Ego massage, courtesy of Google

WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT GOOGLE?

I am not a very practical person, at least not when it comes to anything requiring some kind of manual dexterity.  Like pretty much all DIY jobs.  But over the years a lack of money, or thrift (OK, meanness....), or bloody mindedness has meant I've tackled a variety of jobs around the home.  With, admittedly, very varying degrees of success.  In fact if you're a carpenter or the like you might be best to stop reading now, because what follows may just be too painful.

This time it was the decor door on the dishwasher.  Integrated appliances in kitchens look great, but are a pain when something needs doing.  I can recall, in a previous home, ordering a washing machine to replace one that was built in.  But when the men arrived they were baffled by the way it had been installed.  The plinth underneath had been put in in a way that made it impossible to remove.  In the end they took it away, we ordered a freestanding replacement, and I had to saw out a section of plinth.  Not exactly elegant, but it worked.

This one was much simpler.  The decor door had fallen off, partly because it's upper section had split form the lower.  So first I had to find a way to restore the rigidity to the panel.  That proved simple enough, once I adopted a solution my wife came up (I did say I'm not very practical.)  Then I had to get it back on to the door, which looked like this.

Easy, eh?  It will just clip back into place.

Oh no it won't.  What do I do now?

It's 2017 so there's an obvious answer.  Get on to Google with the model number and see what can be found.  After a bit of searching I came across what I was looking for.  And the answer was simple to implement.  Once you knew how.  Now our door looks like this.

Then I can't help but wonder if I'd ever have arrived at the answer without the powerful resource of the internet?  And, if I ever did, just how long it might have taken me to figure out?  Once upon a time we had Haynes manuals for fiddling about with our cars.  Now there's Google for, well, just about everything.

That aspect is patently obvious.  But using the web as opposed to more old school methods often has another benefit.  I found the answer I was looking for on a discussion forum, on a thread that started with someone who'd found themselves in the same situation.  So not only did Google give me the fix I needed.  But it made me feel better about myself by showing me there are other people who are just as stupid as I am.  I feel reassured in my incompetence.  Haynes manuals never did that.