OT - Happy Purrday to me! (LONG and hoppefully amusing, but probably boring)

Well, it's actually on Tuesday, but DJ got me my prezzy early: A
dishwasher!

He asked me a month ago what I wanted, and I'd been thinking and doing some
'online window shopping'. Well, yesterday, (Sat 1/10/04), we got up early
and went to one of the local home improvement warehouses (this one opens at
6:30am Monday thru Saturday, just to cater to those early risers and
contractors), went and looked at a few they had on display, found the one
that I had decided on, they had it in stock, so we bought it and loaded it
up in the back of the Land Rover (fit rather nicely - we had folded up the
back seats , but I don't think we needed to), and got it home (it was cold
out, and I almost dropped it coming in the back door - dishwashers are
light, I might add, since the major part of them is plastic). We had all
the kitties locked up (against their protestations) in either the bathroom
or the spare bedroom/office before we brought it in (we didn't want any
escapees, and Weeble does like to make a dash for the back (enclosed)
porch). We unboxed it and took a look at the instructions (mind you, we
just LOOKED at them, we didn't actually READ them). Then we preceded to
decide which cabinet had to go in order to make room for the dishwasher.

I might interject here that our house was built in 1925, so the kitchen is
the largest room in the house at 14x20. The kitchen had at one time burned
as it's got the newest walls & roof (we can tell that from inside the
attic), I'd say it was sometime in the 1950s or so. The cabinets are old,
made of WOOD, not particle board or laminate of some type - so even though
they look like crap (hey - I'm not near as old as they are and I already
look like crap), they are rather well built.

Having decided which cabinet could be spared/sacrificed, we proceeded to
empty it, and then ripped it apart (that was the fun part) and found
underneath of it the messed up original Formica or linoleum flooring, it had
a black & red border on it, and an intake vent for the furnace (they had
sort of sealed that with a sheet of ducting tin, but we it still sucked air
in thru the cabinet, so we sealed it better with duct tape on top of the
tin. The cabinet we decided to use was just to the left of the sink, so
draining it wouldn't be a problem. We chose a model of dishwasher that has
a disposal built in, since we don't have that handy appliance in our sink,
even though the previous owners had installed wiring for a disposal under
the sink, it wasn't attached to anything. So down to the breaker we go, to
see where we could hook up said wiring and where to attach the hot water for
the dishwasher feed. The electrical circuit that the wiring went to (but
wasn't hooked into) was right underneath where the sink is, and right near
the hot water pipes to the sink. First think we did was shut off all power
to the house (none of the circuit breakers are marked, except for the
washer/dryer, garage & furnace) so we could connect the wiring, once done,
hubby went back upstairs to the sink, and with a voltage meter held to the
now-connected wiring, I turned the circuit breakers back on one by one until
he hollered that he had power. Then I marked that breaker and turned it
back off (don't want live wires hanging over our heads while we were playing
with the hot water pipes - remember that electricity and water do not mix
very well).

So we tapped into the hot water feed for the sink (I might add that the glue
used on PVC pipe is very pungent, smells like octuple-strength fingernail
polish remover, and prolonged inhaling of this stuff will probably get one
rather stoked - right before you keel over dead from it), and got that all
ready to hook up. Water pressure to the dishwasher is fine - pressure to the
sink has been cut in half! Must have knocked something loose and it's
lodged in the faucet (pressure going to the faucet is fine, we checked
that). More work to do, but probably at a later date. We still have water
coming from the faucet, so there's no hurry (it's not like I'm going to be
WASHING dishes by hand, anyway

Now on to the drain. After we ate breakfast (Mickey D's, picked up when
returning with dishwasher in tow) and brought said dishwasher inside &
unboxed and LOOKED (not read) at the directions, we made another run to
hardware superstore (HWSS) for pipes, drains & other supplies that we would
need. So, with the electric & water connections made (but not yet attached
to the dishwasher), we removed the drain from the sink so that we might
insert the drain from the dishwasher. Well, turns out that 1 1/2" DRAIN
pipe that was under the sink, is a different size than the 1 1/2" regular
PVC connection that we had bought!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Back to the HWSS for the correct size DRAIN pipe PVC, this time we took the
drain that we removed from the sink along with to make sure that we got the
right size. So we actually found the correct pipes, got home & got that
hooked up. YAY.

