One day in January, I was loading the dishwasher. I had placed some heavy items towards the front of the bottom rack. The entire dishwasher tipped forward, out from the cabinet. It didn’t fall completely on the ground, the counter prevented that, but it tipped about 20 degrees.
My husband and I moved into this apartment in September. It’s the kind of place that makes a great first impression, but after you’ve lived in it for a bit, you realize that it was rather hastily slapped together. I took this as further evidence of that fact.
I looked in between the gap between the dishwasher and the counter top. Nothing seemed to be amiss, but to be honest, I probably didn’t know what to look for. I took out the heavy items, righted the dishwasher, and rearranged and reloaded the dishes so that the heavy items were in the back. I started it and waited, prepared to cut it off should the kitchen start to flood. It didn’t.
The dishwasher finished and I opened it up and left the dishes to dry while I went about my day. The dishwasher stayed in place.
I remember this happened on a snow day. My husband Ed was in England for work. It was the kind of thing I might have mentioned to him had I seen him later in the day, but I didn’t see him for about a week, and by that time I had forgotten all about it. It had seemed like a minor annoyance, not a crisis.
Monday, I was at work, had a spare second and decided to check my Gmail. There was copy of a work order Ed had submitted to the rental office.
Ed leaves for work after I do. He is often in the midst of cleaning the kitchen when I walk out the door.
I read over the work order. The glue securing the dishwasher had failed.
“Oh, yeah,” I thought. “He must have put some heavy items in the front. I should have told him about that.”
That night, I started to load the dinner dishes into the dishwasher.
“Don’t put the dishes in the dishwasher!” he said.
“Huh?” I said.
“It’s broken!”
“Oh,” I said. “Right.”
I considered telling him that the glue failed back in January, and that the dishwasher had worked just fine since.
I decided against it.
The rental company hasn’t sent someone to fix the dishwasher. The work order is still open. We have been doing dishes by hand for almost a week.
I’ve considered coming clean about the dishwasher tipping back in January, but Ed knows a lot more about home maintenance and appliances than I do, and I know he’ll be upset that 1) I didn’t do anything about it back in January, and 2) I didn’t say anything about the January experience when the same thing happened to him on Monday.
I realize that if he reads this, I’m skunked. I don’t think that he will. But, Ed, my love, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry.
And I am sorry. I didn’t realize that it was a big deal, and then I kept quiet about it because I didn’t want to argue. I think we could safely use the dishwasher, but I’m too much of a wimp to bring it up now.
I worry a little about what that says about me and him and our relationship.
I hope it will be fixed soon. I hate doing dishes by hand.
theonewiththebooks 
First, I love doing dishes by hand. It’s so therapeutic-I think I should write a post about that. I have a dishwasher and use it about twice a year! Second, I love how we keep these little secrets from our spouses and then they kinda backfire on us. Third, when hubby is gone, I’d load that dishwasher up and give it a spin. I bet it still works!
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There always seems to be some “dancing around topics” in relationships (I know there is in mine, and we’ve been married 24+ years!). I would imagine, in the grand scheme of things, dishwasher foibles rank low on the list of marital woes. 😉 Love the use of the word “skunked”!
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Hahaha…tell him….he won’t be mad.
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too cute…an now we finally know…you must really hate upsetting your hubby if you’d be willing to do dishes by hand…phewwww! That’s ok …I think it is actually precious….it probably wouldn’t make a difference (at least in the condition of the dishwasher anyway) if you confess..so “mums the word!”
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Poor thing! Doing dishes by hand is no fun!
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I love the title of this piece! It drew me in and delivered for sure!
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I think I would have done the same thing as you…forgotten about it because it seemed to be OK.
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You did what I would have….and I, too, would have forgotten to say something about it. Of course, my husband is not much of a handy man…so he would think be pretty clever at putting the heavy items in the back. I am sure Ed would not be upset. It is all so funny when you step back and look at it. Maybe part of the problem could be that Ed knows the apartment was put together as you said, “hastily slapped together.” and his frustration is with the apartment management and not you. The fact you wrote about it…puts it out there…tell him…it will be fine. Jackie http://familytrove.blogspot.com/
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Your voice comes through so clearly on this post! 🙂 I have to say that while I use my dishwasher…I do find doing dishes by hand therapeutic. I may start doing dishes by hand…I wonder if he will read this post. Promise to update us! 🙂
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I would hate doing dishes by hand if I knew we could use the dishwasher. If he reads this I hope he understands.
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After I wrote about it, I felt so bad and also kind of silly. I told him. He wasn’t mad and explained that the reason he didn’t want me to put dishes in the dishwasher was that if the repair person comes to fix it and there are dishes in it, he won’t fix it.
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We went about 6 months without our dishwasher. 6 months of washing bottles and sippy cups. Ugh. I feel your pain! Glad you told your hubby!
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I would hate doing them by hand when there’s supposed to be a working dishwasher too! (Maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll replace it for a newer, better model!)
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