Craigslist backfire....aka, our dishwasher came with mouse poop

So last night we finished dinner and were getting ready for a nice early bedtime. We go to start the dishwasher and discover that the drain is continually running and so the dishwasher cycle won't start - not a good sign. As a reminder, we purchased this fancy Bosch dishwasher on craigslist for $500 and have been using it for about a week now without issue.

David took it apart to investigate the issue, and discovered that there was a leak due to a loose piece. The leak was tripping the drain sensor, causing it to run continuously. This was an easy fix, however while he was in there David realized that the entire cavity under the dishwasher (not where the plates go thankfully, but where the insulation, wires, motor, etc. are located) was filled with mouse poop. GROSS!!! Because of the leak, we were essentially dealing with an unbelievable mess of liquid mouse poop. At 11:00 at night.

Needless to say, the cleanup was less than fun. We took everything apart, and took the larger pieces outside to spray them down with the hose and with bleach. We had to throw away a lot of the insulation pieces because they had been chewed and saturated with nastiness, so we'll have to order new insulation because the dishwasher is already noticeably noisier. Around 1:30am we finished cleaning all of the dishwasher pieces, putting the dishwasher back together, and cleaning the mess off the kitchen floor.

Overall we have been very happy with the value of the appliances, furniture, and cabinets we have purchased from craigslist. However, this just goes to show that it really is a gamble when you make a purchase - especially when its something like a dishwasher where you can't always test the functionality or investigate all of the cavities... for things like the remnants of a mouse infestation. Luckily we have it all cleaned up and the dishwasher seems to be operational again, so this could have been worse. But not much.

To be clear, we don't think the mouse poop was from our house. This dishwasher was stored in an old garage at the previous owners house while he was getting ready to sell it. We did have it in our garage for a little bit here, but we have never seen evidence of a mouse out there or in our house. Hopefully we are right about this! Also, we almost took a picture of the mess for you guys, but decided in the end to spare you the details. Happy Friday!