Good Riddance!

7 years ago we bought a beautiful front loading washer and dryer...after 2 years we started having issues that required service calls...in the last two years we should have sent the repairman that comes out a Christmas card...two weeks ago we think a lightning strike finally put us out of our misery with the biggest culprit ...the washer!  We decided to give it one more shot and then if it was more than a certain amount of money we would finally walk away...well, after three visits it was determined that the cost was nearly half the cost of the machine so we said goodbye to our repairman friend and began the hunt for the next washer. Remember this was after two week of doing my laundry at my in laws and one big trip to the coin laundry!  I was on a mission to find the perfect answer to my problem...I started at Lowe's where a very nice salesperson helped me determine what I was looking for.  I was ready to just be done with it so I said "how soon can you deliver it?" The person replied "only be a few days but let me check"...when he came back he said "sorry but it is a 10 day wait on both machines you are interested in!"  I nearly started crying right there in the store so I just said thank you and walked out with a sick feeling. I promptly drove to Sears.  I arrived at Sears and was once again met by a very helpful salesperson who had some of the same info but some new stuff as well...he even showed me a demo of why I needed to stay with a front loader vs the top loading machine...I typically do 3 loads a day for our family of 7 and although some days they are lighter than others they are usually pretty full.  Once again I was all set to make a deal...called Bill and he said he would meet up with me and ask a few more questions.  I knew what that meant...my engineer hubby was going to drill the poor guy and we would probably not be buying a machine since the price I had mentioned nearly sent him to the loony bin!  After giving me a bottle of water and allowing Merideth to open and close a million doors we told the guy we were going to shop a bit more since his price was not that great.  No longer on the verge of tears, we headed to lunch to talk it over.  We decided to go to one more store to see if they had any deals going on that would get us what we wanted at a price we were willing to pay. Thankfully, after playing hide and seek with Merideth's toy in the machines I finally agreed to the Maytag washer.  Then buyers remorse started to set in so I said "No.  I want to research Maytag  because I know nothing about them and have not heard about them at all from any of my FB friends!"  So...we walked out with no solution.  We did a little research and on Saturday afternoon finally decided to go with the Maytag.  They delivered it on Monday afternoon and within 30 minutes of their departure I was back in business doing laundry!  I got my three loads in last night and even enjoyed staying up late to finish!  For me, it was a good lesson in patience and commitment to not spending more than we could.We opted to not buy the dryer right now since our old one is working fine...our set no longer matches but that's ok since it is kind of like the season of life we are in right now...some things match and make sense and others don't!  It also helped me to be more thankful for the conveniences in my life and feel grateful to have what I do have.