We had already drilled the holes for the pipe/drain/wiring after we ripped
out said cabinet (and after we made sure dishwasher would fit into the hole
left by said cabinet), so now all we had to do was feed the
pipe/drain/wiring under the dishwasher while we pushed it in. Sounds easy,
right? Well, they wanted to keep catching on the thingamajigs & doodads
that stick out underneath the dishwasher, so they needed constant guiding,
which DH did while I pushed, slowly so as not to squish said DH. Once
dishwasher was in place (and after the bottom front panel is removed), the
pipe/drain/wiring is connected.

Then you're supposed to make sure the dishwasher is level so that it will
drain properly. WTF!!!! Our house is almost 80 years old - is there such a
thing as level???? We did our best at that.

The lights lit up when we pushed a button. So far so good. After a few
minutes we hear the muted sounds of water swooshing around in there, washing
a few not-very-dirty dishes that we had stuck in there (2 cups/glasses, one
pot, one frying pan & a cutting board). I might state that in the 1970's my
Dad had bought my Mom a dishwasher for Christmas one year, and you could
hear that thing running in every room of the house! Even in certain places
OUTSIDE the house! Not so with these new ones - they're very quiet
nowadays!

NO LEAKS!!!!!! Our diligence at making sure that the drain & hot water feed
were sealed paid off!

Easiest part so far: Releasing the kitties from their imprisonment! Just
open the doors! (I might mention that yes, we did clean up our major mess
from our installation endeavor). The really fun part is watching them
warily approach this new weird white thing in the kitchen. The bravest one
was Smokey, but Weeble was a close second. Weeble however got a pretty good
scare when it switched cycles on him! He jumped about a foot - especially
since it'd been quiet for about 3-5 minutes between cycles while he
approached it... and then the muted whooshing sounds started and that did
it!

Now for the job of finding a place to put all the stuff that was removed
from the cabinet that was sacrificed. Most of it is tupperware/rubbermaid
storage stuff, so I'm sure I'll find a place for it.

Nest step: make a lot of dirty dishes so I can use my new dishwasher!!!
Oh - and make sure a cat hasn't snuck in there before I turn it on

Weeble's Meowmie
--
The ONE and ONLY
lefthanded-pathetic-paranoid-psychotic-sarcastic-wiseass-ditzy former-blonde
in Bloomington! (And proud of it, too)©
http://www.geocities.com/the_magic_mood_jeep/
http://community.webshots.com/user/mgcmdjeep

Dang! You guys sure are handy with tools! Our dryer died on us this
weekend, the belt broke. Mind you, it's a very old dryer that came with
the house. We kinda found the right replacement part, but after opening
the back of the dryer we realized we would need professional help to
install it. Considering it would cost $100 to bring someone out to fix
it, and that we had been planning to upgrade the dryer (it's so old it
makes me nervous it will catch fire one day) we decided to bite the
bullet and get a new one.
So we're getting a new dryer on Wednesday. It matches the washer we had
to buy when our old one croaked last year. The good thing is that we'll
install it in the washer closet, the old dryer was on an *outside*
closet. That should make doing laundry a simpler task.

--
Victor Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 18:27:22 GMT, "Magic Mood Jeep©"
wrote:

We chose a model of dishwasher that has
a disposal built in, since we don't have that handy appliance in our sink,

Congratulations on your new toy!

