Aww the joys of home ownership. Take heed friends, I am now living proof that if you keep hacking away at DIY’ing all the hard home repairs, eventually you’ll get one that turns out to be much easier and cheaper than expected.

Specifically, out hot water handle in the bathroom sink began dribbling out water whenever the hot or cold handle was turned a certain way. As it goes with these things, the problem got worse over time as I kept putting the actual fix off. However, as of this weekend, the problem is no more. After reading up on some valuable advice online (amazing how much home imrpovement info is on the web these days), I took apart the hot water assembly (much easier than I thought it would be - all I needed was a philips head screw driver, an adjustable wrench, and a needle nose pliers), I took the dysfunctional stem/valve assembly to Home Depot, where, for the first time ever, I found the exact match in less than ten minutes. It was one of those light shining down from heaven moments (I think I heard the “ahhhhhhhhs” coming from the garden center), and there it was, sitting in the wrong place, one lone, perfect replacement for the part I had in my hand. Awesome.

THen once home, it was literally five minutes - push the assembly into place, tighten down the nut that holds it there, screw the handle back on, BAM! All fixed.

I swear, nothing I’ve ever done around this 100 year old home has ever been so easy. Don’t even ask about the tub surround, the dryer vent, or the privacy fence. Ugh.

Now, next week, I’m going to attempt to fix the leaking diverter valve in out shower (something Mother Earth and the Washington Sanitary Commission will surely appreciate) and replace the caulk around the bathtub (AGAIN! - one of my least favorite, and most frustrating things to do).

Wish me luck.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 6:06 pm and is filed under home life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.