The dishwasher’s rack had oddly placed pegs, so I took a closer look at it and discovered that the previous owner had wedged in a Rubbermaid wire shelf, presumably to prevent smaller items from falling through.

As it turns out, that exact tray was on my (extensive) ‘to buy’ list and enabled me to convert one of my cabinets from ‘neat, but piled on top of one another’ to this:

Now that I’ve got that cupboard under control, I’m motivated to do the same to the cavernous one next to it and just realised that it won’t be as hard as I thought it would be. I’ve been treating the cabinet like a corner model, but it’s not really, and I’ll be able to put a shelf across the back as though it was a regular cabinet.

Putting in a shelf above the big bowls in the back would enable me to bring down the bakeware that’s above, freeing the deep, but skinny, upper shelf for baking sheets and cutting boards.

(I really should be in bed, but when I get into one of these organizing moods I think it’s best not to stop myself. 😀 )

From the minute I began planning the front room renos I had a very strong image in my head of just how I was going to install a countertop dishwasher. After doing research, looking at other people’s installations, and actually squeezing a dishwasher in here, I am very surprised to discover that my exact original idea will work.

Taking apart the dinette will entail a lot of work, especially the bench near the stove. I would have to relocate heating ducts and the propane detector, cut through a steel frame, and find a new and not-so-optimum location for items stored in the bench. More than once I had the thought that the bench frame has exactly the right dimensions for the project I had in mind. Why not leave that bench intact, rest the dishwasher on it, add on supports for the countertop, and create a new hinged door in front to get at the stored items previously accessible from the top?

Another issue was how was I going to get water and power to the dishwasher? By having it face the kitchen, I would have to route the hoses around the unit and possibly create a draining nightmare. The obvious solution was to face the dishwasher towards the lounge then cut a hole in the paneling at the rear through which I could fit the hoses and power cord. Not ideal but not a big deal. Another issue that was brought up while discussing the dishwasher with someone was how low it could be installed before drainage became a problem. There cannot be more than 3′ difference between the bottom of the unit and the tap.

So, you can imagine that I thought that getting the dishwasher into its permanent position was going to be a huge hassle.

Behold the dishwasher in its permanent, albeit naked, position:

Right now, it’s just resting on a very thin piece of plywood. I’m sure it’s strong enough to support the weight since it’s meant to hold the weight of an adult, but I do plan to use some plywood scraps to make a stronger base just in case. A drill and jigsaw combo will make short work of making a neat hole in the paneling at the base of the dishwasher for putting the hoses and cord through.

The icing on the cake is that the hoses and cord are long enough to reach the sink and plug and the height difference is less than 2′!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a drawer that I will be installing next to the dishwasher and over that will be space for a garbage can.

As for my new counter top, you can see it in the above picture. *gives her readers time to go back up and stare at the picture for a second then nods* My dinette table just happens to be made of the same material as the kitchen counter top and even has the same oak trim. It’s exactly the right width for the project and only a tad short, but I’ve already figured out how I’m going to compensate for that.

Hopefully, it’ll stop storming tomorrow (been going strong for 30 hours now) and I can get into the workshop to get to work on my new counter!

Needless to say, the carpet at the bottom of that unit is staying and I’ll be laying the new flooring around it. Much less complicated!

The rest of the details of this project shall remain shrouded in mystery until I get this project done. 😀

In a shocking turn of events, my dishwasher seller was correct and the Home Depot guy was completely ignorant!

Yup, the missing part for the dishwasher is common and readily available. The part cost me 8.90$ with the tax. Add the 70$ for the dishwasher and the 15$ for gas, and subtract 25$ for the plywood and my dishwasher cost me 69$. What a bargain!

Plywood you say?

I rolled into Home Depot this morning and saw a big sign saying ‘FREE WOOD.’ It looked like a bunch of pallets that would make good kindling, but I took a closer look. Lying on top was a 4’x4′ sheet of  1/2″ plywood with a smooth top in impeccable condition. This high quality stuff is worth at least 25$. Needless to say, I’ll find a use for it! So, I’m glad that the clerk was wrong the other night since it made me go back to Home Depot where I was able to snag this great bonus!

My dishes are being washed as I post. *joy*

Post edited an hour later to add:

The dishwasher’s performance exceeds my expectations! In order to test it, I purposely left out a few dishes without rinsing them (gross, I know, but the things I do in the name of science!). Even though the stuff in the bowls was pretty crusty (remember, science!) by the time I ran them through the Danby they came out clean!!! Glasses and cutlery sparkle. I am very impressed!!! The next challenge will be to find a permanent home for the unit. My idea of building it into the new countertop could theoretically work provided I can find some longer hoses, so that will be the next project. 🙂

My only quibble with the unit is that the manual sucks. The previous owner threw his out since he found it to be useless, but did provide an online link where I could download it. Nowhere in the manual does it say how to operate the unit, such as when to turn on the tap water (before you do anything else) or what the various settings do. Thankfully, the dishwasher is pretty much idiot proof to run. My only question is whether I should be sending hot or cold water to it. I’ve been sending cold and the dishwasher has been heating it up, but I’m not sure if that water is in fact hot enough. Something to research.

