Microwaves & Dishwashers: Necessary or Not?

I meant to reveal a new blog design today and I worked on a lot of tweaks on Saturday but wasn’t quite ready for the switch so I’m waiting another week (or two). Today it’s a different topic entirely but one that’s come up in conversation lately between friends and fellow remodelers and that’s the necessity of two kitchen appliances: the microwave and the dishwasher.

Late last year our old dishwasher died, it was a GE Profile and we weren’t big fans of it. Our other GE appliances in this kitchen are great but the dishwasher wasn’t. When the old one died it was good riddance and we didn’t bother to replace it for six months. I was in no rush. I happen to like hand washing dishes, I think they get cleaner, and I still wash most of my glassware, silverware, pots, and pans by hand so having to wash all of my dishes for all of those months by hand wasn’t that big of a deal. I do a lot of thinking as I wash dishes, do you?

The other issue that prolonged the purchase of a new dishwasher was that it required a new panel, or I shouldn’t say “required” but in this kitchen I had a paneled dishwasher before and wanted a paneled one again but had to drive over an hour to a cabinet maker that carried the same style of cabinets and pay extra for it and wait for it to arrive weeks later, yada yada, anyway, we finally have a new dishwasher in our kitchen which looks exactly the same as it did before. Yes, the before is the same as the after. Ta da!

We researched dishwashers and decided on a Bosch this time, we’d heard and read good things and now that it’s installed, I do love that it is extremely quiet so that even when we run it at night you can’t hear it and it gets the dishes pretty clean. But I still wash most of my dishes by hand mostly out of habit and I like to watch them drying on a towel in the sunlight, I’m strange like that.

In other kitchen news, the remodel in the Las Vegas house is finally complete and this is a pretty dramatic transformation. I haven’t photographed all of it yet since the last time I was there the grout in the backsplash was still drying as my aunt was moving in, but here’s a sneak peek of the view looking in from the living room, here I opted for white appliances for this pass through kitchen since the walls, countertops, and upper cabinets are also white. But no microwave lives here.

I’m headed back next week for a quick trip and I’ll photograph it then and share pictures of the full kitchen makeover soon. I mentioned last year I had no intention of including a microwave in the kitchen since I don’t really use it and didn’t want a micro hood. Remember the conversation about disappearing microwaves?

But when my aunt moved it she texted me asking “Where’s the microwave?” because she needed one and she ended up buying an inexpensive freestanding white microwave for the house which I plan to use but keep it in the garage, yes in the garage on a cart. Which brings up the question is a microwave really necessary? And the answer is, it totally depends on the resident.

I only use a microwave maybe once or twice a week but I have many friends who use theirs everyday. It’s a lifestyle issue. For me it doesn’t get daily use so I don’t deem it necessary but so many people do. I lived without a dishwasher for six months, in college and law school none of my apartments had a dishwasher and I learned to live without that too, but I know most people expect a dishwasher and want a microwave in their home or rental. Do you ?

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