Adventures in Plumbing

Yesterday Maggie and Wesley came over and while Henry was in school we ran some errands. While we were out I bought a couple of perennials for the front of the house. They're blue and smell nice and for the life of me I can't remember what they're called. Anyway, now that Henry's busily occupied in school and I finally have some free time and energy, I've started trying to get our yard in better shape. For some reason, all the bushes on the right side of the house have died off, one at a time, over the last six years. This year, after removing the last dead bush, I planted a couple of hydrangeas and am hoping they will live long enough to at least flower one day. Maggie and I put in the perennials and then we dug up some errant hostas and replanted them over where the dead bush used to be. Earlier I planted some flower and herb seeds, but Wesley ran across the flower bed with a rake, so now I have very little hope of success on that front. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things turn out.

Today I was feeling productive and decided it was time to fix the leaky bathroom sink. Ben grumbled and moaned but I got him into the spirit of things. We went to the home improvement store and picked up a new drain pipe/sink stopper combo and returned home to get to work. Demolition of the drain pipe was interesting. Ben unscrewed the pipes and then uttered some horrified gibberish and sent me for a bucket. The smells that emanated from the bathroom were unpleasant much in the same way sewer gas or rotting animal carcasses are unpleasant. The culprit appeared to be a big hunk of mold in the pipe. I spent a good ten minutes scrubbing slimy black mold off the sink while Ben cleaned the pipe out with the garden hose outside.

All I had plans for was repairing the drain, but Ben wanted to fix the leaky faucet while we were at it. In the process of removing some vital part of the faucet, he managed to bend it, so we were going to have to replace the entire plastic ball chunk (I have no idea what that part is called). So we Lysoled the bathroom and left it to air out while we went looking for sink parts. Unfortunately, the faucet was some ancient twenty-year-old off-brand job, so there was nothing at either Lowe's or Home Depot we could use. That meant we had to buy a new faucet. Ben picked out a cheap replacement and I suggested we get some new hoses to hook up the hot and cold water, but Ben thought we could use the old copper hook ups. When we got back home and got the old faucet off, we found out the old pipes were soldered on. So I went back out for the hoses. Together Ben and I swapped out the faucets and with minimal rage fits got the stopper and drain all fixed. Then when we tested everything, the drain started leaking.

While Ben was busy getting ticked off I asked him, "You didn't put teflon tape on the pipe like I said, did you?"

Ben took the drain apart again and taped the pipe thread, put everything back together and it worked beautifully.

The finished product:


It's nice to know that even though Ben and I tend to screw some things up and get angry and yell before things get properly repaired, at least we've learned enough so that next time something breaks we'll know how to fix it with slightly less mistakes and yelling.

I'm thinking the next thing to break will probably be the dishwasher. That'll be a real adventure, I'm sure.