Last year (that is, three weeks ago), we found ourselves without a working dishwasher. Old Faithful, which we had inherited from the previous owners of our house, finally wore out, suffering irreparable damage to the controls inside the door.

So, we went to Anderson Appliance, our friendly neighborhood appliance store, to look for a new dishwasher. A friendly salesperson (who also happened to be Mr. Anderson himself) helped us find the perfect dishwasher -- the cheapest of the quieter dishwashers, which also happened to be on clearance. So we bought it, I picked it up the next day, and I proceeded to install it.

That's right, I installed the dishwasher. Mr. Anderson insisted that if he could do it, I could do it, and I wasn't about to pay $100+ for the privilege of one of their esteemed employees to do it for me. I'm more than willing to pay for services, but how hard could it be to replace a dishwasher?

As it turned out, not that hard. In fact, I had the dishwasher running by the end of the evening, late though it was. Except, of course, the plumbing leaked. Pressurized water pipes and I have a history -- I do my best, but my connections always leak. Perhaps with enough practice...

In any case, the connection under the dishwasher leaked, as well as the valve under the sink, once I touched it. But, they were slow leaks, so I put a pan under one and a towel under the other and we continued life as usual, changing the pan at least once a day. A good short-term solution, but no good for the long-term. So, I decided to call an expert -- a plumber. Only, my timing wasn't great, because that was about the same time as Winter Storm 2004, and all the world's plumbers were busy fixing the frozen pipes of homeowners in Western Washington.

So, I waited a week, and finally found a plumber that would stop by, through Bert Plumbing. I stayed home from work on Wednesday morning to take the dishwasher back out and watch him do his handywork. The bill will be less than $100, and it was worth every penny. He replaced the valve under the sink, connected the dishwasher with a flexible pipe (instead of the fragile copper pipe that was there before), and even fixed a slight leak in the toilet valve in the downstairs bathroom. He used all manner of tools and techniques that I would never dare attempt myself, so I was happy.

And now, the dishwasher is installed. I even screwed the access panels on this evening, so the story of the dishwasher is over. Well, except that I still have to take the old one to the dump...