I'm curious about a disposal built into the dishwasher. How does that
work, I don't believe I've seen one before. I have the more usual
disposal attached to the kitchen sink, and I don't think my dishwasher
has a disposal, at least not how I think of a disposal....



Jeanne Hedge, as directed by Natasha

http://www.jhedge.com

Happy purr-day! Congrats on doing it all yourselves, I would never try to do
something like that myself.
Best wishes,
--
Polonca & Soncek

"Magic Mood Jeep©" wrote in message
news:eAgMb.25832$8H.60042@attbi_s03...
Well, it's actually on Tuesday, but DJ got me my prezzy early: A
dishwasher!

He asked me a month ago what I wanted, and I'd been thinking and doing
some
'online window shopping'. Well, yesterday, (Sat 1/10/04), we got up early
and went to one of the local home improvement warehouses (this one opens
at
6:30am Monday thru Saturday, just to cater to those early risers and
contractors), went and looked at a few they had on display, found the one
that I had decided on, they had it in stock, so we bought it and loaded it
up in the back of the Land Rover (fit rather nicely - we had folded up the
back seats , but I don't think we needed to), and got it home (it was cold
out, and I almost dropped it coming in the back door - dishwashers are
light, I might add, since the major part of them is plastic). We had all
the kitties locked up (against their protestations) in either the bathroom
or the spare bedroom/office before we brought it in (we didn't want any
escapees, and Weeble does like to make a dash for the back (enclosed)
porch). We unboxed it and took a look at the instructions (mind you, we
just LOOKED at them, we didn't actually READ them). Then we preceded to
decide which cabinet had to go in order to make room for the dishwasher.

I might interject here that our house was built in 1925, so the kitchen is
the largest room in the house at 14x20. The kitchen had at one time
burned
as it's got the newest walls & roof (we can tell that from inside the
attic), I'd say it was sometime in the 1950s or so. The cabinets are old,
made of WOOD, not particle board or laminate of some type - so even though
they look like crap (hey - I'm not near as old as they are and I already
look like crap), they are rather well built.

Having decided which cabinet could be spared/sacrificed, we proceeded to
empty it, and then ripped it apart (that was the fun part) and found
underneath of it the messed up original Formica or linoleum flooring, it
had
a black & red border on it, and an intake vent for the furnace (they had
sort of sealed that with a sheet of ducting tin, but we it still sucked
air
in thru the cabinet, so we sealed it better with duct tape on top of the
tin. The cabinet we decided to use was just to the left of the sink, so
draining it wouldn't be a problem. We chose a model of dishwasher that
has
a disposal built in, since we don't have that handy appliance in our sink,
even though the previous owners had installed wiring for a disposal under
the sink, it wasn't attached to anything. So down to the breaker we go,
to
see where we could hook up said wiring and where to attach the hot water
for
the dishwasher feed. The electrical circuit that the wiring went to (but
wasn't hooked into) was right underneath where the sink is, and right near
the hot water pipes to the sink. First think we did was shut off all
power
to the house (none of the circuit breakers are marked, except for the
washer/dryer, garage & furnace) so we could connect the wiring, once done,
hubby went back upstairs to the sink, and with a voltage meter held to the
now-connected wiring, I turned the circuit breakers back on one by one
until
he hollered that he had power. Then I marked that breaker and turned it
back off (don't want live wires hanging over our heads while we were
playing
with the hot water pipes - remember that electricity and water do not mix
very well).
snip

in article , Victor Martinez at
wrote on 1/11/04 1:16 PM:

Dang! You guys sure are handy with tools! Our dryer died on us this
weekend, the belt broke. Mind you, it's a very old dryer that came with
the house. We kinda found the right replacement part, but after opening
the back of the dryer we realized we would need professional help to
install it. Considering it would cost $100 to bring someone out to fix
it, and that we had been planning to upgrade the dryer (it's so old it
makes me nervous it will catch fire one day) we decided to bite the
bullet and get a new one.
So we're getting a new dryer on Wednesday. It matches the washer we had
to buy when our old one croaked last year. The good thing is that we'll
install it in the washer closet, the old dryer was on an *outside*
closet. That should make doing laundry a simpler task.

