Dryer: Functioning and Safe!

Today Jake took on the project of the dryer vent, and he emerged victorious! Woo hoo!

After the obligatory trip to the hardware store for supplies, Jake made a worrisome discovery that we feared might be the end of the plans to send the vent through the brick wall. Here's a photo:


See that pipe? Apparently her name is Charlotte. At first glance, it appears that Charlotte (who is a sewer pipe) ran directly in the path of where the vent would need to go out through the wall. This made us begin to think that perhaps the reason that the dryer vented through the floor was because of this blockage. But after a bit of measuring, Jake discovered that good ole' Charlotte was not in fact in the path of the vent, so the plan could proceed.

The plan involved cutting a hole in the brick wall, or what I like to call "breaking our house." Jake began, as per the advice of the internet (and an actual human w/ actual credentials -- thank you, Matt!) to drill a series of holes in the brick, as shown here:

You may notice that in addition to the lovely constellation of holes on the left, there is one hole a little ways over to the right. Remember kids, measure twice, cut (or drill) once. Jake in fact measured 8 times (he is reading over my shoulder as I write this update). Here's an addendum to "measure twice, cut once": Check your math.

The next step after making a lot of small holes is to get in there and smash stuff to make one big(ger) hole. Here it is:

Also, shocking discovery: this wall involved not one, but TWO layers of brick. Bonus! Double the destruction!

Destruction complete, Jake took a lunch break, then resumed the project. He installed the venting pipe and then got out the mortar to fill in the holes. Funny enough, Lucy was apparently also involved in some masonry at school today. Here is her project:

Yes, that is some sort of adobe-ish house that she made with mud bricks. Fun! Of course, since Lucy was playing with mud and sand at school, we were in even more serious need of a functioning laundry set-up, and finally, we have it! Here is the first load in the new dryer:


And here is the vent in action:
See how it blows the dryer air right out of the house, into the great outdoors? Why yes, that is what it is supposed to do! Hooray!

As for the hole in the floor and the crawlspace underneath, Jake used the shop-vac to suck out some of the lint and whatnot through the old vent hole. Then he cut a large piece of plywood to put under the dryer, which both covers the hole and provides a solid, sturdy base underneath the dryer. It also raises the dryer ever-so-slightly, which apparently is good for the venting as well.

So that's it. Our dryer saga is over, with a happy ending. Way to go, Jake!