But it’s in!!!!

Croft’s reaction to that was “did you check out the functions of the dishwasher where it is placed before you made it permanent?” I had to laugh because I have been testing the dishwasher in numerous positions on top of the counter. My initial idea has ended up working out just fine, only I couldn’t centre the dishwasher on the counter because of hose length.

I thought to secure the dishwasher with angle brackets and then slide it in between them, then realised that the front needed to be secured, too! The obvious answer to that was to mount the brackets to pieces of wood into which I would screw a frontal piece when the dishwasher was in. Great, there would go a few hours while I ripped plywood into suitable lengths. First, though, I went through my own scrap pile to see if I might have something better than plywood and lo and behold, I had the perfect thing, salvaged from the front of the dinette seats!

It’s definitely time for pictures. 🙂

I had two of these long pieces that were the *exact* width of the angle brackets!!! One piece was enough for the two sides and the other piece did the front. Amazing!

Once the dishwasher was slid in between the two horizontal pieces, I screwed in the front piece. I’ll fill in the previous screw holes with painter’s putty.

As you can see, it’s off-centre, but the hoses are truly at their limits. Not bad, though!

I am very happy that I was able to orientate the dishwasher this way. It’s the best position for loading an unloading and leaves me with a lot more counter space for prep work.

The installation feels very secure; we’ll see if it passes the road test. 🙂

I have just about finished the dishwasher cabinet!!!

What’s left are little finishing touches that require a trip to Home Depot. That is definitely going to be first thing tomorrow!

I put one of these bolts at the top and bottom of the dining room side; they seemed so perfect for securing the doors. They’re not. 🙁 I’ll need to add a mechanism inside one of the doors to keep it from swinging and then the bolts should work.

Kitchen side door.

I cut a piece of plywood to fill in the gap between the counter and the top of the door.

Getting those screws in was a NIGHTMARE! The world is not made for people with stubby fingers.

The top looks horrible. 🙂 I’m going to get some quarter round to make the edges along the countertop prettier. I think a bit more sanding and the eventual paint will make the rest of it look okay. I am however impressed with my jigsawing. 🙂

Because of the angled corner on the kitchen side, I won’t be able to use one of those sliding bolts to secure the door. I’ll have to re-examine the options at Home Depot.

The kitchen side definitely looks less polished than does the dining room side. The door jam isn’t quite as square, although I think I could remedy that by shifting the bottom hinge a tad which would shift the door to cover the slight gap. Considering how hard it was to get that hinge screwed in, I don’t have the strength to remove it and reposition it. 🙂

This morning, I have been working on the kitchen side of the dishwasher cabinet. I made a bit more progress on the dining room side last night since I wanted to test something I bought at Home Depot. There’s more to do, but it’ll have to wait until my next Home Depot trip. I decided to postpone it till tomorrow since I have a dinner engagement this evening and will have to stop early.

The kitchen side is a real puzzle. I have been trying to figure out what I would do to make it look pretty since I temporarily set up the counter. I’ve decided that there is no 100% to achieve here and my aim now is to make it look ‘as non ugly as possible.’

The stove added a surprising level of difficulty and I have had to make a tough choice about which side the hinges will be on. I knew I’d have to account for it in determining the door clearance, but there was another challenge beyond that. I’ll follow up on that with pictures once this side is done.

I’m just about done with the ‘dining room side’ of the dishwasher cabinet! The missing trim is cut, but I need some square brackets to assemble the remaining projects, so I’ll definitely need to get myself to Home Depot tomorrow.

Behold the doors that ate up almost three hours today!

click on the picture to get a better view of the whole thing

Recognize the trim on them? I think this project explains for itself why I love scrounging for parts. I wouldn’t have been able to justify buying expensive trim like that just to ‘gussy up’ my doors. I am incredibly proud of them. I’ll make a door in a similar style for the other side.

Still missing on this side is a false front for the drawer that will mimic the trim work on the doors and hide the rough edges on that side of the unit.

The bottom panel has to remain accessible so I will be getting some magnets to hold it in place. There will be trim around it, but it will only be glued to the panel and not nailed into the cabinet.

I also need to decide how I’m going to fasten the doors. I bought some options yesterday, but I don’t think any of them will work, so I’ll need to see if I have any other choices. I don’t think magnets will be enough.

The door over the drawer doesn’t ‘match’ but this doesn’t bother me. Once everything is painted the same colour, it will all blend in together and the variety of textures will be welcome. Yes, that door overlaps the drawer. I couldn’t figure out a way to secure the drawer and the door just happened to be the right width while being too long so I thought that a well-secured door would also hold the drawer in place.

Today was a good renovation day and buoyed by my success I look forward to tackling the more difficult kitchen side tomorrow!

I am so far behind schedule that I’ll be lucky to finish the dishwasher cabinet this weekend, much less anything else. When I reveal the cause of today’s delay, all will be explained. Let’s just say that it has been one of those really good renovation days and that trim is a wonderful thing. I’m such a tease. 😀

Merikay asked about ‘the workshop’ and what tools I carry with me.

One of Croft‘s offers for this winter was his workshop and all its contents. It’s a small shed with a big window for good light that has a workbench. It’s a good place to spread out a small project so that I can walk all the way around it. He has all sorts of power tools and I’ve made use of the ones I don’t own or that are were too large to carry with me and sold when I hit the road, such as an angle grinder, a miter saw, and a table saw. I’ve been helping myself to the scrap pile and to screws and nails when I don’t have the necessary size in my own tool kit.

Otherwise, I have been using my own tools, just because I am most familiar with them. I took my full workshop on the road with me, except for my miter saw. I have saw horses, a jigsaw, a couple of drills, a square, a level, clamps and vices, wrenches and pliers, screwdrivers, a hammer, all sorts of hardware (screws, nails, hooks, nuts, bolts, etc.), and just about anything else one could need for basic home renovation projects. Everything but the saw horses fit in a big Rubbermaid tote in the basement. I also have smaller totes with painting and plumbing supplies. This would be a good time to note that when I was calculating what I could bring with me vs. carrying capacity I got all this stuff on the scale. 🙂

Lunch break’s over, time to go finish one side of the dishwasher cabinet!