10 Reasons We Never Replaced Our Dishwasher

When we remodeled our kitchen, I decided not to replace our dishwasher for several reasons:

1. We pretty much had to babysit our dishwasher the last few years, coaxing the dial forward where it stuck in neutral.
2. Many times we had to rewash plates from dried on food because they sat too long before being loaded and washed. So, if we didn't pre-wash them, we had to rewash them. What's the point?
3. We will save money! There's one less soap to buy; therefore, we will save money on soap. I can't remember exactly how long a jug of soap lasted for us, but I believe it was between one and two weeks. A jug of dishwasher soap costs $3.04 including tax. So, if a jug lasts two weeks, at $3.04/jug x 26 weeks, that's a savings of $79.04/year. Multiply that a few years and we're saving even more money. And if we had gone through a jug a week, that's another $79.04/year!
4. Lightweight plastic containers always flipped upside down during the wash cycle, filled with nasty dishwater, and, once again, we were required to rewash more dishes.
5. We still had to load and unload the dishes.
6. We needed more cupboard space.
7. We had problems with the door seal which caused some water damage on the hardwood floor and cupboards. We didn't want to deal with that again.
8. We saved money! The two one-foot cabinets we replaced the dishwasher with were around $150.00 cheaper than the cheapest new dishwasher!
9. Simplicity is always nice. Seems like there is always one more appliance or gadget needed and sometimes it just causes more stress. More appliances and gadgets means more to maintain, more to clean, and more space to put it!
10. Dishwashers have now become a hazard to our health! Scientists have found that dishwashers are so sanitary that children are unable to build up their immune systems as easily as before dishwashers.

Well actually, the decision to not replace our dishwasher was made before hearing about #10. I doubt whether that point would have influenced our decision one way or another. Our children are all grown now, but when they were younger, that dishwasher came in quite handy. Now, we'd rather have our cupboard space. Happy dishwashing!

Note: This photo shows the new kitchen cabinets that replaced our dishwasher.

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Wall Photo Collage

The one thing I wanted this past Christmas more than anything else, was to have all my children and grandchildren together at the same time. And along with our family altogether, I wanted family photos taken. Luckily I have a sister that is a professional photographer and since she lives a mere three miles away, she agreed to come over on Christmas day.

The plan was to use this photo session for a group wall photo and maybe add a couple group photos, such as one of my husband and me with our five grandchildren.

Imagine the energy it takes to get a four-year-old, a one-year-old, and three 11-month-old babes to smile all at the same time! Of course, our timing probably wasn't ideal, since it was around feeding and nap times, but all-in-all we were very pleased with the results.

For Christmas we received frames and photos from our two married sons and their families. While I know the intention was to use other photos for these frames, I decided to utilize them by adding them to a wall photo collage.

First, I measured the wall where the collage would be placed

Then I proportionately reduced the sizes down so they would be workable in my graphic design program. I was able to Google an image of the "Family" frame for placement and worked around that frame. My sister gave me low resolution photos to play with so that I could size them how I wanted them.

I used a thick border as frames around the other photos. Since I already had the "Family" frame and two twin 6x4s, I had to stick with those sizes. And after playing around a bit, this was what I came up with for the other sizes:

Seeing this arrangement, I finally knew what sizes I wanted to order. The large group photo is 17x11 with four 7x5s to the right and left of it.

Here are the original frames. The top three frames were the gifts and the other five frames were purchased.

Once I had the arrangement figured out I wanted to get the frames hung onto the wall so that I was ready to place the photos inside the frames when my order arrived. I started with the "Family" frame in the center and using screws, I continued to hang the other frames around it.

The next day I was able to pick up my photos after work and placed them into the frames. Here is the finished wall photo collage:

Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

My New Bookshelves

Over Christmas vacation my husband helped one of our son's build three bookshelves for his condominium. While doing so, he also made two for me. They decided to replicate the bookshelves from a double-sized bookshelf I received from my mother. My husband and son began the construction of the first shelf until my son had to return home (he lives an hour and a half from home). I was able to help put the second shelf together on a day off, but after that my husband worked diligently by himself until he completed all five bookshelves.

My son and I are so very pleased with the results! My husband did an absolutely fantastic job and the trim work matches the original one very closely. Imagine the before photos of the books I collected at garage sales and thrift shops piled up in boxes in a corner of the basement so very unattractively. My husband was so efficient in cleaning them up while I was gone to work (so no before photos).

Here is the original double-sized bookshelf:

Lo and behold we were able to fit almost all the books from that pile onto the two shelves. Take a look at the after photos of my bookshelves that my husband made. Here is one of them:

Here are both of my bookshelves arranged with a cupboard in between:

Here is a view of the three bookshelves from the right side, looking to the left:

And here is a view of the three bookshelves from the left side, looking to the right. Doesn't that far-off corner look nice and neat:

We delivered my son's three bookshelves to his condominium and helped him set them up and fill them with his DVDs and books. They also looked great!

It is so nice to be able to go to the shelf and find the book I'm looking for instead of searching through several boxes piled on top of one another. Thank you dear hubby!


Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

Decorating for Christmas

Decorating for Christmas is always fun when you do it with someone else, right? 2012 was my daughter's last Christmas home before heading off for college. So we decided to go all out with two separate Christmas trees with two different color themes.

A larger Christmas tree that my husband and I had purchased many years ago when our three boys were little was placed in our dining room next to the bay windows. The smaller Christmas tree was a Christmas gift to my daughter from one of her older brothers when she was younger. That year she felt she needed a tree of her very own to decorate. This smaller tree was placed in our living room next to the couch.

Since it's always necessary to clean before putting up the decorations, and because I love the "before and after" to everything, I decided to take photos of the living room and dining room areas to show the improvements. So, here goes ... with a little re-arranging, we ended up with an overall improved appearance in both rooms that we were pleased with.

These three photos are the living room area before cleaning and decorating:

And these three photos are the living room area after cleaning and decorating. Notice how my daughter uses the dog's blanket for the tree skirt:

These four photos are the dining room area before cleaning (clutter always seems to accumulate on this table where my daughter spends hours on her homework) and decorating:

And these four photos are the dining room area after cleaning (take a good look at that table because it won't stay that way for long!) and decorating:

The Christmas tree color theme for the large tree was red and gold with white lights:

The Christmas tree color theme for the small tree was bronze and brown with rainbow lights:

And of course, the reason for the season:

There! Just looking at the after photos make me want to celebrate Christmas all over again! Hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Christmas with their families.


Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!

Pretty Light and Outlet Covers

I absolutely love the whole "before and after" look on most everything, whether it is just a simple change of a small item or a whole new look of a room by moving furniture around. So that is what this post is all about. A simple change of the light and outlet covers in four of our rooms. Two are shown below. Since it only takes a screwdriver there won't be any directions. Just photos of the before and after look to each room.

Before Kitchen:

After Kitchen:

Before Living Room:

After Living Room:

 What a difference it makes! And at a small cost, too.


Disclosure: The Excalibur Dehydrator link under "Other Sites" is an affiliated link. If you make a purchase using this link ~ you will receive free shipping, along with other specials. I also earn a small percentage to help support my blog. Thank you, your support is appreciated!!