As we mentioned in our kitchen apppliance delivery recap, we had a few minor issues with the delivery of a few items. The dishwasher was the worst off, having been dropped in the box and crushed rather significantly. Additionally, a somewhat minor scratch along the left side of the fridge was causing additional strife since it is immediately apparent when you walk into the house through the back door.

I'm a little more easy going about this sort of thing, but Wendy was not pleased and didn't plan on letting it slide (I do really like her for this aspect of her personality). She called up h.h. gregg to coordinate the re-delivery of the dishwasher and also to discuss the fridge scratch.

As I mentioned previously, the customer service at h.h. gregg was good and immediately scheduled redelivery and pickup of the damaged dishwasher, and they did it around our schedule. Another great mark for them in the customer service column, they agreed to knock another $100 off of the price of the fridge on account of the scratch.

If you're keeping score, this means our fridge's original price, $1,800, knocked down to $1,000 due to stocking issue with the fridge we wanted, was now further discounted to $900 due to a small and easily fixed (or ignored) scratch. Final deal, a whopping 50% discount. Not too shabby. Way to go Wendy.

We scheduled the redelivery for the day after we returned from vacation, since Wendy had planned to take the day off. I was planning on working, but due to flight delays, missing luggage, and a travel day of nearly 19 hours, I also ended up staying home.

As has seemingly been a constant during this entire kitchen project, we were fighting the weather on this aspect of the project too. The delivery guys were scheduled to get to the house around 3:00 and there was a huge storm with tornado potential blowing in about that same time. Almost synchronized with their delivery, the rain started coming down sideways and in sheets just after they delivered the new dishwasher, but before they took the old one out. 

Both of the delivery men were really nice and I didn't want them to end up getting soaked. I offered for them to hang out for a few minutes and let it pass, or to give them a large golf umbrella, but they declined, instead getting drenched while taking the old dishwasher out. It was their last delivery of the day and I think they just wanted to get home.

Don't worry, before they left we gave the new dishwasher a look and everything seemed to be in order.

Later in the day I got to work on installing the last appliance in the unsightly and gaping hole under our new counters.

If you've ever wondered about installing or replacing your dishwasher, it's actually a very simple (though possibly time consuming) process that almost anyone can do on their own.

It's true that h.h. gregg offered us free home installation on our purchase, and Wendy even tried to get me to accept it while we were in the store, but I knew better. Though I'm sure the installers do a perfectly fine job in 90% of the homes they work in, I know our house better (and the fact that nothing is quick and easy), and I trust I will be able to do a more thorough job doing it myself.

The hardest part about our dishwasher install was actually dealing with the remnants from the old dishwasher. The supply line was too short, there were wires in the way beneath where the new dishwasher needed to sit (the old dishwasher was more open on the bottom), and the cabinet opening was about 1/4" too narrow for the new dishwasher. Had I known we were getting all new appliances for this project, I could have corrected this issue back when I was leveling and reinstalling the right cabinet. Oh well, it just reminds me how the snowball has grown.

We starting the install with a trip to Ace Hardware. Well, actually two trips, I bought the wrong stuff the first time. On the second trip when I purchased the correct items, I picked up a 48" dishwasher connection kit (consisting of a 48" braided metal hose, 90 degree 1/2" NPT to 3/8" compression fitting, and an adapter we didn't use) and a 3/8" to 1/2" compression fitting.

The old water line was a single copper line that wasn't long enough to connect the new dishwasher. Rather than try to make it work, I figured I'd rather use the 48" steel braided hose and just reduce the overall length of the copper supply.

The first step was to cut back the old copper supply using my tubing cutters.

Once removed, I cleaned up the inside of the pipe using a deburring tool...

...then cleaned the outside of the supply using a bit of sanding cloth. This allowed me to get a nice surface without imperfections that could have interfered with the compression ring.

Next I applied the 1/2" side of the compression fitting to the pipe and tightened it up nicely with two wrenches.

Finally, I covered the 3/8" side of the fitting with some teflon tape to ensure a good seal to the braided hose when we connect it.

On the dishwasher side of the work I applied more Teflon tape to the 90 degree elbow fitting that connects to the dishwasher. I always make sure I apply the tape in a clockwise manner (while looking at the end of the connection). This ensures that tightening the connection doesn't pull the tape off of the threads.

Then I connected the elbow fitting to the dishwasher and the steel braided hose to the other end of the fitting.

Sliding the dishwasher back into place was also a little bit more difficult. We had to raise the dishwasher nearly two full inches to get it to sit at the right height under the counter, and the floor under the dishwasher is a mishmash of peeling and cracked linoleum (or something that I can't discern) that is far from level.

Through much maneuvering, possibly breaking the cabinet, and a lot of sweat and frustration, I got everything into place.

I tested the water tightness of the supply by turning on the valve and making sure there were no leaks. Success! No drips, no runs, no errors.

Next up I started working on the electrical hookup. The wiring to the dishwasher was already a 12/2 wire on a dedicated 20 amp circuit, easily sufficient for the dishwasher. I was able to twist in a few wire nuts to complete the connections, then covered them with electrical tape. Easy as pie.

Once the primary connections were made I put together a few pieces of foil tape and slid it onto the underside of the counter immediately above the dishwasher. This bit of tape acts as a vapor barrier that helps to protect the counter from steam that may escape from the dishwasher. With the counter protected, I also screwed the two securing clips into place that hold the dishwasher in the proper location when it's full or the dishwasher door is open. The final item was to connect up the drain hose to the disposal and then declare the job complete!

The whole install took significantly longer than I had expected, but I stopped to eat dinner and watch a little TV in the middle. Though Wendy tried to get me to let the delivery guys install it, I'm quite glad I opted to do it myself. Given the little idiosyncrasies of our install, I'm pretty sure I would have ended up doing it over myself anyhow.

It felt great to have the dishwasher in place. As our final major appliance, our little-turned-moderately-big kitchen project was beginning to round the final corner and quickly felt like we could see the finish line of completion. We actually ran our first dishwasher cycle over the weekend and it was so very nice and quiet. Wendy was watching television in the room next door and didn't even have to turn the volume up! Oh the simple pleasures in life.

I'd say that our kitchen is really looking great with all of the updates we've made over the last month. All of the efforts have been well worth it and the appliances are really icing in the cake.

Between touch-ups and other miscellaneous projects, we have a few more things planned before we can call the kitchen "done," but it's already done enough for us to really start enjoying it.

But we can't forget about the sun porch. We've still got quite a bit of work to do in that part of the house.

So what do you think? We're really loving it and can't wait for friends and family to see it in person. Any ideas on what our few remaining items are? We might not tell you if you're right, but it might help us do something we wouldn't have otherwise thought of.