Dishwasher Drama

Justin and I were in desperate need of a new dishwasher. The top rack of ours had fallen onto the bottom rack, and the top spinner (is there a technical name for that?) had fallen off as well. So, we traipsed off to Home Depot, child in tow, two weeks ago to purchase a new dishwasher. It came Saturday. Last night, I posted an ad on craigslist for a plumber and had one volunteer to come install the dishwasher last night. Originally, he wanted to charge me $200. Being the savvy woman I am, I told him I had another plumber who would come for $100. He immediately cut his price in half.

Now this "twenty minute job" took ninety. I kind of figured it would, knowing how Frank, the man who owned the house before us, worked his repairs and installations. But, everything was finally running and good. The plumber left, and I started the dishwasher before jumping in the shower. When I got out, I thought things sounded funny. Turns out there was no water going in to the dishwasher. It was all going into my neighbor's ceiling.

Knowing Justin, I thought it was best to not tell him and go straight to bed. Particularly since I was the one who hired the plumber. And I did go to sleep. Until 2:00 in the morning, when I woke with a start and couldn't go back to bed. I decided it was a fine time to investigate. So I pulled the dishwasher out from the counter and found the errant tube. Water spewed forth whenever the dishwasher was on. But there was nowhere to put it. Well, there was a cup to put it in, but I wasn't sure how that would help with the water.

So I moved on to the instruction manual, where there was no mention of this tube. And then I checked YouTube for installation videos. Nothing about that stupid tube. I finally decided it was time to go back to bed. After all, at this point it was 3:50. So, I slid the dishwasher back under the cabinet. Too far. I couldn't close the door all the way, and I couldn't get it back out. And I didn't care. I had to get some sleep in order to survive the day.

I hoped Justin wouldn't want to see the dishwasher this morning. In fact, I prayed about it. But it was the first thing he checked out when he came into the kitchen. And, observant man that he is, Justin wanted to know why the door wouldn't close and the unit had come unscrewed. So I burst into tears. And Justin just hugged me and told me he wouldn't have been upset (I'm not entirely sure I believe that, but I really appreciated it this morning).

So, today I was on a mission. Our dubious plumber told me he didn't know what that tube was for. GE had no idea what I was talking about and scheduled a service call. Home Depot told me none of their models have tubes on them. That's where I drew the line. I asked her to please go look because I could not deal with trying to find another plumber. So, Jenny, my new Home Depot buddy, unscrewed her model dishwasher and looked for a black tube. Which she found. Plugged into the little cup I had found at 3:00 this morning and inspected. But not very closely because I missed the part where there was an opening into the dishwasher.

I came home and had the dishwasher fixed in three minutes. And that counts unscrewing the countertop from the base in order to get the unit out from where I had pushed it in too far and it came up behind the lip of the counter. And now, my dedicated readers, I leave you to be thankful for your installed appliances as I head to bed for more than three hours of sleep.