Remember this old proverb?
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Of course, this proverb is meant to show that small actions can result in big consequences. Don’t I know it!
All I wanted was a new dishwasher. Was that too much to ask? We’ve been researching them for quite awhile and waiting for sales, and we finally purchased a Bosch with all the bells and whistles. You can stand right next to it and hardly know it is on. We bought it from a large chain store who uses subcontractors to install their appliances. The installer came two weeks ago, installed my lovely new dishwasher, said, “You’re good to go,” and left. That night we loaded it up and ran it. We were able to watch a television show with it two feet away, and we didn’t even hear it. So far so good.
The next day a friend came over, sat at my kitchen table, and remarked, “You have such beautiful floors.” As she said this, I glanced down and saw a dark discoloration at the ends of several planks. I had no idea what it was. I tried to think if I had used any unusual cleaner last time I washed them, but I knew I hadn’t. My husband came home a little while later and noticed the discoloration immediately.
“What’s this?” he asked. When I told him I had no idea, he lifted up the long gel mat that I keep along the edge of the sink and the dishwasher, and the discoloration was even worse. 
“Aaarrrggggghhhhh! The dishwasher!” we yelled in tandem. The dishwasher had obviously leaked, but instead of flooding the top of the floor where we would have seen it and dealt with it immediately, the water went under the floor boards because the dishwasher sits on the concrete slab a little below the edge of the floor. The damage even extended into our dining room.
The fiasco is the result of the installer connecting the wrong end of the drain hose to the dishwasher. He did not read each end of the hose which clearly says, “Dishwasher end” and “Garbage disposal end.” Since those ends are not quite the same size, the installer had to force the connection from the dishwasher into a hose that was too small, thereby compromising the integrity of the hose.
Rather than giving you every gory detailed of what transpired after that, we will fast-forward to what is happening now. The floor repair man came yesterday, assessed the situation and gave us the bad news. Because the entire downstairs is hardwood bamboo, we can’t just refinish the kitchen floor since it flows seamlessly into the dining room and family room. So the entire downstairs floors will have to be refinished. That requires moving all the furniture out. To move all the furniture out requires me to empty all my dishes and other items from all my drawers, my china cabinet, curio, etc. I will have to box them up as there is nowhere to put them. It will be like moving all over again. The piano has to be moved which will result in it needing another tuning. We will have to go out to eat for a week and a half as we will not have our kitchen. I will be a prisoner upstairs for a week and a half because I do not like to leave the house to strangers as they do their work.
Yes, the installer’s insurance will cover the cost of refinishing the floors (and the bill is a doozy!), but lost time and inconvenience is never covered. And all that had to be done for this to be avoided is for the installer to read what was written on the end of the hose. I just wanted a new dishwasher. Was that too much to ask?