They certainly are! I'm happy just to be able to use a screw gun. I'd be no
good with home improvement. Another factor that told me to just rent a nicer
apartment than try to buy a house. (I still have pangs, but overall I
believe I am doing the right thing.)

Karen

"Jeanne Hedge" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 18:27:22 GMT, "Magic Mood Jeep©"
wrote:

We chose a model of dishwasher that has
a disposal built in, since we don't have that handy appliance in our
sink,

Congratulations on your new toy!

I'm curious about a disposal built into the dishwasher. How does that
work, I don't believe I've seen one before. I have the more usual
disposal attached to the kitchen sink, and I don't think my dishwasher
has a disposal, at least not how I think of a disposal....


I know it's a LOT smaller than the regular under-the-sink disposal
(otherwise it wouldn't fit in that tiny cramped place under there), so I'm
assuming it's not as heavy duty. Just for the small stuff you leave on your
plate. Instructions said that you did NOT have to rinse the dishes before
placing them in the dishwasher, but you did need to get the big chunks off
(bones & large chunks of leftovers), things that a normal disposal would
probably handle just fine (at least I'm assuming that, I don't recall ever
having one, escept maybe in an apartment that I had decades ago, and I
didn't use it very much - those things scare me.).

I think it only runs when it drains, so it's not running the entire time the
dishwasher is running.


Jeanne Hedge, as directed by Natasha

http://www.jhedge.com

Congrats to you - make sure that Weeble isn't around, much less *in* it when
you turn it on. Years ago, Toops and Hopitus1 loved to recline on the open
dishwasher door.
Ah.....Victor.....congrats also on new dryer. But if in as you say an inside
closet, I know you will be sure to vent the thing's exhaust pipe to the
outside - more work on some houses than others - as lint you can't even see
will build up and can combust inside dryer exhaust.
A PITA. BTW, the belt is a real *itch to get on right and we did the same
thing you did; buy a new dryer instead of paying to have repairman put belt
on.




