We've been looking for a dishwasher for quite some time. We haven't had one in this house, and I, in fact, have not had one since... um... must have been St. Paul over 10 years ago. Our kitchen cabinets are old and not standard size at all - in fact, they are not even full boxes, like cabinets today - they were built with the plaster wall as the back. This poses a bit of a problem when looking for "built in" appliances to add... It is REALLY HARD to find something that will fit! - well, fit without sticking out 3 inches or more. Turns out that the European cabinets must be a different standard size, because the only models I found to fit, depth-wise, were Miele, Boche, and Fisher-Paykel.
For some reason, I fell in love with the Fisher-Paykel. What a genius idea - dish drawers! You don't have to have a full load to run a wash. Definitely an advantage to a small family without too many dishes. We almost got one last year for Christmas, as a gift to each other, but decided it would be better to focus on paying off the roof and Taya's vet bills. So in the meantime, Jim has regularly been trolling Craigslist. He has various things he looks for - one of which has been the Fisher-Paykel. Usually the double drawer shows up for about $1000, but last week, he found one listed for $550. We talked it over, and decided to jump on it.
I went to the place to look at it and give a deposit as soon as she got back to Jim. They had this great beachside condo with a view of the ocean and the Boston skyline on the northshore. Not far, in fact, from this beach I visited with Abbey last April:
Crazy rich people. We couldn't figure out why she wanted to get rid of it (and turns out, neither could her husband), but I'll happily buy things off of crazy rich people!
Next we had to do a little demo work to cut the hole. Luckily, there is a spot just the right width where the previous owners had this strange peninsula bar sticking out.
We tore off some of the wood:
And then used a jig saw to cut the left side of the hole
Cleaned everything up and added some new plywood to section off the cabinet:
We also went to Homer to pick up a garbage disposal (yes, we really are moving into the 21st century folks) and various electrical and plumbing items for the installation.
Unfortunately, that was pretty much the end of the weekend, so to clean things up, Jim moved the dishwasher into the newly created hole, where I can now view it all week and fantasize about all the super clean and sterile dishes I will have next week........
The old fridge next to it may look a bit awkward now. I mean, eclectic - isn't that what they call it?
9 comments:
I love your old fridge (I would love to have one like it!!). Just so you don't feel bad, before we remodeled our horrible kitchen we had knotty pine cabinets with no back (just like you). The problem was the 100 year old plaster on the bottom cabinets were crumbling so I couldn't use them. I don't miss them a bit!!! Thanks for your blog - I really enjoy it.
Great find!!! I love craigslist!!!! This year we installed a dishwasher.We thought it wasn't possible w/ our layout.Miracles happen ,a client wanted a stainless one for her house that she just bought and asked us if we were interested in her white dishwasher (looked almost new).We took it and built cabinets around it in a spot in the kitchen we hadn't thought of before!!!! LOL!!!!! Sara
That fridge is awesome! If you ever replace it, either turn it into a man-cave beer fridge or at least find someone who will make good use of it. Very unique. Nice dishwasher though. Fancy pants nice.
They probably got rid of it because they found it doesn't really work all that well. I've loved the idea of dish drawers since they first introduced ths thing. Now that I have one .... I wish I was rich so I could sell mine on craigslist. Hope your experience turns out better than mine.
Ah yes - the fridge was a special purchase when I bought the house. I looked for ones in Massachusetts, but ended up purchasing this one on eBay from Wisconsin and having it shipped - the shipping cost more than the fridge! It was perfect for me when I lived here by myself. But it's tight for 2 people, and if our little family expands any more, it will eventually have to become a garage fridge for Jim :(
I have also heard some mixed reviews on the dish drawers. But seriously, anything is better than the current situation: me with a scrub wand!
Lookin' good!
yay - i love getting castoffs!
wait that sounded not so nice - lol I meant I love getting other peoples castoffs that are still in awesome shape, its usually cheaper, and its really nice saving somthing from from going to the landfill :)
Craigs list is AWESOME! We found a brand new, never installed pedestal sink on there for $10 dollars. Home depot still sells the model for $128. I felt like we were stealing it when we went and picked it up. Awe, your refrigerator is really cute, but… I could see how it would cause problems with storage in it. If you eventually get a new one you should keep that one and put it in your garage for extra storage during the holidays, or in a ‘man cave’ for your husband. People would actually pay good money for something like that if you weren’t keen on the idea of keeping it. Great post.
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