My first poll!

[solarbird]

So Din is essentially done. I'm cleaning up and buying a last few things - a shelving unit, stuff like that - but! I've got one question that I'm opening back up.

When I originally did the kitchen design out in my head, one of the things I was going to do was buy a wheeled kitchen work table - one with a butcher-block top and a shelf or two underneath - to go beside the stove. Without something beside the stove, there's no work surface next to it on either side. You have to turn around to use the countertop behind you.

Ian, when he was living back there, brought in a mid-70s portable dishwasher. It has a work-surface on top. It's also old and crufty. It's also currently broken, but I might be able to fix it. Unfortunately, I can't afford to replace it with a nice, new portable dishwasher, tho' I probably could once the place was rented out.

spazzkat suggests not spending money is good. risu suggests that even a nonworking dishwasher as a placeholder for a working dishwasher later is better than a worktable with no promise of dishwasher later. So, I'm asking you! Din (a.k.a. Apartment 2 in the four-plex where we currently still live) is a fully-restored 1924 arts-and-crafts/early Deco design 1250 square foot apartment that I'm hoping to rent out for $1800/month with a similarly large deposit. Given that:

[Poll #236631]

Or if you have another suggestion, please leave it in the comments section. Thanks. ^_^

Comments

[smeehrrr.livejournal.com]

Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

Portable dishwashers are Teh Sux.

[solarbird]

Yeah, but there's not really an option for better.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

Yeah. In my experience, none is better than portable. But I might just be strange that way.

[loopback.livejournal.com]

When is the last time you had no dishwasher, if i may ask?

portables are Perfectly Acceptable, as long as you rinse the dishes reasonably well when loading them in, and have decent water pressure.

built-ins are WAY better, of course. but a portable still says "ok, you can do 3 racks full of dishes in me, start me running and go do something ELSE instead of washing dishes by hand for 30 minutes."

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

Well, part of my opinion of portables is no doubt shaped by the one my mother had, which tended to leak water on the floor and also developed a short which kocked my mom across the room the next time she used it.

I lived in places with no dishwasher from the mid 80s when that dishwasher was tossed until the mid 90s when I moved in with wrog, except for a couple of months I lived in a place with a portable that was eternally in the way.

We have a dishwasher now, but until we had to wash lots of sippy cups we tended to not use it more often than we used it.

[loopback.livejournal.com]

I had no dishwasher at all for years, until I moved into a nicer-than-warranted apartment on First Hill. Once I had one as an adult, i have never been able to look back. they rule, especially if you have enough glasses/plates that you can fill it and still have dishes to use while it's running.

LAZEE MEEE

[risu.livejournal.com]

I think your summary of my recommendation is off. I recommended that you do nothing and spend the money on a slip&slide so that in the summer we can run and jump on the slip&slide and go splooosh! down the slight incline in the yard. :)

Rebecca-gumi

[janne.livejournal.com]

Portables are good, I use something similar myself. And I wouldn't worry about spending money on something new and stylish if you're going to rent it out, odds are whoever moves in will have a different taste in what's stylish anyhow. (Well, that's been my experience both times I've bought a new apartment--the previous owners had always done all this frantic last-minute painting and decorating to make it look good, and I'd always start by ripping out the additions and painting over the paint to have it my way :)

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

Try to fix it, and if it doesn't work, then go with the workstation/table combo. We've got one of those in our kitchen now (in addition to a built-in dishwasher) and it comes in really handy. More shelf space than we had before, in less floor space, and we can move it out of the way when we need to get to something.

[solarbird]

if. they. so. much. as. TOUCH. my. design. i. will. KILL THEM.