attached to the outside. Again, I patiently removed the tape the best I could. I proceeded to the yanking away process instead. Finally, I had the vent off.
Now I needed to remove the gas line. I made multiple trips to my toolbox in the garage to gather the right wrenches for the job. First, I turned off the gas. Now with the right wrenches in my hands, I tried to remove the gas line. The connector would not turn freely and started twisting the gas line as I turned it. I contemplated removing the gas line from the dryer instead. I thought struggling with this connection was a better idea. In the process, I loosened the shutoff, and the smell of natural gas started to fill the room. Quickly, I turned the wrench the other way to retighten to stop the flow. After multiple of episodes of swearing, the gas line was removed from the shutoff valve.
Gathering up the gas line and power cord, I removed the dryer from the laundry room. Next, the laundry tub. I pulled everything out of the bottom of the laundry tub cabinet. I looked underneath, and I discovered that there were not any shutoff valves to the tub. Yes, there were shutoffs for the washer hoses, but not the tub. Now, I remembered when I replaced the flooring before that the water lines needed to be capped off.
Down to the basement to shut off the water and find the two brass caps I had used before. There the caps were in a box where I put plumbing items. Well, that was a nice surprise. I thought for sure I was going to the hardware store.
Again, I struggled to get the right wrenches for this job, but eventually I figured it out. However, it was tight under the cabinet. The tub waste pipe was in the way. I made short work of it by pulling the pipe off the tub. (I will deal with that issue later.) Now I had the room to get the hose off and the caps on. Back downstairs to turn the water on.
When I got back upstairs, I needed to wipe up the water that spilled out of the pipes and there was plenty. With some effort, I got the back of the cabinet cleared of the waste pipe from the wall. I put the cabinet into the dinette. I removed the rest of the waste pipe and put a rag into the wall waste pipe. I then tucked the water hoses around the copper piping. I would then find something that I was not expecting…