I have been a home owner most of my adult life and the DIY Network is like the Disney Channel to me. I have done my share of painting, kitchen, and bathroom jobs over the last thirty five years and I can proudly say that none of them were ever as easy as any of the shows or commercials on TV.The only show that I can truly believe is When Renovations Go Bad. Doing jobs around the house for me is like putting toys together at Christmas time. Sometimes it works, but most of the time there is always either a part missing or it doesn't fit.
This weekend the task at hand was to repair the dripping faucet at my wife's sink in our master bathroom
Keep in mind that have been avoiding this job for almost a year and for good reason. First I remembered how long it took me put these faucets in several years ago. However, after doing everything I could to control the drip (including putting an aspirin bottle under the handle to keep it tight) my wife could take no more. Plus she had seen them on sale at Home Depot.
So off we went. Upon making it to Home Depot there was the usual delay caused by trying to pick out the proper faucet. The one on sale was definitely not the quality desired. It also needed to be an American Standard brand since one of the shows she had watched said that it was a good brand and parts were easy to find. I just wanted to get out of there with something easy to install and didn't cost over $100. We settled on the single control American Standard faucet with speed control drain (some new device, but it had fewer parts) for $75. The box said easy to install in fifteen minutes and four easy steps.
Home we went. I got out all the necessary tools, read the instructions and went to work. Since we have an older home the first thing I noticed was that my plumbing did not look like the plumbing in the diagram. I'm sure this has happened to all of us. My wife was kind enough to pull up a demonstration of an install on her phone to walk me through it step by step. The only problem was that she was watching and listening while I was under the sink trying to unscrew mounting nuts that were either old or were just to tight. The instructions didn't note that I had to replace the old copper supply lines or that the old drain pipe would not fit.
All this time my wife was feeling quite sorry for me and would ask from time to time if there was anything she could do to help. Of course since there was only room for one of us under the sink this was very practical. At one point she even said, let's stop and finish tomorrow. But my male ego kicked in and I continued with even more determination. Finally two hours later the job was done and water was again running freely with no drips.
I cleaned up and was proud of my work. My wife was also happy that the drip had been fixed. She thanked me, even while telling me that the faucet was not master bathroom quality. Which meant in wife speak that she didn't like it, and it would soon have to be replaced. I looked wearily at my bathroom sink with terrible realization that I now will need to replace it so that it matches the one she has. Since I really don't want nothing for myself I may be able to postpone this inevitable act of cruelty.
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