“Every family should have a room where Christ is welcomed in the person of the hungry and thirsty stranger.” – St John Chrysostom
We have a small guest house on the property and while we won’t be able to welcome every hungry and thirsty stranger, we do hope to be a place of hospitality for friends and benefactors when they visit. More perhaps along the lines of what St Benedict had in mind when he wrote in Cap. LIII of his venerable Rule, “Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ, because He will say: ‘I was a stranger and you took Me in’ (Mt. 25:35). And let due honor be shown to all, especially to those ‘of the household of the faith’ (Gal 6:10) and to wayfarers.”
St Seraphim’s guest house is really very comfortable but it lacks one very important thing: a dishwasher. Now, you may be thinking that a dishwasher is more of a luxury than a necessity, but we didn’t want “those of the household of faith” washing dishes when they could be out enjoying the beauty of this land. Long, prayerful hikes in nature > household chores. Then there’s the long-termers. Someday, we hope to be able to host a scholar or artist (iconographer)-in-residence so, yep, we need a dishwasher in the guest house.
But, hey, we want to be the place where boys learn self-sufficiency while conjugating irregular Latin verbs, so there was no way in hades that we were going to pay $189 for installation (which doesn’t include the wiring, the plumbing or the demo). This one had DIY written all over it.
Here’s Phase I: Tearing it to pieces
They were pretty solid cabinets:
But they eventually yielded:
Turns out, the two small cabinets produced a non-standard opening for the dishwasher. It’s about 2″ wider than recommended, so your humble servant has some trim work in his future.
Next, I have to run power and address the mad jumble of PVC under the kitchen sink. So stay tuned!
Admittedly, it’s not exactly a cliff hanger with riveting content, but it’s a small way to keep you connected to what we’re doing.
Please keep us in your prayers, friends.