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Putting things back

As a young child growing up I remember many a parent admonish their offsprings on the value of cleaning up after yourselves.   Also to put things back where they belong.


I take that to heart and so does our little one.  But it does not always apply to stuff you see on youtube videos.    Case in point - taking apart a DISHWASHER (not to be confused with the spouse and I who also  fill in that role on occasion) that does not work - easy as it goes.  Then putting it back - NOT for DUMMIES.


The trick is not to get excited about what you see on these videos because often they are created by businesses who want to sell their professional services to you.  So I had to wonder what the catch was.  How was it that a plumber was showing me how to root cause my dishwasher making those weird sounds by showing me how to reveal its innards? 


Simple - he never told me how to put it all back.  That is when the rubber meets the road or in this case the suds meet the dirt or whatever metaphor one can think of after four hours of back breaking and knee scraping and finger twisting exercise inside a timesaver miracle.  Ours is frankly end of life after a 12 year consistent performance of providing shiny clean utensils but last month it started with some grinding sounds that felt like it had indigestion.


So after much deliberations and in part to satiate the inner engineer in both my spouse and me we decided to dedicate a Saturday morning to it.  Big problem.  Taking it apart although intricate seemed like a cake walk.  Then came the part where there was some gunk to yank and ultimately a decision point that the motor probably was breathing its last but we could put it all back to test our work.


So we got to it.  Morning turned to noon and beyond.  A hungry child poked its head and asked about what the matter was and where we were.  We being hidden under the kitchen island in the cavity of the dishwasher fiddling with the mesh and the bolts.


Finally we thought we had it when one of the spinners decided to not spin.  What?  Well it turns out that although we took parts out a certain way they had to go back a different way.  Without getting in to the specifics it was a lesson learned.  Budget at least 50% more time for a DIY repair project and keep some medicines handy.  I ended up with a scraped knee after all that crawling and some aspirin to relieve the thigh aches - squatting can be a life skill and should be practiced before getting down on your knees for any length of time.


Finally all done we were pleased with the outcome - at least we did not blow a fuse (literally and mentally).

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