Appliances: The Good, The Bad, The Normal

The Good

Electric Kettle--By the time you've collected your cup, tea bag and spoon, the water is boiling. Also, makes quick work of cooking pasta when you start with two kettles full of hot water.

Convection/Traditional Oven combo--So far Bill likes the convection features of our oven (after he downloaded the user manual to decipher to buttons). He hasn't done any baking yet--he'll have to translate into Centigrade temps, but I'm sure he'll be fine. I haven't touched it of course, but I do like the huge red switch on the wall that shuts off power to the whole stove/oven.

The Bad

Clothes washer/dryer combo--As a washer, it works great. It holds only six shirts, but those shirts will get clean. The spin cycle makes you think the apartment is about to take flight. As a dryer, this thing sucks. The combo is a nice idea. You can set a load to wash and dry, then forget it. But an average wash/dry on cold wash takes about four hours and produces incredibly wrinkly clothes. The dryer doesn't vent to the outside, so it dries by the condensation method, which best I can tell, is the basic principle that water left to its own devices will eventually evaporate. Supposedly, air heated in the drum is blown through the tumbling clothes and absorbs moisture. The wet air then passes through a heat exchanger to re-condense the water. The heat exchanger uses cold water from the cistern, which means the cistern pump turns on for 5 seconds every 15 seconds or so. Sometimes the pump likes to emit a little squeak each time it turns off. The cistern room is adjacent to our bedroom, so the pump sounds make it undesirable to run the dryer at night. (The pump provides great water pressure for the showers, so props to the pump.) Drying clothes while I sleep was one of my key life efficiencies. Also, to minimize wrinkles, I've taken to drying half a load at a time. Another downside, the dryer produces wet lint. Wet lint is gross. So, a noisy, time-consuming wrinkler. Not cool. When I get a job we'll seriously consider a laundry service. Although, I do feel European draping clothes over the radiator.

The Normal

Microwave--totally normal.

Dishwasher--totally normal, except it has a compartment which you fill with rock salt. Perhaps it has an ice cream freezer feature we have yet to discover.

Fridge--small, but keeps drinks America-level cold (and will freeze the yogurt if you're not careful).