The Blog-Files

A New Faucet...Thanks Brent!

A short while after moving into our townhouse almost four years ago, we noticed that our kitchen faucet was leaking through a seam on the top side of the faucet, near the button that changed the water from a stream to a shower. It was a little annoying but not too bad. Over time the leak got a little worse, manageable once you got used to it. If you wanted a fast stream of water you would have to hold your hand over the top of the faucet to block the thin stream of water escaping from the top. It had gotten so bad that now two completely different streams of water would shoot out the top, and quite frankly, looked ridiculous, and also threatened to soak the television through the pass-thru into the living room. Something had to be done. Actually, something had to be done a long time ago.

I think it was a house warming gift, or maybe a birthday present from my parents. It came from Costco and was a snazzy new kitchen faucet just like the one we had but all metal, therefore with no seam to start leaking. It was a nice faucet, brushed metal, very stylish. I got said faucet something like three years ago and promptly put it in the garage, as the leak at that time wasn't too bad and we had a new baby in the house so I didn't really see myself having time to install it. My confidence as a handy man is less than it should be, being a bit of a perfectionist I don't like trying to do something unless I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. So the faucet sat in the garage and waited...

I must have taken the faucet out of its spot in the garage and looked at the parts and instructions no less than five times over the last four years. Noticing that I needed a few tools and supplies that I didn't have it was easy to put it back, but it always left me feeling slightly defeated. I was really good at coming up with excuses not to do it, the main one being a lack of free time or the "right time". I mean, it's 10:30PM and I have all sorts of free time now, the kids are asleep and my wife is probably reading in bed. It is, however, probably not the best time to be doing a somewhat less than minor home reparation. Excuses are always easy.

Last week I was reading my brothers blog. Brent said he was resolving this year to "finish something", to get stuff done that he had been putting off. I used this as inspiration and decided that I would tackle the faucet and get that job that had been nagging at me for over 3 years.
Of course, that was last week. You don't want to rush into these things. I went to Canadian Tire and purchased some supplies, Plumber's Putty, a Crescent wrench, and Slot-Groove wrench. Everything else I needed was in with the faucet...I was ready.

I won't bore you with the details of the installation. I went okay, not smoothly, there were definitely some bumps along the way, but in the end, it got done. And pretty well, if I don't say so myself. The only drawback from this experience is that now my wife seems to think I'm some kind of handyman and maybe there are a few other jobs around the house that I could work on. No problem, just give me a few years to get around to it.