New House Blog: Episode XIIX - Reefer Madness

Yes, that is a legitimate Roman Numeral notation for 18 (Don't you just love the visual symmetry?)  And no, we're not talking about that kind of reefer.  One thing we are talking about is our new refrigerator, or reefer for short.  Most people would just use fridge for short, but I'm partial to reefer - it rolls off the tongue better.  Also new to this Episode is our dishwasher.

There is something from the previous Episode that must be cleared up before we go on - at least one person seems to be under the impression that the 1/2 bath and the laundry room were painted with the same paint color, and that this paint changes from cream to green to purple, depending on the lighting conditions.  It may not have been stated clearly before, so we are saying it now for all to read: the 1/2 bath is painted the color February Frost, which looks either bluish or purplish, depending on lighting conditions.  The laundry room is a different color that has not yet been named.  The laundry room shares its color with another room in the house, and as we are not done painting that room we are not yet revealing the name of that paint color (except to people who come to our house in-person to help us out).  I don't know how green came into this at all.  None of the colors revealed so far is a shade of green.  Hopefully this clears up the matter. :)

Reefer

We like to eat food, and we like to save food for later eating.  A refrigerator is good for this purpose.  We also like to have cold things to eat and/or drink.  A reefer is good for this, too.  We now have a refrigerator in our house, and we are already putting it to use.  Our reefer is a Kenmore model that was highly rated in Consumer Reports.  Ours is not the exact model mentioned in CR, but it is the same series and should be comparable to the model that was rated in CR.  We intentionally chose a reefer without a water/ice dispenser in the door.  The reasons for this include: there is no water line anywhere near where the reefer is, we generally don't use ice in our beverages, the water/ice dispenser takes up a lot of useful space in the reefer door.  The style we chose is called French Door.  This means that the fridge portion is on top and has two doors that swing outward; and the freezer portion is on the bottom as a deep, pull-out drawer.  See it for yourself.

It's bigger in-person.

Side View

 If you look closely you can see some paint behind the reefer. :)  Also, this may not be the final orientation of the reefer.  We are kind of limited as to where we can put it, and we're still deciding on which way it will face.

The spacious interior

Also seen in this photo is the pantry we brought from the apartment, and if you look closely you can see the box with our new microwave (also a Kenmore).



















Dishwasher

Also on our list of needed appliances was a dishwasher.  Unlike the other appliances, however, our dishwasher is not a Kenmore - it is a Bosch.  This is based on the Consumer Reports recommendation, and we again don't recall the exact model number (I think it has a 55 in it somewhere).  Before browsing the CR issue in question I did not know that Bosch made dishwashers: I only knew of them as an auto parts maker.  But CR has not steered us wrong yet, so we got a Bosch.  Like the other appliances, we bought it as Sears, and they delivered it.  We learned that Sears will hook up most household appliances, but they will not hook up a dishwasher.  After doing it ourselves we now understand Sears' point of view on the matter.  Connecting a dishwasher involves a lot of steps, and it can reveal previously-unknown-but-should-have-suspected problems with a house's plumbing.

Here's what happened to us. After connecting the water hose to the dishwasher shutoff valve under the sink we turned on the valve so that we could flush the line out.  No, we did not have it flowing out onto the floor - we had the hose in a bucket - but we could have left the hose on the floor, because no water came out of the hose at all.  Dishwashers need water, and this lack of flow was unexpected, but not surprising.  We removed the shutoff valve and the inlet pipe after turning off the house water yet again (how many more times will we need to turn off the house water main before we move in?).  It was completely blocked (not unlike a blocked artery) with rust and crud, and I should have taken a picture of it.  This arterial-like blockage explained why no water had flowed when we turned the valve on.  The blockage was cleared, a new copper section of pipe was installed, and a new shutoff valve was added.  Thankfully, we had the parts on hand and did not have to make a Home Depot run; and (also thankfully) everything went together the first time with no leaks, water flowed when turned on, and all went smoothly from that point on in the install.  As with the food waste disposal, the dishwasher did not include the power cord.  Also as with the food waste disposal, the manufacturer conveniently sells a kit that includes the power cord and all needed accessories for connecting said power cord (Sears sold us the kit when we bought the dishwasher).  We ran a test cycle to make sure the thing works, and it does and it is a lot quieter than the unit in our apartment.  Enough talking - show us the pictures already!

Um, hmmm...  It seems I forgot to take a picture of the unit after it was installed.  However, we do have some pictures of it pre-installation, and a couple photos of the watery connections.  Here is a link that shows what it looks like, but it is not a picture the exact same model as ours.

Look at all of those instructions.

The installation instructions said to lay the unit on its back for some of the steps.  It was installed upright, however.

Another angle

The shiny new pipe and shutoff valve

No flooding here!

Unlike the previous owners/residents, we did remove the waste disposal drain blocker when we connected the dishwasher drain hose.















I think that's enough talking for this Episode.  More fun and adventure is still to come.

Why are so many words in italics?
   bIsh