As threatened I have now installed a dishwasher in my kitchen :)
A couple of weeks ago, I searched around in the local appliance stores and found a quiet and not too expensive dishwasher on sale. So I bought it and figured Id sort out all the installation issues later.
I got it delivered mid last week and promptly started making a big mess in my kitchen...
The dishwasher was plonked on the floor in the kitchen and I was initially confronted with the spacial geometry problem of figuring out where to fit it in.
No huge problem, but my house was built over fifty years ago by someone who was not really a builder, and there are all sorts of "not quit standard" little surprises I find when I get down below the surface details on a maintenance job...
Right, well, I measured things up and selected a section of the counter where I wanted the dishwasher to go. I removed the two cabinet doors and the drawer that would be replaced. I measured the height of the counter and found that there is only just enough vertical height for the dishwasher - phew!
OK, So I inspected the cabinet frame to see what I have to cut to get it out of there - Hmmm Its all made of 2x4 timbers which are about twice the thickness of regular cabinet wood - some work but manageable.
So, then I spent an hour or two cutting out the shelf and the timbers and its a pretty good job :)
Now for the floor - well, I made the same cuts as for the rest of the space and the bottom shelf of the cupboard came out fine, but there was no sub-floor under the cabinets...just the joists for the floor! ...This is the sort of thing that I always find. It would be normal to have a subfloor under the cabinets but the guy who built this house installed his cabinets before he put down his subfloor (OK, whatever...)
So then I spent another hour building the subfloor. Then I cover over the side of the shelf I have cut through and I have a more or less finished space for the dishwasher.
Trial fitting of the dishwasher is good - just enough space for everything.
One more session of wood cutting and trim painting and the "hole" is finished.
Now for the hook-up : waste water, hot water and electrical power .
This is a nice potentially fatal combination of utilities if I get it wrong :)
Technically not challenging but access wise - difficult.... A few more hours of fiddling around with things and Im done - move the dishwasher in front of the hole, hook-up the utilities, push it into the hole and Voila! Now I have a dishwasher - And it even works :)
Whats next? New counter tops or new paint? - Paint is cheaper, so I'll probably start there :)