Miranda’s overhead cabinets provide a lot of storage space, but containerizing within them is key to keeping things functional. Finding the right containers has been a challenge. I like for things to match as much as possible as well as be aesthetically pleasing, so I didn’t want to buy some cheap plastic containers that would eventually end up cracking. No, what I really wanted were some pretty seagrass baskets.

While wandering around Canadian Tire the other night looking at furniture, I found three-packs of nesting rectangular seagrass baskets reduced from the high twenties to just 8.99$ per set!!! I scooped up four and am now kicking myself for not getting eight.

The upper cabinets in the study have two cavernous corners. The larger baskets are exactly the right size for the space! One basket holds cards, letters, and other sentimental paper and the other basket has water colour paper and other art supplies.

Two more of the large baskets stacked one on top of the other. One holds notebooks, the other blank paper. These are easily accessible when I open a cabinet door, and I need to pull them out to get to the baskets in the corner.

As an aside, this was another brilliant storage idea I had this week. I put linens, pajamas, exercise clothes, and work clothes in separate cloth bags that I can squish into two cabinets instead of having the whole mess spill into three cabinets. It’s not an ideal storage solution, but it makes the best use of the space I have and I’m finding it to be easy to live with.

Medium size baskets fit side-by-side in one cabinet and hold books.

Getting these upper cabinets into shape has become my priority for the weekend as I am still debating the rustic flooring option. Since I will be doing away with some storage space when I get rid of the dinette benches and the bed base in the study, I need to make room to move the items in those locations. I don’t think this will be too onerous.

One dinette bench holds only a few small kitchen appliances like the blender, and there is plenty of room for all that in the new over fridge cabinet. The other dinette bench holds journals and photographs I inherited from my dad. I will be able to fit the journals into the study overhead cabinets by the time I’m through with them. The pictures will be sorted into my photo album or, if they are too large, will find a place of honour on what little wall space I have. Finally, the bed base holds some winter gear I can transfer to a tote in the basement and some linens I am thinking of using as a lining for new curtains. So, really, there isn’t that much I need to make space for, but the space needs to be there.

I have begun the dinettectomy, but, being the tease that I am, pictures will wait until I aim further along in the process. 😀

I went to Home Depot tonight to get the thingamabob that I’m missing to connect my dishwasher to the faucet. I don’t even want to admit where I put the dishwasher. 🙂 As I suspected, the missing part is not ‘common’, as the seller told me it was. But the price I paid was worth the finagling that will be necessary to hook up the appliance. The Home Depot plumbing helper told me to come back with the part I’m trying to hook up to the faucet seeing as the pics weren’t enough (he was impressed that I brought pictures!). The dishwasher has two hoses that screw into this part I’ll be bringing in, so the thingamabob might end up replacing the part altogether. Home Depot Guy and I are looking forward to MacGyvering a solution together. 🙂

Next, I went to flooring to ogle the Allure once more and gasped when I saw a new-old option. Turns out that Traffic Master got a bad batch of my third choice for the new floors. The colour’s apparently off, but it looks great to me. They really want to get through that batch and are selling the boxes for 36$ each. Regular price 56$. And I might need 10 boxes to do the rig end to end, for a total potential savings of 200$ by going with the flooring I like rather than the one I love! I checked with Home Depot and the price will stay until the entire batch is liquidated, and there could be millions of boxes of the stuff across North America. So, even if I were to buy only two or three boxes at a time, budget permitting, the price is guaranteed for a long time, and if the Home Depot here runs out they can get me some from another store.

Seeing as I have four days off ahead of me, I am crunching the numbers to see if I can afford the three boxes it’ll take for me to do the front room. Once the new floor’s in, I’ll be able to get my counter extension in and do a few other cheap projects. My only concern is that the flooring I’m considering is not going to look good with the current cabinetry, so I’m wondering if I’ll be able to live with the mismatch until I end up painting. Most likely yes. 🙂

Getting the front room ready for new flooring is going to be a project unto itself. It involves taking the dinette apart completely, including sawing through a steel seatbelt frame, as well as sawing through the bolts holding the two bucket chairs in place. And, of course, I’ll need to pull up the hardwood flooring in the kitchen. So, this will be a much bigger project than it was the first time around, but I look forward to having unified, easy-to-maintain flooring from one end of the RV to the other, as well as no thresholds to bang my toes on.

So, there you have it. The renos I’m embarking on aim to turn a blah RV into a cute little cottage on wheels. Let’s see how I do. 😀