Dishwashaaa

In a previous posting, I talked about my kitchen and the 'antique' appliances it came with, and how I'd replaced the stove. The second item on the hit list was the dishwasher.  Here is the story of how it's replacement came to be.

Since my new stove was nice and shiny stainless, I set out to find a new (to me) stainless dishwasher. I know dishwashers are among the cheaper appliances to buy new, but I'd been seeing a bunch of good looking ones being sold on Public Surplus. Turns out there's some mandate that all dishwashers in schools now have to be commercial grade, so they are dumping late model, perfectly fine non-commercial machines.
Through a serious commitment to lunchtime auction stalking, I saw one for sale in my area that looked promisingly modern. Sure it was white, but I could use a little paint to deal with that.
The bidding was fast and furious. Ha, just kidding. There was one other person who seemed interested, and only $10 of interested. The final price of the dishwasher after taxes, buyer premiums, and bid price was ONLY $11.86!!!! I was flabbergasted and cautiously optimistic that it actually worked, seeing as it was listed as condition 'unknown'.

A friend of mine lives out by the school district the dishwasher was from, and as is my normal food-for-help exchange scenario, she agreed to help me pickup the thing and then we'd go have lunch. I'd bought a small desk from the same school district and planned on stuffing both items into in the back of my Subaru Outback. Since a bigger item like the stove had already fit no problem, I had an over inflated sense of confidence about what could be hauled. The guys at the loading thought I was nuts, but both the machine and the not-so-small-after-all desk fit perfectly with the back seats down. I drove home nose to steering wheel and managed to lug the thing up the stairs by myself.

Plumbing is something I know nothing about and as there are immediate, serious, and super bad consequences for doing it wrong: I figured a professional installation would be worth every penny. Luckily, my Bf's parents gave me a very generous housewarming gift which covered all those pennies.

I've since painted the dishwasher to match the stove. I used appliance enamel on the top and bottom, which my girl Mary in the paint department was able to color black.
On the front panel, I applied two coats of aluminum paint to ensure good coverage. When they were dry, I painted on a third coat that I let dry halfway and then dragged a stiff brush through horizontally. This gave the panel a brushed look which made it look closer to real than just flat painting. I then over-fiddled around and it turned a bit splotchy. I need to learn when enough is enough. Perhaps in another 30 years. It will be an easy fix with another brush-dragged layer at some point, but at the moment, the general appearance of the kitchen is much improved.

Old and New

i take pictures like an off kilter drunk apparently
sorry

Stainless tile backslash post later. :)



-Lindsay