Kitchen "Camping"

Growing up, my family spent many a summer camping out at our 40-acre property. But this wasn't your "Go to a nice civilized campground, with showers & a play area for the kids, both just up the path" camping. This was "Becoming One with Nature" camping. Accommodations: A-frame cabin--basically a wooden tent. Electricity? No. Indoor plumbing? Can you say, Outhouse, baby! So when it was time to clean up the dishes after meals, my sister and I were often pulled from whatever we would have preferred to do, and recruited for dish drying duty.

Sunday, this all came rushing back, as our faithful dishwasher decided to up & die! Now I don't know about you, but I'll be the first to say I've been extremely spoiled by having a dishwasher. Yes, I can wash dishes by hand, but you can guarantee if I'm buying something, I make sure to check the label first to see if it's dishwasher safe, before I'll buy it.

So, when the dishwasher refused to drain, even after cleaning out the filters, and running it empty several times, my dear husband said, "We're going to have to call someone".

This is where things get interesting. We inherited this dishwasher when we bought my Grandma's house, so we didn't really have a choice in its selection. Some would say we're extremely lucky, since Grandma put in a very high-end dishwasher when she replaced her old one--a Swedish model called Asko. You can't beat it for noise level, and it does a really good job in cleaning the dishes.

However, try finding someone in the area that services Foreign Dishwashers! The first guys I called said, "We only do domestics. Call Standard TV & Appliance. They do foreign". I called Standard, and they said, "Oh, we only do Bosch. Call these guys." So I did, and they said, "Well, the earliest I can have someone out in your area is next Tuesday." NEXT TUESDAY???? She did say she'd put me on the "sooner than later" list, but I don't have much hope...

So last night, David & I tackled, by hand, the mountains of dishes that had piled up--now there's some bonding time :-) And until Tuesday, we'll either use paper & plastic or go out to eat! Just kidding--they're making some really hand-friendly dish detergent these days, aren't they?

The other thing we have to consider is the threshold dollar amount for repair--Is it worth it to repair an older dishwasher, especially one that we've heard can be really expensive to fix? Or do you watch the sales, and purchase a new one? Merry Christmas honey! Here's a new dishwasher...

So much fun!
k~