The kitchen sink has been dripping for ages and Rich finally got tired of it. That and he discovered that the deep basin we'd put under the sink to catch any leaks had about 2 gallons of water in it. Not good at all. So he took the sink apart, thinking he would need to replace at least a washer or two.
Oops. "Apart" is the operative word. The bolts that held the faucet assembly to the sink had become a pile of rusty crumbs. So. New faucets. Erm. Well, at least we didn't also need a new sink.
Rich tried unsuccessfully to unscrew what was left of the 1 and a quarter inch bolt that was in a very inconvenient up-and-back position under the sink. To do so, he realized that he would need some sort of socket wrench or equivalent. And we also needed a new faucet assembly. Thus, a trip to the hardware store was in order.
We looked at faucets. The woman in the plumbing dept. said that Moen is the top brand. There were lots of choices but many looked like our previous add-on sprayer attachment wouldn't attach to the faucet (that would be bad). Some weren't made to fit a "3-hole" sink. Some (many) we didn't much like the looks of.
One model looked like Peppermills! A big one for the faucet and a little one for the handle. It might have been the Moen Waterhill… I didn't notice the name.
We talked about it and decided that we never really used the handheld sprayer. But we have really liked having an add-on sprayer attachment on the faucet itself.
We decided on a Moen Extensia with a pull-out nozzle that can be set to "hands free" spray or stream, so we don't have to keep a thumb on the button. It wasn't cheap (but we didn't pay MSRP either).
Then Rich found some peculiar tools called "shower valve wrenches" (pipe crimped into semi-hexagons at both ends). He also borrowed some tools from a neighbor when we got home. Then he got everything unhooked. And put back together… after another trip to the store for new, flexible hose attachments.
The new faucet is going to take a little gettng used to. It's larger than it seemed in the store. It rather hulks.
But it doesn't drip. Or leak. It does spray. We will get used to it.
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The Moen Extensia, chrome finish | Doesn't this set look like peppermills? |
Slightly Off KIlter 