"polonca12000" wrote in message
...
: Happy purr-day! Congrats on doing it all yourselves, I would never try to
do
: something like that myself.
: Best wishes,
: --
: Polonca & Soncek
:
: "Magic Mood Jeep©" wrote in message
: news:eAgMb.25832$8H.60042@attbi_s03...
: Well, it's actually on Tuesday, but DJ got me my prezzy early: A
: dishwasher!
:
: He asked me a month ago what I wanted, and I'd been thinking and doing
: some
: 'online window shopping'. Well, yesterday, (Sat 1/10/04), we got up
early
: and went to one of the local home improvement warehouses (this one opens
: at
: 6:30am Monday thru Saturday, just to cater to those early risers and
: contractors), went and looked at a few they had on display, found the
one
: that I had decided on, they had it in stock, so we bought it and loaded
it
: up in the back of the Land Rover (fit rather nicely - we had folded up
the
: back seats , but I don't think we needed to), and got it home (it was
cold
: out, and I almost dropped it coming in the back door - dishwashers are
: light, I might add, since the major part of them is plastic). We had
all
: the kitties locked up (against their protestations) in either the
bathroom
: or the spare bedroom/office before we brought it in (we didn't want any
: escapees, and Weeble does like to make a dash for the back (enclosed)
: porch). We unboxed it and took a look at the instructions (mind you, we
: just LOOKED at them, we didn't actually READ them). Then we preceded to
: decide which cabinet had to go in order to make room for the dishwasher.
:
: I might interject here that our house was built in 1925, so the kitchen
is
: the largest room in the house at 14x20. The kitchen had at one time
: burned
: as it's got the newest walls & roof (we can tell that from inside the
: attic), I'd say it was sometime in the 1950s or so. The cabinets are
old,
: made of WOOD, not particle board or laminate of some type - so even
though
: they look like crap (hey - I'm not near as old as they are and I already
: look like crap), they are rather well built.
:
: Having decided which cabinet could be spared/sacrificed, we proceeded to
: empty it, and then ripped it apart (that was the fun part) and found
: underneath of it the messed up original Formica or linoleum flooring, it
: had
: a black & red border on it, and an intake vent for the furnace (they had
: sort of sealed that with a sheet of ducting tin, but we it still sucked
: air
: in thru the cabinet, so we sealed it better with duct tape on top of the
: tin. The cabinet we decided to use was just to the left of the sink, so
: draining it wouldn't be a problem. We chose a model of dishwasher that
: has
: a disposal built in, since we don't have that handy appliance in our
sink,
: even though the previous owners had installed wiring for a disposal
under
: the sink, it wasn't attached to anything. So down to the breaker we go,
: to
: see where we could hook up said wiring and where to attach the hot water
: for
: the dishwasher feed. The electrical circuit that the wiring went to
(but
: wasn't hooked into) was right underneath where the sink is, and right
near
: the hot water pipes to the sink. First think we did was shut off all
: power
: to the house (none of the circuit breakers are marked, except for the
: washer/dryer, garage & furnace) so we could connect the wiring, once
done,
: hubby went back upstairs to the sink, and with a voltage meter held to
the
: now-connected wiring, I turned the circuit breakers back on one by one
: until
: he hollered that he had power. Then I marked that breaker and turned it
: back off (don't want live wires hanging over our heads while we were
: playing
: with the hot water pipes - remember that electricity and water do not
mix
: very well).
: snip
:
:

Yeah - we did that too - still have the old dryer sitting out in the garage,
collecting dust & mouse droppings I'm sure. We need to load it up & take it
to the 'recycle' place (they fix old appliances * then resell them cheap to
those less fortunate than ourselves), but it's not high priority on our
to-do list.

--
The ONE and ONLY
lefthanded-pathetic-paranoid-psychotic-sarcastic-wiseass-ditzy former-blonde
in Bloomington! (And proud of it, too)©
http://www.geocities.com/the_magic_mood_jeep/
http://community.webshots.com/user/mgcmdjeep


"Hopitus2" wrote in message
...
Congrats to you - make sure that Weeble isn't around, much less *in* it
when
you turn it on. Years ago, Toops and Hopitus1 loved to recline on the open
dishwasher door.
Ah.....Victor.....congrats also on new dryer. But if in as you say an
inside
closet, I know you will be sure to vent the thing's exhaust pipe to the
outside - more work on some houses than others - as lint you can't even
see
will build up and can combust inside dryer exhaust.
A PITA. BTW, the belt is a real *itch to get on right and we did the same
thing you did; buy a new dryer instead of paying to have repairman put
belt
on.




