The Great Tuesday Night Appliance Swap

On my last post, I mentioned that we were heading into a crazy busy week, and boy did that turn out to be true!

First off, Tuesday. The one day we didn't have anything pre-scheduled... It started like most Tuesdays, I was up at 4:30am to play racketball at the Y, and had a great time as always! When I got home, Cindy and I started talking about, and agreed that it was time to, replace our dishwasher. When we bought our house, we were really excited that it came with a luxurious, stainless steel Bosch dishwasher.



Unfortunately, the honeymoon with our shiny German sanitizer didn't last long. A few months after moving in, we realized that its wash cycle often lasted three hours or more, and the countdown timer on the front would sit on 1 minute remaining for half an hour or more. Through the magic of the Internet, I found some button sequences that would force it to reset, but that didn't really cure the problem.

This all really came to a head Monday night. I got home from work and started making dinner. The dishes had been partly done the night before, and now the sink was so full I couldn't get much done. So I quickly filled and started the dishwasher and got busy making dinner. The wash cycle started at about 5:20 pm.

Dinner was great, and then we went to bury a turtle and pick blueberries. We got back home around 9:00. And the dishwasher was still running. Oh boy, another night's dishes won't get washed... it's time to finally do something...

So Tuesday morning Cindy and I decided to stop talking about replacing it, and just do it. I did some research and narrowed it down to three models, all of which Lowe's had the best price. Got to Lowe's, found the floor models, and there was a very clear winner. So naturally, they didn't have it in stock. Their store across town did though, so we pressed on with our plan, and went to the other store to make our purchase. As we were leaving our local Lowe's, I re-confirmed with the appliance guy that the other store DID have it in stock. He said yes, they have 2 in stock.

We get to the other store, and go right to the appliances. Our model is nowhere to be seen. My blood tries to boil, I try to remain calm... Eventually an employee wanders by and I ambush. Turns out they DO have two in stock, they just haven't gotten their display model yet. (exact opposite of our local store, with had display but no stock.)

A reasonable amount of time later, we're on our way home with a new dishwasher.

That I get to figure out how to install... Not that I was really worried, but it was something I'd never done before. And the night was slipping away with all the running from store to store. So I get to work... and it's really not any harder than I thought it would be, which is good! While I'm busily working, I'm entertained by the sounds coming from the living room, where our Missionaries are hanging out with the family... We seem to be THE place for them to hang out, but this time they brought along a video so it wouldn't be just "goofing off at the Brinkerhoff's."

As I finished up my project, Elder Allred demonstrated a special talent that we're under a nondisclosure agreement until his mission is finished. But there is video, and it will be utilized in the future! By 9:30, I stood back to admire my handiwork...



It did a GREAT job! The next day ye olde Bosch found a happy new owner via Craigslist, effectively giving us a $100 rebate on our new dishwasher! I still need to do a few minor tweaks to really complete the install, and they should be done next week when we DON'T have something planned every night... at least, we don't yet...