Repatriation Blues, and Shopping for a Washer and Dryer

Lately I'm experiencing a weird mix of emotions. On the one hand, I'm sad not to be going back to Europe, and to the European lifestyle that I loved so dearly, and which made me so much healthier and fitter than I am at present. But on the other hand, I feel like we've won the Spokane lottery. It's so exciting to have Coco going to our neighborhood school and equally exciting that we found such a perfect little house in the exact neighborhood we had our hearts set on all those years ago back in Zurich when we imagined eventually winding up in Spokane. The life we find ourselves in right now is exactly the life I had envisioned for us as Coco started kindergarten. So even though repatriating has been harder, more painful and more difficult that literally anything else I've ever done in my life, I feel a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Maybe this was how it was meant to turn out all along.

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you may have noticed my preoccupation with laundry. Or maybe I've done a good job of hiding it? Either way, for the last two years, laundry has been a major source of stress, anxiety and general dissatisfaction for me. Our last little house was so cute, so comfortable and so wonderful in so many ways. But it had one major drawback: basement apartment. The entire time we lived there, we had neighbors underneath us and although the split was done well and we had separate entrances that were on opposite sides of the house, it was way too close for comfort. The worst part by far was the shared laundry. We dealt with gag-inducing smells, general laundry machine abuse and, the worst by far, poo being put through the washer and dryer - multiple times! It makes me cringe to even recall the horror.

Initially, when I saw that our new house had washer and dryer hookups, but didn't come with machines, I was a little bit disappointed. But then I realized that that meant no more dealing with machines that run, but don't actually work due to being overloaded or otherwise destroyed by the carelessness of others! And it also occurred to me that I would get to buy my very own, brand new, sparkly, clean, pristine washer and dryer - with a wool cycle! - and life would never be disgusting or smelly or nasty again. At least on the laundry front.

So, despite the recommendations from others to get used machines on Craigslist or go to the laundromat once a week, I am diving headfirst into comparing, price checking and obsessing over washers and dryers. So far my list of musts: Wool cycle (already said that;), front loader (because yeah), white exteriors, matching set, sanitary or allergy cycle, and water and electricity saving. Do you have a washer and dryer you love or hate? Tell me all about it!

(Photo via tankaromhus/Instagram)