We can haz faucet!
1. Our kitchen faucet has been The Faucet from Hell for a very, very long time. It leaked, both above and below the sink. For a long time we could stop the leaking by shutting the faucet off "just so" (in a very complicated fashion). Eventually, maybe 2 months ago, even the "just so" thing didn't work any more, and we had leaking bad enough that we had to put an old Tupperware thing under the pipes to catch the dripping, empty it a couple times a day, AND shut off the hot and cold water valves whenever we weren't actively using the faucet. So a couple weeks ago we started looking for a new faucet. Last Monday, on Memorial Day, we found one we liked at Menard's Home Improvement Store but didn't buy it right then because we weren't sure there were enough holes at the top edge of the sink to accommodate a faucet, 2 separate handles and a sprayer. Mr. Annearchy checked on that and found that yes, we did have enough holes. (Our existing faucet had just the single adjustable handle so it was using only 1 hole and covering up 2 holes, and the fourth hole was covered by a stainless steel plug.)
ANYWAY, yesterday Mr. Annearchy decided to install the new faucet. Taking the old one out wasn't so hard for him. Getting the new one in was pretty bad. He ended up having to go to Farm & Fleet to buy a whole new set of open-ended wrenches - and then it turned out he needed a 15/16ths-inch one, and the biggest he had was 7/8ths-inch. Of course. So he had to use his Vise-grips instead. The worst part was trying to install the sprayer, which slides in and out of a plastic tube that has insanely fine threading on the outside; he could turn it only 1/4 turn at a time, and I held down the little stainless steel collar against the sink, pushing as hard as I could while bent over in a bizarre position made worse by the fact that I'm probably about 4 inches too short for this particular task. Plus he was lying under the sink (with a camping pad under his back). So we're both uncomfortable and the damn sprayer never got fully installed but it's usable. Oh...and the first time we installed the faucet, it was backwards; when he put the handles on, they pointed the wrong way, so he had to undo everything and turn it around 180 degrees. Oy. At any rate, the project that he thought would take 1 1/2 hours ended up taking probably 5, but we do have a nice new stainless-steel gooseneck faucet with 2 handles and a sprayer that actually makes bubbles that STAY in the sink. So yay. And we don't have to crawl under the sink to turn the water on and off any more.
2. School ends on June 13th. DD has only 2 more weeks. I hope we survive.
ANYWAY, yesterday Mr. Annearchy decided to install the new faucet. Taking the old one out wasn't so hard for him. Getting the new one in was pretty bad. He ended up having to go to Farm & Fleet to buy a whole new set of open-ended wrenches - and then it turned out he needed a 15/16ths-inch one, and the biggest he had was 7/8ths-inch. Of course. So he had to use his Vise-grips instead. The worst part was trying to install the sprayer, which slides in and out of a plastic tube that has insanely fine threading on the outside; he could turn it only 1/4 turn at a time, and I held down the little stainless steel collar against the sink, pushing as hard as I could while bent over in a bizarre position made worse by the fact that I'm probably about 4 inches too short for this particular task. Plus he was lying under the sink (with a camping pad under his back). So we're both uncomfortable and the damn sprayer never got fully installed but it's usable. Oh...and the first time we installed the faucet, it was backwards; when he put the handles on, they pointed the wrong way, so he had to undo everything and turn it around 180 degrees. Oy. At any rate, the project that he thought would take 1 1/2 hours ended up taking probably 5, but we do have a nice new stainless-steel gooseneck faucet with 2 handles and a sprayer that actually makes bubbles that STAY in the sink. So yay. And we don't have to crawl under the sink to turn the water on and off any more.
2. School ends on June 13th. DD has only 2 more weeks. I hope we survive.