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My Almost-daily Journal |
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| About I love trying out new things, especially when it comes to internet technology. I never really kept a journal, but it's something that I've always wanted to do. Now, everybody will get a chance to look inside my twisted, and somewhat-warped mind.
I've also subscribed to Audio Blog, so a few times a week, I'll leave actual voice blogs. Very cool!XML Newsfeed Previous Posts
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Friday, August 26, 2005
DishwarsherNot sure if I wrote about it in my blog... A really long time ago (9+ months), my dishwasher blew up. It was on its last legs when I bought the house almost nine years ago. It had a slow leak that I didn't discover until last year. After pulling the junk dishwasher from the cabinets, I finally realized why I had an ant problem a few years ago: dry-rotted floors. Carpenter ants are attracted to dry-rotted wood. In a nut-shell, the kitchen is getting gutted in a few weeks... probably about the time that we'll be having a baby. Bad timing on our part. We're both slow to commit to any major purchase. Since we're getting a new kitchen, I've held off to buying a dishwasher. On my list of domestic chores, washing dishes by hand is the last on preffered list. I HATE washing dishes by hand. "Hate" is too kind of a word. Perhaps DETEST is a better descriptor. I finally bit the bullet and decided to just go out and buy a dishwasher before the old kitchen is gutted. I picked it up last night and had it installed right before dinner. Installing a dishwasher is relatively easy. There are only three things that need to be connected: water supply, drain tube, and power. It's pretty mindless, especially if all those lines existed from previous dishwasher. It wasn't easy. First off, I had to cut a piece of OSB to create a makeshift base for the dishwasher. Remember, my floors are rotted down to the builder's floor. Any weight on the floor in that area, and you'll end up in the basement. Not really, because of the 2X6's, but it's not a sturdy floor for a dishwasher. Secondly, my water supply line is copper tubing. It's not very flexible and accomodating. Try lining up inflexible copper tubing to the bottom of a dishwasher, as the dishwasher is pushed in place 90% of the way. Oh, and add the fact that my dishwasher line's water shutoff valve doesn't really turn the water off. Water was trickling out of that thing about a thimble-full a second. So timing was everything. Of course, getting that line connected took me about 10 minutes. So imagine what a floor looks like with 600 thimbles-full of water on it. Good thing for cotton towels. Third, the exit tube has been sitting unused for 9+ months. There's been standing water in it just sitting. It's connected to the garbage disposal. I had it closed off with a clamp and towel. Man oh man. I'm surprised the health department wasn't notified. When I cut the tube to fit the new dishwasher (I decided to use the old one that was already connected to garbage disposal), about a quart of the most vile-smelling liquid leaked all over me. I almost lost my lunch. The lingering smell of decaying carion still haunts me a day later. It smelled like death. Power was the easiest to connect. I even turned off the power down in the circuit breaker box. I hardly ever do that. Made the connection process so much worry-free. So, we finally have a dishwasher again! The quality of my life improved 100%. It's just sitting there freely, not really mounted to anything, so it is kind of janky. But a jankily-installed dishwasher is better than no dishwasher. When our new kitchen is installed, it will be professionally installed. I can't wait for that. posted by Dino at 10:06 AM (permanent link)
Comments:
When finishing my basement as livable space, the one thing that worried me the most was the plumbing.
The plumbers that my builder hired did a shotty job at drain pipes (some of the drain pipes under the tubs leaked within a year) and they didn't put very good shut off valves in place for water service. So before framing and dry walling the basement, I replaced a good portion of the drain pipe and the replaced the shitty shutoff valves with brass casing, 1/4 turn lever shutoffs. (I have basement ceiling drywalled, so I wanted to be very comfortable with the work). Although at first it's scary to cut open your pipes, it's not hard to master plumbing. If it were me, I wouldn't leave that shutoff valve like it is for long. Good luck with all your projects and in getting them done before the baby comes. Terri and I are very excited for you two! Dan Komarzec
Daniel!
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Thanks for advice. I'll probably change out that kitchen shutoff. I'm hoping that the plumbers they subcontract are decent. They'll probably do a better job than I can do, since they do it all the time. Only living in the house for a year, so as long as everything holds together... I'll be happy. I do know about shoddy valves, though. I turned off my MAIN water valve down near the meter, and the thing started leaking like a sieve. Had to call an emergency plumber to shut off my main from outside my house. It sucked. |