Still in the throes of buying a house. Will need all new appliances,
as it will come with none. Something I recall when touring this house
is that the washer/dryer pair do not fit into thier space (this seems
massively common in most houses we looked at when househunting. Have
appliances gotten bigger over the years?). It is arranged where the
washer sits in front of the dryer because there's about 3" of overlap.
In addition, the washer/dryer are currently in a weird place and we
might just relocate them anyways.

It is a small house and I haven't had a chance to attack it with a tape
measure yet. There is a small area off the kitchen where we might put
the washer/dryer, but it's possible that a conventional set may not fit
there either. So then comes up the "stackable" or "over/under combo"
unit question. Appliance stores seem to be rather devoid of these- I
only remember seeing one example that was dog**** brown (and beat up
looking) and could possibly handle half the load(s) of a standard set.
There was no price tag on it.

1) do they make 'stackable' units that can handle a full load of
laundry?

2) "what are you gonna do when one side breaks?" is what i hear a lot.
Any real-world experience on reliability/repair, etc? Something tells
me that having the guy from Sears out to fix your dryer will be about
the same experience for me whether it's stackable or not.

3) how are these efficiency-wise? Gas dryers available as stackables?

4) Is the end cost of acquisition less, same, or more than buying a
conventional set?

5) Any recommendations of brands and stores to acquire appliances are
appreciated.

TIA!