Being the romantic bastard that I am, I gave my wife a new Koehler kitchen faucet for Christmas. (I can hear the ooh’s and ahh’s….sexy!)
After being (happily) married for over 22 years romance sometimes takes a backseat to let practicality ride shotgun for Christmas. We both try to stay away from anything too superfluous because we’re on a fairly limited budget and have neither the money nor the desire to give each other matching silver and gold Beamers adorned with gargantuan matching red bows (honestly, puhhhleese!)
I got up early on the 26th to go to Home Depot in search of Plumber’s Putty and a Basin Wrench. (it almost sounds like I know what I’m doing) After getting all the tools I thought I’d need I began taking out the old to make way for the new. My wife left the house with the girls in tow presumably to give me an empty house that I could scream in. I should have prefaced this post by re-posting this.
Anyway, everything was going pretty well or so I thought. With plumbing, even a chimpanzee can look good doing it. That is, until you turn the water back on.
When I turned it back on, a firehose-like column of water shot out of the bottom of the sprayhead and soaked everything within a five foot radius of the sink. Ooops.
I felt like Curly in a plumbing episode of the Three Stooges.
My father-in-law came over to see how I was doing.
He’s one of these guys that could put in one of these with his eyes closed and one hand behind his back.
He looked at our semi water park of a kitchen and said, “… you got a leak.”
I caved and called a plumbing buddy of mine who promised to come over around noon that day to see what was wrong. I was cleaning up when I found a small and insignificant black washer that must have blown off the sprayhead when I purged the line. I put the washer back into the bottom of the sprayhead where I thought it went and once again turned on the water expecting to see the return of Ol’ Faithful.
Amazingly dry as a bone. One little black washer had been my problem.
Maybe that’s where they got the phrase, “Little things mean alot.”
~m
Smoke & Mirrors 
I could use a new faucet! Mine’s about 30 years old I think. It’s really ugly. 😦
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Oh Lord, I think you may have just convinced me to not try anything like this. I was just thinking the other day how nice it would be to have a new kitchen faucet and sprayer-thingy. Maybe I should just call a professional and be done with it. Glad you persevered!!
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There must be something going on with the planets because my husband also bought us a new faucet for the kitchen sink that he’s attempted to install himself with comical/disastrous results!! Turned out the old faucets would not come off so he went off to Home Depot at 5 pm December 31st to buy a new,stainless steel sink. Only to find that the old pipes don’t match up to the new pipes that come with the facuet AND the hole in the counter needs to be enlarged to fit the new sink. Tonight he borrowed a power saw from a neighbor to cut the counter to size. But then he’s gonna call the plumber for the piping. . . . And we are eating off paper plates and carrying down water from the upstairs bathroom. I call it camping. He calls it living like so many do in third world countries.
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Karen (the Editors)-
LMAO.
You are just too funny.
I think you should write this one out. Good stuff…
~m
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‘sokay, M. I once requested (and got) a really really supercool composter for Mother’s Day.
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Lisa-
I guess composters could be “supercool”, though I’ve never thought of them that way. Hmmm…
Hope it worked out for ya. 😉
~michael
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Knowing you now, as I do, this sends me into fits of giggles because I can not only see it happening, I also realise the truth in it!
Maybe you need to make a list of things that need doing while we’re there.
We can cook, he can fix??
Pam can sit and drink Bundy swizzles, safe in the knowledge her taps and lights will work without getting maimed and have a good feed at the same time!
:hat:
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