Recently, I took a break from my ongoing build-out project to upgrade our kitchen with a dishwasher. I'd found one on craigslist for dirt cheap (the catch was the drive to get it.) It had exactly what I was looking for: my preferred brand, a top rack sprayer-arm, and a white color to match the cabinets.
Fortunately, our kitchen came with a cabinet sized for a dishwasher. Unfortunately, it had been boxed out as a cabinet. I suppose it was designed that way for an optional upgrade. To get started, I would have to carve that box out.
The key tool I used was a borrowed reciprocating saw. This thing is amazing; it can basically cut through anything. I started trying to cut the shelf "cleanly" at the attachment point, but realized that was not gonna happen. I ended up cutting the shelf itself and pull the remaining strips away.
I did a similar procedure to cut away the base of the cabinet box. As you can see, I took a good chunk of the kick plate out with it. Also, the cabinet boxes had been resting on a blocking support that was in the section I cut away. If I loaded the cabinets up too much they might have fallen! I cut a replacement section for the kick plate and two supports for either side of cabinets.
Next it was time to focus on making the proper connections to the dishwasher. I started with a hole for the hot water supply line. Since I don't have a big enough drill bit I did a sort of drill and saw connect-the-dots-game. It worked well enough.
The drain hose feeds into a connection built into the garbage disposal. In order to keep nasty sink water from flowing back into the dishwasher I had to thread the hose through a hole higher up than that connection.
After making all the connections, I pushed the dishwasher back into the cabinet, and anchored it into the counter top. I ran the rinse and drain cycles a few times to make sure none of my connections were leaking. After everything checked out, we loaded it up and let it work it's magic. Everyone at my house was thrilled! For just one afternoon of work, adding a dishwasher is quite an upgrade!
It is really lucky that you had a spot for a dishwasher, even if you had to remove the shelves first. Lucky for me, I only need to replace my old one, so I will have a spot for it as well. However, when it comes to hooking up the drain hose, I have never done anything like that before. I think I will be better off letting a professional handle the installation for me.
I’m guessing they originally designed it with the option to upgrade. I was very happy to take that option!