Our 1st Big Project: Installing a Dishwasher

As I previously eluded (love that word), we recently installed a dishwasher!  We have had a dishwasher waiting to be installed since we bought our home.  I thought it would be a few short weeks, however weeks turned into months, and finally after looking at my kitchen constantly covered in dishes and having to wash them multiple times per day, I talked my hubby into doing it ourselves on a Saturday.

To start I had my hubby look up the directions and take the necessary measurements.  

We took a trip to the hardware store, it was that I realized my husband, like EVERY OTHER MALE on the planet, REALLY dislikes asking for help or directions.  To take the pressure off, I took the kids to the flowers and allowed him time to "figure it out/ask for help".  After 30 - 40 minutes (two trips to the flowers with the kids, and a potty break) I finally tracked down an employee who offered assistance to my husband.  Within 10 minutes of receiving help (as in what was an hour trip could have been all of 15minutes) we left with our purchases and ready to start the project.

There has been a spot in our kitchen that has been begging for a dishwasher, since the day we moved in.  When we unpacked our kitchen I intentionally left the space empty, in preparation for the dishwasher.

 All we had to do was knock out the space,

 and drill a few holes to run the water lines (and hook them up),

and the electrical cord.

Easy right?  Of course we encountered multiple issues along the way, requiring a total of four trips the the hardware store.  The first thing we had to change was a wrong size hose, then we found a leak and had to purchase another hose to fix it.

Then the hubby over tightened something and broke something (the plastic piece that hooks up the water return from the dishwasher to the silver thing that spits it into the sink, so technical I know)

Again I'm going to be so technical, but this is the splitter and the other hoses my hubby installed under our sink, it was a fairly easy thing to do.  My hubby is a figure it out on his own kinda guy, but it was pretty self explanatory.

 He worked really hard and save us a ton of money had we hired someone else to do it.

 By the end of the day, we had a wonderful new (to us) dishwasher, ready to handle the mass amount of dishes our family of four produces.

I am one happy lady and am greatly enjoying that it makes one of my daily habits easier as well as my counters clearer!  *Happy dance*  

A fairly successful for our first big DYI home improvement project.  I think we will try and keep the trips to the hardware store to under 4 next time.  Trust me, if we can do it, ANYONE can :)

Cheers!

Ashley