"polonca12000" wrote in message
...
: Happy purr-day! Congrats on doing it all yourselves, I would never try
to
do
: something like that myself.
: Best wishes,
: --
: Polonca & Soncek
:
: "Magic Mood Jeep©" wrote in message
: news:eAgMb.25832$8H.60042@attbi_s03...
: Well, it's actually on Tuesday, but DJ got me my prezzy early: A
: dishwasher!
:
: He asked me a month ago what I wanted, and I'd been thinking and doing
: some
: 'online window shopping'. Well, yesterday, (Sat 1/10/04), we got up
early
: and went to one of the local home improvement warehouses (this one
opens
: at
: 6:30am Monday thru Saturday, just to cater to those early risers and
: contractors), went and looked at a few they had on display, found the
one
: that I had decided on, they had it in stock, so we bought it and
loaded
it
: up in the back of the Land Rover (fit rather nicely - we had folded up
the
: back seats , but I don't think we needed to), and got it home (it was
cold
: out, and I almost dropped it coming in the back door - dishwashers are
: light, I might add, since the major part of them is plastic). We had
all
: the kitties locked up (against their protestations) in either the
bathroom
: or the spare bedroom/office before we brought it in (we didn't want
any
: escapees, and Weeble does like to make a dash for the back (enclosed)
: porch). We unboxed it and took a look at the instructions (mind you,
we
: just LOOKED at them, we didn't actually READ them). Then we preceded
to
: decide which cabinet had to go in order to make room for the
dishwasher.
:
: I might interject here that our house was built in 1925, so the
kitchen
is
: the largest room in the house at 14x20. The kitchen had at one time
: burned
: as it's got the newest walls & roof (we can tell that from inside the
: attic), I'd say it was sometime in the 1950s or so. The cabinets are
old,
: made of WOOD, not particle board or laminate of some type - so even
though
: they look like crap (hey - I'm not near as old as they are and I
already
: look like crap), they are rather well built.
:
: Having decided which cabinet could be spared/sacrificed, we proceeded
to
: empty it, and then ripped it apart (that was the fun part) and found
: underneath of it the messed up original Formica or linoleum flooring,
it
: had
: a black & red border on it, and an intake vent for the furnace (they
had
: sort of sealed that with a sheet of ducting tin, but we it still
sucked
: air
: in thru the cabinet, so we sealed it better with duct tape on top of
the
: tin. The cabinet we decided to use was just to the left of the sink,
so
: draining it wouldn't be a problem. We chose a model of dishwasher
that
: has
: a disposal built in, since we don't have that handy appliance in our
sink,
: even though the previous owners had installed wiring for a disposal
under
: the sink, it wasn't attached to anything. So down to the breaker we
go,
: to
: see where we could hook up said wiring and where to attach the hot
water
: for
: the dishwasher feed. The electrical circuit that the wiring went to
(but
: wasn't hooked into) was right underneath where the sink is, and right
near
: the hot water pipes to the sink. First think we did was shut off all
: power
: to the house (none of the circuit breakers are marked, except for the
: washer/dryer, garage & furnace) so we could connect the wiring, once
done,
: hubby went back upstairs to the sink, and with a voltage meter held to
the
: now-connected wiring, I turned the circuit breakers back on one by one
: until
: he hollered that he had power. Then I marked that breaker and turned
it
: back off (don't want live wires hanging over our heads while we were
: playing
: with the hot water pipes - remember that electricity and water do not
mix
: very well).
: snip
:
:

"Magic Mood Jeep" wrote:

The really fun part is watching them warily approach this new
weird white thing in the kitchen. The bravest one was Smokey, but
Weeble was a close second. Weeble however got a pretty good scare
when it switched cycles on him! He jumped about a foot -
especially since it'd been quiet for about 3-5 minutes between
cycles while he approached it... and then the muted whooshing
sounds started and that did it!

LOL - did he jump *backward* when he went a foot in the air? I always
find it hilarious to see kittens do that.

Joyce

I think that was his attention, but he couldn't get any grip on the slick
vinyl flooring

--
The ONE and ONLY
lefthanded-pathetic-paranoid-psychotic-sarcastic-wiseass-ditzy former-blonde
in Bloomington! (And proud of it, too)©
http://www.geocities.com/the_magic_mood_jeep/
http://community.webshots.com/user/mgcmdjeep


wrote in message
news
"Magic Mood Jeep" wrote:

The really fun part is watching them warily approach this new
weird white thing in the kitchen. The bravest one was Smokey, but
Weeble was a close second. Weeble however got a pretty good scare
when it switched cycles on him! He jumped about a foot -
especially since it'd been quiet for about 3-5 minutes between
cycles while he approached it... and then the muted whooshing
sounds started and that did it!

LOL - did he jump *backward* when he went a foot in the air? I always
find it hilarious to see kittens do that.

Joyce