Now that we are back from our little unexpected "vacation", I have a lot of blogging to do to catch up. Shortly before we left I installed the dishwasher. This task exists in the realm of plumbing and as some of you know it is not my best subject. In fact it is by far my worst.

However, this time it went pretty smooth, much more smooth than the refrigerator incident. There was only one trip to Lowe's involved and I didn't actually flood any part of the house. Which has to be a first for me. Anyway the dishwasher went in, and now we don't have to wash them by hand anymore.

Installation tip: Make sure you remove the disposal plug before attaching the drain line. Luckily, our dishwasher is pretty high-tech and alerted me that I had forgotten to do so. I can imagine that some dishwashers would flood your kitchen in a similar situation.

Tags: Appliances, Plumbing

As most bungalow enthusiasts know, American Bungalow is our primary source for inspiration when it comes to remodeling, renovating, and decorating our homes. Early on in our "adventure" with the Williams House, I submitted a photo of our house and a short story about how we found the house and saved it. We also included our blog address. Fast forward six months and as I normally do when I get my American Bungalow I tear open the protective cover and flip to the Family Album section. Well this morning, there it was. Our house! On page 17, it was a dusty lump of coal amongst 7 other flawless diamonds. But as a DIY renovator, to me, that was the beauty of it.
Thanks American Bungalow, we look forward to every issue.

Tags: American Bungalow

The countertops are going in as I type this. Thought I'd blog a little while I'm waiting for the installers to finish, and as much as they seem to be goofing off right in front of me this could take a while. We chose 3mm Quartz in "Mystic Black", being installed by New Century Countertops.

We didn't actually purchase them from New Century even though we had them quote the job originally. Nope, we used one of those fancy Lowe's 10% off moving coupons. New Century is the local installer for Lowe's and with our 10% off coupon they were cheaper than what New Century Originally quoted us. Funny how that works. Even so they were still cheaper than the other quotes we got. Someone once told me that there are 2 things you shouldn't buy from Lowe's, Kitchen Cabinets and Screws. Apparently those two items have the highest markup in the whole store and is apparently, "Where they make all their money." I don't know the validity of that statement but it definitely excludes kitchen countertops, especially with a moving coupon.

Tags: Kitchen, Cabinets, Countertops