Dishwasher drama

For the last couple of months, my dishwasher has been leaking water when I ran it. Of course I asked B-rad to look at it for me. And I asked & asked & asked. And you know his philosophy of "I do everything you ask me to do - I just may not do it in the time frame you want" right?

Well, it took him 'stages' to look at it. First stage was he took the panel off the bottom to see where it was leaking. And he determined that yes, it was in fact leaking & he thought it was a seal. And then it sat. And sat. And sat. And I know my hubby. And I know what time of year it is. And I know his 'working on stuff' for me rule. So I practically begged... "Will you PLEASE fix my diswasher before you start harvest?!"

He was on vacation from his day job this past week....so I was hoping he would look at it & get it all fixed up. Unfortunately for me, he chose to work on getting the combine ready instead of working on the dishwasher. Sigh... And he even had the nerve to tell me I didn't really need a dishwasher - I have 2 hands. Psssssh, I'm WAY too spoiled for that! Sheesh!

Finally on Thursday, he rolled up his sleeves & dove into fixing the dishwasher. Long story short, the pump that was leaking couldn't be taken apart. And a whole new pump cost around $160 plus shipping & he wasn't even sure that would fix it. So I started thinking. The dishwasher came with the house, so you know it was the cheapest model known to man. It's now 11 years old. It has never even been that great of a dishwasher anyway so I told B-rad to look on-line at the price of a new one.

Thursday night we went to Home Depot because I knew that if we purchased it on our Home Depot card we'd get 6 months same as cash (ya'll know how I'm all about same as cash...). Sadly, we couldn't get an associate to help us, so we ventured to HH Gregg. We had no trouble getting a salesman to help us there. I told him what I needed: it's just me & B-rad & I don't run it very often. Maybe once or twice a week?! He showed us a model that has a 'half-load' option. Be still my heart. If I don't have that many dishes, I can put them all on the bottom rack & there are jets half way down the machine that will just wash the bottom rack. Saves energy & water - & moo-lah - sign me up!

Of course I asked about financing because we have an HH Gregg account as well. They were offering 12 months same as cash. Cha-ching! The price on the dishwasher was $499. So I channelled by inner bff, Carrie (she's all about asking people to give her a better price...), & asked if he could do any better on the price because Home Depot was offering 10% off all appliances. Hey-it never hurts to ask.... So he went to his computer to look at Home Depot's prices. They didn't have the particular model we were going to purchase, but he decided to go ahead & give it to me at factory price which was $440. So I saved over 10% just for asking! Double cha-ching!

So here's where the story gets dramatic. The dishwasher was going to be in Saturday for us to pick up. And I knew it was going to take an Act of God to get B-rad away from the farm Saturday to go pick it up OR to let little ole me actually drive HIS truck in town to get it myself. He called me Saturday afternoon & said for me to come over to the barn to get his truck to go & get the dishwasher...and he was going to show me how to use the straps to tie it down. Uhm....ok?!

Obviously they were working on the combine when I got there. Remember how I told you the rotor was out of it? They got it repaired & got it back & a mere $11,252.77 later they have been working on re-installing it. B-rad took me out to the truck for a crash course in ratchet strap thingies. And I know there is no way that I can figure them out. I'm not the hands on kinda girl...(& it probably didn't help that I was more concerned with taking pictures than listening...details, schmetails...)

While I was at the barn, Brady asked me if I had seen the new grain cart. And actually I hadn't seen it, so Stanley told me, "You better go see what you paid for!" True dat.... So here's the new grain cart:

And I saw all these stickers on the side & I found them amusing. Dangers & warnings. Geez, who says farming is not dangerous?! This is just the thing they put the grain in after it's harvested...
Ok-back to the dishwasher. So I knew that I would never be able to strap it down. And then it hit me - Brady could.... That's right - I am a grown woman & knew I couldn't strap down a dishwasher so I enlisted my 14 year old nephew. Don't judge me 'cuz I'm clever.... Brady is always more than happy to help out doing things like this. See-I'm a giver too...

When I recruited Brady to help me, I had to take him home to change his clothes. Lora & Cole were there so I asked them if they wanted to go too & they decided to tag along. I needed to run into Dillards to get perfume after getting the dishwasher. The Clinque counter was super busy. There was only 1 girl there & of course they keep all that stuff under lock & key!

Cole was getting antsy & starting to act silly so I knew just the thing to keep him quiet. A mirror....

Oh boy, this kid is all about making faces at himself.

And that mirror did its babysitting job perfectly....

Unfortunately he also put his hands all over it so there were smears & prints on it. Hmph, sorry Clinque girl...that's the price you pay for having no help...

So we got the dishwasher home around 9:30. B-rad had just gotten home from the barn & he was ready to install it for me.

It took a lot longer than I thought. He got done around midnight. He had some troubles & was griping & moaning about it - but he finally got it! Ahhh, the final product! And I told ya'll I was spoiled right? Well, I had that baby chocked full of dishes because I hadn't done them all week. Don't judge - there was a method to the madness. I wasn't home any night of the week to actually wash them. And then I thought about doing them Saturday by hand, but then I thought, "If I wash all the dishes now - how are we going to try out the dishwasher?" Like I said - I'm clever...