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| Please notice that small circle thing-y, this was my problem |
This was my Monday project, I thought to myself...
"Self, I have had it with the crazy shenanigans we have to go through to turn off the kitchen faucet".
So, I turned the water off to the house, pulled the kitchen faucet apart (a call to Grandpa for back up), went to Ace, and came home with the repair kit for the kitchen faucet as well as a replacement cartridge for the family room shower, and a special tool.
You know, that shower has been dripping for so very long we just have stopped using it.
Call Grandpa and verified my procedure, a while back when he was visiting he talked me through the kitchen repair,
"Remember to use Vaseline!"
Which I did, in all took me about 30 minutes, including the trip to Ace.
Next, on to the shower faucet..
Tyler had already taken the handle off, I already turned the water off to the house, so I used the handy, dandy, tool Ace loaned me and pulled that problem out. Just like pulling a tooth, no problem.
Then, I looked at the replacement part and it was different than the part I had pulled out.
Hmmmmm, another trip to Ace (I had to return the tool) and I did a quick exchange on the cartridge. Back home I went, Vaselined the cartridge up and went to slide it into place. To no avail, it wouldn't go in. There was a part of the cartridge still stuck in the pipe/faucet. Some of the cartridge came out with a little coaxing,
however there was a large chunk that just had to stay in there.
Ross came to give me assistance, we heated it up, drilled it, scraped it, dug around on it, still, no success.
Well Ross was busy with other things and he said with a smile, "Keep on trying, just be careful with that hammer!"
Tap, Tap, Tap... for two hours!
Still that blasted little piece of plastic was stuck in the pipe. I went and had lunch with Hubby, came back and tap, tap, tap.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. I changed strategies with my hammer and my screwdriver, tap, tap, tap.
And something happened. I took out the flashlight and peered through the pipe, the blasted piece of plastic had shifted, I could actually see it! I dug with the screwdriver this way and that, and pushed the blasted piece back into place.
No more tapping, I dug again with the screwdriver, flipped that crazy piece around again and grabbed hold of it with a paint can opener. Plop, out it came! "WhooooHoooo!" I shouted with glee.
Vaselined the cartridge up, slid it into the pipe/faucet and pushed real hard. Thank goodness Brian was here, he came in and pushed a little bit and slid the "keeper" into place, then I finished installing the guards, and the handle and Scarlo turned on the water and no leaks!
No Drips!
And best of all, I had a 50/50 chance, Hot is hot and cold is cold.
A final call to Grandpa informing him it was done. He told me he was just packing so he could come out and fix it for me, ha ha!
