A Hard Lesson learned and re-learned

Well here's a slightly sad story with a bit of a happy ending. About 3 years ago, before I had any idea that there were other "appliance nuts" like myself out there, I went to my friend Lori's house to help her make a birthday cake for her daughter Marie who was turning 3 that year. Lori was living in a large old and beautiful rented house near me in my town and stored in the garage was a coveted pink GE 1961 dryer(a DA-950V, I believe) just sitting there with its companion 1961 vintage GE fridge (with a turquoise interior) and a newer avocado model GE washing machine with an early mini-basket (it had tons of stuff on top of it so I could only see the front of the cabinet and the green mini-basket). I remember inquiring about the machines and being told they had belonged to the woman who had owned the house, and now, of course, belonged to her children, Lori's landlords. Did I (aka STUPID)do anything to get them? Hardly. Well, long story shorter, I finally did contact the daughter and son and was told that the washer and dryer had been moved to a storage unit in town. When I pressed them to let me see the units, for some reason the daughter (in-law, a real PILL) kept stalling me, she always had a reason not to go to this storage unit. I decided to back off, securing a promise from her that she would NOT throw anything away until I had a chanced to see them. A year later, Miss numb-nuts finally calls me the other day, tells me that she and her hushband are going down to the storage unit the next day to clean it out and would I like to come to get the washer and dryer. After thanking her for remembering to call me ( I fully expected this twit to throw the things out without calling), I got all excited that I was FINALLY going to get my dream machine.
The next day I leave work early to get to the storage unit. Twit's husband, Steve, as it turns out, is smarter and a lot more helpful and accommodating than either his wife or his daughter and gives me letter-perfect instructions for getting to the storage unit and through the facility's electric gate.
Well, wouldn't you know it--No GE's--they were finally, after a lot of chatter, taken to the dump with the vintage fridge it seems. What remained might interest some of you. Unfortunately they are such a disappointment to me that it's taking me some time to appreciate and warm to them. They are both, interestingly enough, in excellent condition, the Hotpoint washer, of course, being newer is practically mint. I wish I could be more excited about these, but it was like being a kid at Christmas, sure he was getting a pony and ending up with a hamster. My own damn fault.


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Post# 211707 5/22/2007 at 20:40 (6,177 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)
Checkrate/Likes Well here's a slightly sad story with a bit of a happy ending. About 3 years ago, before I had any idea that there were other "appliance nuts" like myself out there, I went to my friend Lori's house to help her make a birthday cake for her daughter Marie who was turning 3 that year. Lori was living in a large old and beautiful rented house near me in my town and stored in the garage was a coveted pink GE 1961 dryer(a DA-950V, I believe) just sitting there with its companion 1961 vintage GE fridge (with a turquoise interior) and a newer avocado model GE washing machine with an early mini-basket (it had tons of stuff on top of it so I could only see the front of the cabinet and the green mini-basket). I remember inquiring about the machines and being told they had belonged to the woman who had owned the house, and now, of course, belonged to her children, Lori's landlords. Did I (aka STUPID)do anything to get them? Hardly. Well, long story shorter, I finally did contact the daughter and son and was told that the washer and dryer had been moved to a storage unit in town. When I pressed them to let me see the units, for some reason the daughter (in-law, a real PILL) kept stalling me, she always had a reason not to go to this storage unit. I decided to back off, securing a promise from her that she would NOT throw anything away until I had a chanced to see them. A year later, Miss numb-nuts finally calls me the other day, tells me that she and her hushband are going down to the storage unit the next day to clean it out and would I like to come to get the washer and dryer. After thanking her for remembering to call me ( I fully expected this twit to throw the things out without calling), I got all excited that I was FINALLY going to get my dream machine. The next day I leave work early to get to the storage unit. Twit's husband, Steve, as it turns out, is smarter and a lot more helpful and accommodating than either his wife or his daughter and gives me letter-perfect instructions for getting to the storage unit and through the facility's electric gate. Well, wouldn't you know it--No GE's--they were finally, after a lot of chatter, taken to the dump with the vintage fridge it seems. What remained might interest some of you. Unfortunately they are such a disappointment to me that it's taking me some time to appreciate and warm to them. They are both, interestingly enough, in excellent condition, the Hotpoint washer, of course, being newer is practically mint. I wish I could be more excited about these, but it was like being a kid at Christmas, sure he was getting a pony and ending up with a hamster. My own damn fault.

Post# 211709 , Reply# 1 5/22/2007 at 20:42 (6,177 days old) by bajaespuma (Connecticut)
Checkrate/Likes The dryer is kind of a find. The yellow that Frigidaire was using was really a beautiful color, very cold and bright. What kills me, is that I had the white mate to this dryer about 15 years ago in an apartment, also long gone.

Post# 211718 , Reply# 2 5/22/2007 at 21:08 (6,177 days old) by varicyclevoice (Davenport, Iowa)
Checkrate/Likes *I know how you feel!!!!* Last summer, a very cool retro house came up for sale in my neighborhood. I previewed the house and it had this very vintage KitchenAid Superba vari-cycle dishwasher in the kitchen (in working condition no less!) In July, the house sold. The very week the new people moved in, I walked down the street, introduced myself and asked about their intentions with the dishwasher. (After all, most people would not want an avocado dishwasher from the 60's...but I do!) I figured they would replace it right away. Well, I gave the man my name and number and explained that I just lived down the street. He promised he would call me. I assured him that I would be glad to pay him for the machine. He said that it would probably be a few months before they would plan to replace it. WELL...about a month ago, I drove by the house one afternoon and noticed kitchen cabinets in their driveway and garage area. I got all excited, thinking, wow..I am going to get this just in time. I stopped by that day and the wife says, "Oh, sorry...we removed the dishwasher in February and it went to the curb for the garbagemen." I explained how disappointed I was and how I had given her husband my contact information and that I would have gladly paid them something for the machine. Her response, "Well he lost it and we didn't know how to reach you." My mom said I should have been more diligent about contacting them more regularly but I didn't want to nag them. My happy ending with this is another story about a house here in Davenport that went up for sale and I gave the new owner my name and number and 2 yrs later...she called! She had saved it and notified me and I am a proud owner of a KitchenAid Custom KDC-17 which completed my collection of the 17 series. So the moral of the story is to never quit trying, but sometimes it's out of our control. Here's a picture of that dishwasher that was sent to the curb. Some of you may have remembered last summer when I uploaded this picture last summer!

Post# 211719 , Reply# 3 5/22/2007 at 21:08 (6,177 days old) by varicyclevoice (Davenport, Iowa)
Checkrate/Likes *here's the pic (almost forgot)* .