Faucet Fixed

My children make a mess of things when they brush their teeth.   My son is pretty good in some ways while his sister is good in the ways she can be, but she has limitations.   For instance, how do you get toothpaste on your toothbrush when you can’t see if the toothpaste is coming out?

We had to come up with a plan where she holds the toothbrush and puts one finger on the bristles and then squeezes the toothpaste until she feels it coming out.   When enough is on the toothbrush (usually it's too little or way too much) she drags the toothpaste downwards to cut off the blob and leave it on the bristles.   Then she has to find the cap, which she’s lost by now.

That’s just one of a collection of things she has to do differently to get her nighttime routine complete.   Only this post isn’t about her, it’s about the faucet and the leak—a leak I didn’t realize was a leak for a good while because I thought it was her and my son making a mess with the cup, the faucet, spitting into the sink, washing their hands and the swish.

But there was a leak.   It was a slow leak trickling out from under the cold water handle.  I was pretty sure it was the o-ring, but hey, it was a slow leak and I was probably going to have to do a heck of a lot of research to find out how to get a replacement o-ring (it that was indeed the problem).   So I put it off and wiped up the small amount of water every night.

Then today I’d had enough of the procrastination and set to work on the handle.   But I got stuck.   Or rather it was stuck.   The installers hadn’t left us with the manual for the faucets but some Googling, removal of a cap and two screws and I thought I had it.  The handle should have lifted free but it wasn’t and I didn’t want to break it because I’d rather have a leaking faucet than a broken faucet.

So I brought in my husband.   And he couldn’t get it off either.   It was probably mineral deposits a Google search said.   Hit it with a mallet (gently) it said.   Use some spray lubricant.   Pull upwards really hard.   I tried them all and just as I was about to give up, the handle came off.

That’s when my husband got interested.   We pulled the faucet apart and found the o-ring.   It wasn’t torn or in bad shape but it was being replaced, darn it.   We pulled out the, “Complete Set of Every O-Ring You’ll Ever Need” kit I had ordered from China a while back.   Actually, I’m not sure that was the name of it, but it has a vast collection of o-rings and I had gotten it because hey, who knows when you’ll need an o-ring and what do you know, I needed an o-ring.   Having the right o-ring on hand pretty much made my day.

But the faucet still wasn’t fixed.   I made the mistake of not taking pictures of every step in the disassembly process with the key one of what orientation to put the pieces back into place so the off and on orientation of the handle was where it should have been.

I removed buildup from the pieces, we replaced the o-ring, reassembled it three times using trial and error and a little rotational deduction to get the orientation correct again and turned the water back on.    And it worked.   And it didn’t leak.   There were high-fives.   I don’t know a damn thing about plumbing but with Google and a box of o-rings from China we got the faucet fixed.

The Big Boy Update:  My son came out of the bedroom after bedtime tonight.   He has very low self-esteem sometimes.   He was talking about how he didn’t deserve to go to his school and was never a good role model like his classmates.   He said he hated himself and he couldn’t do anything well.   My husband talked to him for a while and tried to turn his feelings around.   We’re not sure it sunk in, but we’ll keep trying.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We’d backed out of the driveway today and my daughter apparently hadn’t gotten her seatbelt clicked in yet because she said in an exasperated tone, “my seatbelt’s not cooperating with me!”