No, my foolish husband DID NOT help clean up the mess! LOL And at this point, I'd be afraid to let him -- leaf blower? After many damp cloth dustings of everything I can get my hands on, I've decided to do as suggested and get the HVAC system, carpets, and fabric furniture cleaned professionally. All of the other fabric like clothes and linens were behind closed doors but after reading the suggestions, I'm going to make a long trip to the laundrymat and get it all washed through. I'm definitely one of those people allergic to mold . . . allergy testing and years of desensitation shots haven't even begun to stop my reactions. Sure would have rather bough something fun with all of the $$$ this is going to cost . . HOWEver, my house is going to be company ready when it is all over. Anyone wanna come over for a party? Janet

If you're planning a stacked washer/dryer it would make sense to place the vent line in the vicinity of the dryer vent port. If you don't know which washer dryer combination you'll be buying, then it might make sense to place the vent through the outside wall centered in the area of the laundry pair but slightly below the level of the bottom of the dryer. It's never a good idea to have vent ducting running vertically up, if it can be avoided. That being said, the shorter the vent line -- the better -- so if you can make your choice of appliances now, you can have the vent opening placed at an optimal location where it won't conflict with other connections for electrical, plumbing or gas lines -- but be as short as possible.

gordonr, If there's nothing else I've learned during the course of my renovations, I've learned that everything ends up being more complicated than you expect. Once you open up the ceiling or the wall, there always seems to be something in the way of what you want to do. A floor joist where the tub drain needed to be, pipes where I wanted recessed lights to go, and now the recessed light over the tub is where it would make sense to run the duct. I can hardly wait to get to the kitchen renovation! I spoke with a rep in Miele's technical service group yesterday. Initially he was telling me he thought what I wanted to do entailed too long a stretch of duct - that it would reduce the performance of the dryer. I told him I expected that it would not be optimal performance, but what I was trying to determine was whether it would reduce it to the extent that a condenser dryer would have the same performance. He didn't seem to understand what I was getting at, so I gave an example: If the vented model has 15% better performance than the condenser model and the venting I'm doing reduces performance by 15%, then the condenser model would be generally equivalent, but if the vented dryer's performance is 50% greater, the same 15% reduction in performance would still mean the vented dryer was a better choice. I asked if he could give me any information about how much better the vented dryer's performance was than the condenser model and how much the venting I was considering would reduce the vented dryer's performance. At that point, he said he wanted to talk with one of the senior technical reps and put me on hold. When he came back, he told me that the dryer was rated for up to 60 feet (which I already knew) and that I should be fine with what I was planning on doing. He also told me that the sr. rep had indicated that having a condenser dryer in a closet could be problematic because it puts off a lot more heat than a vented dryer - you'd need a lot more air circulation into the closet with a condenser dryer. The closet I'll be putting the w/d into is 68" wide by 29" deep, so the extra heat and air circulation need may not have been as much of an issue for me as it might be for others with a more confined space. One learning that I took away from this: if you start to get the sense that the technical or customer service person you're talking to may not be as knowledgeable as you'd like, ask to talk with a senior rep. Like anywhere else, initial phone calls will be answered by more junior staff who will route the more complicated issues to more experienced staff. I've decided to go with a vented dryer, and now just need to decide between the Miele and the Asko. I'll let everyone know which one I end up with. Jan

Yesterday DH went to the automotive store and got two belts and installed them. This is a mistake. Classic two-belt Maytag toploaders MUST use ONLY manufacturer-sourced, Maytag-original belts. Generic or automotive belts should not be substituted. Reason is that the motor-to-transmission belt has a special cloth coating and functions as the machine's spin clutch, is intended to slip on the pulleys while the drum gets up to speed. A non-coated belt will grab instantly instead of slipping, which puts too much bind on the motor and causes high amperage draw, overheating and potential shut-off of the motor.