Week 4 – Leak 4

Don’t touch the oven, it gets hot. No, seriously, hot on the outside. This picture shows how we jam the door shut to keep the heat in. New hinges are on the way that should fix that  problem, but if it doesn’t you’ll probably read about it here.

The interesting part of the picture, though, is the dishwasher in the back, which is also held shut. It wasn’t fully installed and didn’t work at all, but we left it in there while waiting for a new dishwasher to be delivered. If we didn’t prop it shut, though, the door would randomly open with a slow creak and then a loud thump.

A new dishwasher was set to be delivered, so I finally wanted to remove the old one so it could be hauled away when they brought the new one. When I disconnect it, though, I realized I hadn’t finished with the leaks at the kitchen sink. The shutoff valve on the hot water supply to the dishwasher didn’t shut off completely, which caused it to drip on the kitchen floor.

Fortunately, there was a second shutoff valve, but it also shut off hot water to the kitchen sink. Now we’d have no hot water at the kitchen sink, but the floor would stay dry.

Then Lowes called to reschedule the delivery for a week later.

The old dishwasher was already at the side of the house waiting to be picked up and the hot water was shut off. On the bright side, we could now open the drawer that had been blocked by the semi-installed washer.

We had water, but only cold water. I had already removed the utility tub in what would become the panty (not that the water to the tub had actually been connected) and we still didn’t want to use the downstairs bathroom. We ended up boiling water in a tea kettle so we could do the dishes. Remember, we had no dishwasher, so we had to do dishes by hand. And now we had to boil our own water first too.

Then Lowes called to say it would be another few days.

Then, on the scheduled day, their delivery window came and went.

When I called to find out why, I learned that the driver had gone to our mailing address (a PO Box around the corner) and saw it was a post office, so he left.

I ended up talking to somebody in distribution and they managed to get the driver turned around and the washer delivered that night.

Of course, every water connection is different and they can’t include all the possible parts, but when I sent Kendall a picture of what I was starting with and what I needed to connect to,

she came back with a combination that made the transition work:

The dishwasher is now installed and working beautifully!