The house is nearly 22 years old. Like us, it is starting to show its age. We've replaced flooring in most rooms and have done general maintenance on a number of things. Recently we noticed our kitchen faucet was dripping as well as our shower. Having fixed dripping faucets/showers in the past we set about fixing these on Thursday, which happened to be the July 4th holiday here in the US. Ed was tackling the shower while I was going to do the kitchen sink.
About a month ago when we noticed the kitchen dripping, we called the manufacturer who sent out replacement parts for the lever handle. They said we just needed to disassemble the handle and replace with the parts they provided. I was sure I could do it since I had the schematic which supposedly showed all of the parts of the faucet. I unscrewed the lever and took off the cover. I immediately realized what I was looking at didn't match the schematic. Our faucet had an interior cover which wasn't shown on the drawing. The opening at the top of this covering had a piece that matched the next piece I was supposed to remove, but I needed to remove this other covering in order to release it. I tried lifting it and it didn't budge. I then tried twisting it, but then heard a little snap/pop. I immediately worried I broke something important. Since Ed was working on the shower upstairs, which didn't have a shut-off valve, the water to our entire house was off. I didn't know if I did something bad, but my gut told me I did.
About this same time, I started hearing a good amount of swearing from upstairs. Ed was having the same issue. The housing around the shower dial cartridge wasn't releasing. He tried turning it with some vice grips, but the entire housing turned. I could see that he torqued the two pipes feeding from the water line into the housing.
At this point we decided we needed to call in a professional. He went downstairs to turn on the water. That is when we realized the extent of the damage we did. The kitchen sink now had a small, steady stream of water coming from the lever housing. The shower was much worse. Water was spraying inside the wall behind the housing. We shut off the main water line to the house and hung our heads in defeat (Our defeat was not quite so passive. There was a bit of swearing, mostly on Ed's part.) Being a holiday, we knew we wouldn't be able to get someone out that day so we decided to make the best of it.
After the tempers cooled a bit, Ed commented that the house felt warm. My first thought was that it was just his blood pressure, but I felt warm also. The air conditioner was running, but the thermostat was showing that the house was 83 deg F. I felt the air coming out of the register and realized it wasn't cold at all. The AC was broke and we were in the middle of a hot, humid 4th of July.
On Friday, we were able to get a plumber out to cap the shower. This involved unloading my side of the closet and cutting a hole in the wall. The plumber cut the pipes, removed the fittings with the frozen housing, and installed shut off valves. Because the July 4th holiday fell on a Thursday, plumbers were only taking emergency calls on Friday, July 5. Monday we will have another plumber come out to repair the pipes and housing.
Fortunately, the kitchen sink did have shut-off valves so we were able to turn our water back on midday Friday. Saturday we went to the hardware store and just bought an entire new kitchen faucet and replaced that ourselves. A little money saved there at least.
Saturday morning the AC guy came by and pronounced the AC as dead. He said would call around to see if he can get a replacement for us. This time of year, with the excessive heat we've been having, it may take a few days. We are now on Day 4 of no AC.
We are all getting a little tired of being hot and sweaty. Showering doesn't help much. As soon as you dry yourself off, you start to sweat again. Even Squeaks is getting a bit annoyed with it. She is spending her days napping. Smart kitty!
We're making the best of it. July 4th we went to the local fireworks display with Trisha, Craig and my brother Joe.
Blake was home on Friday so we spent the evening at a microbrewery enjoying a few cold, adult beverages.
It is now just Ed, Squeaks and me. It is Sunday and my plans are just to relax, read and knit.
I finished another section (#11) of Papillon.
Paris by Day is coming along nicely. I love how the colors are pooling to create a striped effect.
I need to give my wrists a break now for a while. Time to pull out my book. I'm re-reading one of my all-time favorites: Jane Eyre. I first read it about 20 years ago. Now that I'm older, and have raised a couple daughters, the book is more meaningful for me. If you haven't read it, check it out from your local library and give it a read. It is a classic with a timeless message.
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