Achievement Unlocked: Faucet Repair

So, one day I go into my bathroom, turn the water on and notice a trickle of water leaking out the side of the cold water handle.  Huh.  Weird.  I clean it up.

Next day, the trickle is a little larger.  Huh!  I probably need to get on that.

Next day – both sides are leaking now?  Seriously?  Argh.

I get my tools.  Now, I say that I get ‘my tools’ and what I really mean is that I ‘search the house and garage for my tools’.  See, I have a toolbox.  Bought it many years ago and since then, I have put tools inside of it.  I know, I know – so freaking handy, right?  But then, a few years back, my mom was in a rough patch and needed a place to stay.  Me being the good son, I extended an offer to her to come and stay with me, which she did.  Years later, she’s still living with me and one of the quirks of my mom is that she can A) Break tools and B) Doesn’t keep them in the toolbox anymore.  There is, in fact, an angel in my toolbox (I need to take a picture of that for you).  It’s a garden angel that one of her cousins gave her a few years back (I think), and at some point the base was broken and now it rests IN my toolbox.  I don’t know why.  I’m a little afraid to ask, actually.

The point is, my tools aren’t in the toolbox.  The other point is that a lot of my tools are gone; screwdrivers mysteriously break, for example, and are tossed.

Sigh.

I found tools in a kitchen drawer because that, apparently, is a better place for them versus, oh, say, a tookbox.

Not that I’m bitter.

Looking at the faucet, none of the screwdrivers I took upstairs with me, fit in the itty-bitty hole under the handle that held (what I thought) was a screw that I needed to unscrew in order to get to the inner workings.  I went back to the drawer and pulled all the little screwdrivers and snatched a flashlight.  A couple of those fit in the itty-bitty hole, but were not, in fact, what I needed.  With the flashlight, I was able to see that what I did need was some sort of hex tool.

A trip to Home Depot it is…

Get back, get the faucet apart (both sides) and take the mechanism inside back to the hardware store.  They only have one replacement.  Guy helps me to identify a ‘universal replacement’ that should work.  $22 for the 1st one, $17 for the ‘universal replacement’.

Argh.

I go back home and put the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) part in the hot water side, and the universal in the cold water side.  Put everything back together, turn the water on and… GUSHING FOUNTAIN OF COLD WATER!

Argh.

Turn everything off.  Cuss a little.  Cuss some more.  Take cold water side apart.  Fiddle.  (Many things have been fixed by ‘fiddling’)  Put it all back together and turn the water on.  GUSHING FOUNTAIN OF COLD WATER!

(more cussing)

I try putting the original piece back in just to see.  Well, that was stupid. (still leaked)  Tried putting the old hot water side mechanism in on the cold water side.  (leaked)  Turned the water off and walked away.

Next day.  Take cold water side apart again.  Take parts to DIFFERENT HARDWARE STORE (Ace).  They give me a completely different part in that it’s all plastic (original, OEM and ‘universal replacement’ had some copper bits).  I point out to guy that he’s handed me plastic to replace copper.  He assures me it’ll be fine.  $12.

Get home, put it all together and OMG IT WORKS! NO LEAKING! NO GUSHING (except what I’m doing right now)!

(<!>) Achievement Unlocked: Faucet Repair