Our First Dishwasher
We bought our first dishwasher today.
Once we decided that our time is more valuable than our money, we started working on upgrading our kitchen. The most obvious way to cut the amount of drudge work was to stop washing dishes. But we value hygiene too highly to simply let the dishes remain unwashed. Thus, a dishwasher.
But this old house has never had a dishwasher before. The previous owner did put washer and dryer hookups in the kitchen. We decided to piggyback on that water line and to install a dishwasher next to the washer and dryer. That wall of the kitchen doesn’t have a countertop to put the dishwasher under. So, we’re also going to install a second countertop and some additional cabinets.
(This is also why you shouldn’t ask me to scope a project for you. Instead of going with the easy solution — a portable dishwasher — I chose to go with the much more expensive kitchen upgrade package.)
We’ve been working with Stoughton Lumber to plan the project and decide what we’ll need to buy. After we’ve bought everything we’ll need, a friend from our church Life Group will help me install it all. Because I lack pretty much all handyman skills, this will be a real learning experience.
Christine’s been watching the sale flyers for a while now. She’s also been researching dishwashers and checking out the Consumer Reports rankings. This week she saw a good deal on CR’s Best Buy. So we went out and bought it at Quam’s Appliance. They’ll hold it until we call them up and tell them we’re ready for it to be delivered.
We thought about buying our new dishwasher from Sears. Sears was willing to more than match the advertised price from Quam’s, but insisted on charging a $75 delivery fee for any purchase less than $399. The price match would have cut the dishwasher down to $344. The total price (including delivery) would have been $419. Quam’s sold us the dishwasher and delivery for only $389. Done deal. Sears wasn’t willing to price match on the delivery and that cost them the sale. Their loss, our gain.
Now we just have to finish the overall design, buy our new cabinetry and countertop, and do the installation. We can’t wait.