I bought this live-in fixer-upper a couple of years ago with the partial consent of my wife. When I say live-in fixer-upper I mean it was right on the fence of livable for my wife’s taste. She was envisioning a new house with new house smell, new appliances, new carpet, just the basic things you get when moving into new house. I played the salesman and was somehow able to get her to pick a house listed as a cute little bungalow that needs a little work. The price tag was of course the selling point for me, it was at least $20,000 less than any house its size. I of course was seeing this house as a chance to make a little money and feed my do-it-yourself desires for a few years. During my sales presentation to my wife she mentioned the only way she would think about moving into this house was if I installed a dishwasher before we moved in….I think she was thinking “Ha I got him now, he will have to butcher the kitchen cabinets to make that happen…Impossible!” I of course said I would do it no problem. Here is a summarization of the events: The kitchen cabinets were of course a little problem. They were like an imposing wall saying “No dishwasher belongs here!” I knew otherwise.

I used a Fein side cutting tool to make a hole for my dishwasher. When I did this I had to remove the left side cabinet, and shorten the right side cabinet. I resized the right hand door with a table saw, and did the same with the drawer. I had to take the drawer apart, cut about 2 inches off the width of all parts contributing to the width then reassemble the drawer. I reassembled the left hand cabinet, adding new bracing along the way (resizing the cabinet will be another whole post by itself at a later time). I installed a new 20 amp single pole breaker just for the dishwasher and ran new 12 gauge Romex wire. When you go to buy a new breaker, make sure you have all the information you need when you go to the hardware store such as brand name, amps, voltage, etc. I then installed a T on my hot water line under my kitchen sink. When you install the T, make sure you have the water valve closed so you do not get wet when breaking the line. The T is very easy to install, simply screw it onto the supply valve then attach the sink line and then the dishwasher supply line. I then attached the drain to the sink drain line with a special plumbing Y before the P trap. I now have a Garbage disposal, so the picture that I have is the drain line attaching to it.
The special Y piece is very simple to install, just attach the top to your strainer assembly then cut it to length and attach it to your P trap or branch to the P trap. Make sure if you attach it to a Garbage disposal to remove the plug in the Garbage Disposal…Most Garbage disposals are made with the dishwasher attachment, but they are plugged with a plastic punch out. **It must be removed**. Attach the water supply to the dishwasher 90 degree water supply fitting. Then attach the drain line to the dishwasher line (this usually hangs off the back of the dishwasher). If a long drain line is supplied with your dishwasher you can run the line all the way to the Garbage disposal or Sewer Y. Open the hot water valve to make sure you do not have any leaks in the supply. When you have secured all supply leaks, go ahead and hook up the electrical line to the dishwasher ***Make sure the power to the breaker is off*** Turn on the breaker when the electricity in on. Run the dishwasher through a cycle to make sure nothing is leaking on the drain line or anywhere else. When you are confident nothing is leaking push the dishwasher into place and screw the top mounting screws into your counter top (I use short self tapping screws to ensure nothing splits). If you have marble, corian, or granite you will have to install some form of wood strip to attach the dishwasher. The dishwasher will then have to be leveled using the front two level legs on the dishwasher. When this step is finished, install the cover plate under the dishwasher door…Next, Enjoy your dishwasher.

Notes..This post was written in response to this post on Houseblogs.net for a True Value Contest.
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