DIY Chronicles: The Dishwasher

I realize a dishwasher isn't a necessity, but they sure are nice; even an old, beat up, noisy dishwasher.  So, when I went to start the dishwasher and couldn't get the latch to completely close, I was not happy.  (No closed latch = no dish washing.)  But, I figured it should be fairly easy to fix.  Maybe not right then, at 11:00 p.m., but surely, a little jiggling the next evening and everything would be okay.  

Ha!  Yeah, right.  A little jiggling wasn't terribly effective. But, I knew it was a simple mechanical problem, as opposed to plumbing or electrical, which I will not attempt.  So I got my screw driver and took apart the door.  (Side note, taking apart the door of an old dishwasher in an unsealed rental house is not for the faint of heart.)

Once I got the latch out, I could see it was a pretty simple problem.  Simple enough to diagnose; not so simple to repair.  Eventually, with lots of "help" from four nosy dogs.  (Petey was outside. The girls, on the other hand, couldn't wait to help.) I figured out the latch and managed to reassemble the door.  Except right before I got everything realigned a thin metal bar, approximately 24" long, fell from....somewhere.  So, the entire project was abandoned again.  

The next night, I gamely made a third attempt, but I could not, for the life of me, figure out where the bar went. After a very frustrating hour I got the door back together, the latch in place and functioning.  The dishwasher works beautifully.  The metal bar?  Well, it's sitting on the cabinet.  So far, it doesn't appear to have been critical.