Guess What’s Coming to the Kitchen Part II

You may have read my post last week. A friend gave us her dishwasher to replace our ancient one. This is the story of step two. Spoiler Alert: this post does not end with a functioning dishwasher in my kitchen. I am afraid that the next one will not either. I have a feeling that this is going to be a multi-step process, but that is ok. Since my lover and I both work full time, we have to squeeze in projects as we can. Slow and steady wins the race.

I am excited for many reasons. First of all, the new one is much better looking and matches our other appliances. Secondly, it is sure to work better than the old one. Also, we had trouble fitting large plates in the old dishwasher. As you can see below, the new dishwasher has a lot more space.

After the “new” dishwasher sat in our kitchen for a week, last weekend we finally found the time to take the old one out. That proved to be harder than I thought it would and involved many runs to the basement for more tools. Crème was very “helpful” through the whole process. You can see her holding the flashlight.

After taking out all of the screws along the bottom Douglas tried to take it out… to no avail.

So, we had to take the door off, to find out why.

Then we were able to pull it out. It was disssssguuuuuussssting back there. I had to clean it out. The good news is that I found a dime and a nickel. That’s them in the middle picture in case you could not tell. I also found a piece of a church bulletin from 1989. Straight to the trash with that.

Before we could disconnect the wires, we had to turn the power off. Unfortunately, our circuit breaker is not labeled, so we are unsure which switch turns off what. This little tool is our good friend. I held it to the wires, and Douglas went down to try the breakers. When he would turn one off, I would yell down if the wires were still hot. It took about six tries before he found the right one.

Then, we were able to pull the dishwasher out. It sat on the back porch for about a week and a half until the garbage men came to pick it up.

The new dishwasher was able to go in the space, but it is still not hooked up. The old dishwasher was so old that the the pipes connecting it were the old copper pipes instead of the new flexible ones. I have plans for that pipe so stay tuned. The shut-off valves also have to be replaced. I will keep you updated.

Happy Homemaking!