Faucet Facelift . . . And More!

Avid followers of "Natalie & David's Blog" (. . . that's you, Mom), may have noticed a slight decline in the number of posts detailing home improvement projects with the arrival of Finley. For some reason, we just don't quite have the time to devote to building shelves, removing wallpaper, re-painting rooms, etc.

So, it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure (Is it sad that I find myself quoting Disney songs these days?) that I am able to post an update on our master bathroom renovation (a.k.a. "Operation Putting David Back to Work"). Given the lack of free time to work on home improvements these days, I've decided to divide this relatively minor bathroom makeover into three phases. My last post chronicling this adventure detailed the completion of Phase I (tiling), which we were able to finish just before little guy was born. The subject of this post will be Phase II (replacement of hardware). And stay tuned for Phase III (re-facing the cabinets and replacing the lighting), coming in the Fall of 2011.

Step 1 of Phase II involved many trips to Lowes to buy all the new hardware. We decided to replace the hardware in our bathroom (which had been chromed out like a Escalade in a MTV music video from the 90's) with more modern looking brushed nickle.

Ooooh lala! Looking better already. Towel bars and such were no problem, but when it came to the hardware through which water actually flows (i.e. faucets, showerheads, tub spouts, etc.), it got a little trickier. The most frustrating part was that the first thing the instructions for the new hardware tell you to do is "remove the old hardware." Well, if I've learned anything over the past couple weeks about the person or persons who built our house, it's that they were not afraid to use a welding torch to firmly and securely attach everything in the house.


Here I am trying to "uninstall" the old faucet connections under the sink (You can thank Natalie for cropping out my plumber's crack).

Sometimes I ran into a pipe that just wouldn't budge, so I had to use my trusty RotoZip saw with the metal cutting attachment (talk about natural male enhancement).

Then, there were the things that had to be un-screwed, but just wouldn't budge. That's when we had to call in the big guns . . . Dad!

Here's my Dad with the coolest wrench I've ever seen. It actually locked onto the piping so that it could be turned more easily.

The "uninstallation" process also revealed a little more than I really wanted to know about what lives down in the sink drain. This hairball actually had it own gravitational pull. But, once the "installation" process started, things were actually a little easier. For the most part, it was just following instructions and connecting the parts. I must admit that we felt pretty good Saturday afternoon, after we had installed all the new hardware. We even treated ourselves to a little dinner at the Mexican Tacqueria. And I would like to leave it at that, but . . .

After coming home from church the next day, we noticed this wet spot showing up in the ceiling in the garage! Upon further investigation, we discovered that the tub faucet was leaking (to put it gently) when the water was running! Yikes! So, after having a near melt-down and realizing that sometimes you just need to call in an expert (especially when water-tight seals are required), we broke down and called a really good plumber recommended to us by some friends. Luckily, it was an easy fix and they were in and out in less than an hour!

So, I only scored 80% when it came to installing water-bearing hardware (but, my percentage goes up to a 90% if you include all hardware). Not bad for me, but probably not a great score for the house.

In the end, we are happy with the results. And despite all the headaches and near nervous breakdowns, it all worked out (. . . with a little help from our friends)! Here are a couple before and after shots.