TheBanyanTree: Drips - Epilogue

[WolfSinger]

After trying repeatedly over the last day and a half to turn on water 
in a sink with no faucet, I decided to bite the bullet today and go to 
Lowe's for a new one.

With some trepidation, I took the rubbing of the existing holes and 
headed for the plumbing aisle.  I found exactly the faucet I wanted, so 
I figured it was probably the most expensive one on the lot.  To my 
surprise, it was one of the least expensive.  That was almost too good 
to be true, but I do have good luck occasionally, so I went ahead and 
picked it up.

Reading the abbreviated instructions on the back of the box, I 
discovered I would need new feed tubes.  These new faucets have screw 
on bits instead of needing to be welded like my old Delta.  Whew!  That 
was one of the things I was fretting about, since I've never welded 
anything.

Conveniently across the aisle from the faucets was a shelf full of 
lines for running to faucets.  As I was looking at them, I realized 
that I had no idea what size threads were on the faucet, or on the 
pipes under my sink.  I started to undo the faucet from the box to try 
them out, when a Lowe's employee stepped around the corner, took one 
look at me and said, "You'll need 1/2 inch for that faucet, and 3/8 is 
standard for the water line end."  "Uh, thanks!"  So I guessed at the 
length, adding a couple of inches for good measure, and picked up the 
lines I needed, hoping beyond hope that they would fit.

Back in the bathroom, I undid the faucet box and pulled everything out. 
 Oh, so *that's* what "with drain" meant - it actually has a 
replacement drain with the sink!  Duh.  I set that aside since, as we 
discovered yesterday, the drain was still working fine.  The faucet 
also had large locking nuts to hold the thing in place, instead of thin 
threaded rods and large metal washers.  I set the faucet in place with 
the gasket under it, and it fit right into the existing holes.  I 
screwed the locking nuts on.  Then I spent a few minutes reading the 
instructions again, since I knew it couldn't possibly *really* be that 
easy.  No, it really was that easy.  The water lines fit perfectly onto 
the pipes under the sink, and only had an inch or so extra length to 
reach the sink.  They screwed right onto the sink with no trouble.

"Ok," I thought, "here's where all Hell will break loose.  This has 
been FAR too easy."  I turned the water back on, and voila! water came 
out the tap!  No leaks, no drips, no dribbles.  Total time spent 
installing: 10 minutes, even including the time spent re-reading the 
instructions.  

That's where it got tricky.  I had to connect the new drain closer to 
the existing drain, and that took both hands.  If my cabinet were just 
a bit larger, or if my arms were just a bit smaller, it would have 
taken less time.  Still, it only took about 15 minutes, and I only had 
to redo it once.  (Got the retaining clip on wrong.)

I'm now kicking myself for letting that other faucet drip and leak for 
so long out of fear, but I'm very proud of myself for getting it done 
without having to resort to demolition.  

Think I'll get out the Wonder Woman outfit tonight.

;o)

Wolfie
aka
Laura
wolfljsh at insightbb.com
http://home.insightbb.com/~wolfljsh/index.html