so, now that mimo seems to be out of danger we can move on to something more mundane: our dishwasher.
the new one is being delivered tomorrow afternoon, so i spent the evening uninstalling the old piece of crap.
oh, and speaking of crap... we now know where our mice were coming from. more on that in a minute.
before i began this process, i knew that there would be three things to disconnect: the water supply line, the drain hose and the power line. after analyzing the mess of pipes and hoses under my sink i began undoing things. (determining what to unscrew and disconnect was much harder than it sounds... i have valves that don't do anything and junction boxes that don't make any sense. i actually called my electrician friend at one point to get advice about the confusing power supply.)
the hardest part was disconnecting the water supply line... it was copper tubing of a fixed length. (i assumed it would have been flexible rubber tubing.) it was hard to get at, and difficult to maneuver.
finally, after much cursing, tugging and sweating i got the dishwasher out. our reward was the discovery of a phenomenal amount of mouse poop. it looked like a million mice had a ticker tape parade with their asses. disgusting. we have seen a mouse or two five in the house over the last year or so, and we've always wondered where they came from. now we know. there's an inch gap where the wood floor stops and the wall begins. in that inch-wide space you can see the slats that stand between the hardwood floor and the floor joists, and there is a 1/2" gap or so between the slats. so the mice come up from the crawl space, between the gap in the slats, and then through the 1" gap behind the dishwasher.
we clearly need to stop those little fuckers from getting in. i was thinking i'd take care of that tonight, but i hear the streets are a mess (ice) so my plan has been thwarted for the time being. in the morning, though, i'll go to home depot to get squirty foam stuff for the gap. then we'll wait for the delivery of the new machine.
hopefully installation will be easier than deinstallation. now that i am more familiar with the tubes and wires i think it will go pretty smoothly. ((fingers crossed))
Posted by xta at January 22, 2005 08:57 PM | TrackBackK feels that that squirty stuff is a godsend --- he uses it everywhere!
and it seems to have worked well in all cases.
You are really quite resourceful aren't you?
my brother tells me that the hardest part of any home repair job is believing you can do it. it's true... usually i find that convincing myself i am capable is the most challenging aspect of all.
Posted by: christa at January 23, 2005 10:06 AMYou could jam steel wool into the space too... they don't like to chew through that... it hurts their little choppers apparently.
Posted by: Ann at January 23, 2005 04:12 PM