Sometimes you end up improving things you didn’t realize needed improvement.

Well, in this case that wasn’t really true. We bought this house a year ago, and the appliances in the kitchen were not exactly top of the line. That said, they were functional, so plans to upgrade them fell WAY down the list. The dishwasher worked pretty well. But the thing sounded like a freight train coming through the house. We couldn’t set it and then go to bed. It would keep me awake for an hour. And then there was the water leaking… Finally it just quit. We had it repaired once, and the Major fixed it himself twice. When it died again the day after Christmas, we gave up on it, and ordered a Christmas present we hadn’t planned on.

And I tell you, I’m in love.

But nothing is easy, right? We pulled out the old dishwasher and rolled the new one in, ready to install it. But it was too tall. By about an inch. Wouldn’t fit under the granite.

After several “oh crap” moments, we agreed to chip out the tile that extended beneath the dishwasher. And learned that the tile had been laid on backer board (of course) on TOP of linoleum. (Surprise). And under that? Mold.

I thought the sub floor was rotten, and dollar signs began to flash through my mind… but it turned out that whoever had installed the original appliances had laid down a piece of plywood first. We cut that out, and the mold went with it, but the original subfloor was damp, so we had to wait for it to dry before the new dishwasher could go in.

Two more days of washing dishes by hand and having a dishwasher in the middle of the kitchen. Oy.

So this is what we had for the whole weekend… Until yesterday, when we dropped in the new dishwasher! I didn’t know I could feel such strong love for an appliance, but this one… let me tell you. 🙂

It’s the Bosch 500 series, and it is SO quiet! And it cleans really well, and it is intelligently designed — a utensil rack up top! I really do love it, or maybe it’s just that great an improvement over the old one. Either way, Merry late Christmas to me.