Further Plumbing Adventures
Does it never end?
No, I guess not. Thursday night, at about 10:00pm, my wife and I were working in front of the kitchen sink and stepped onto a wet throw rug at the same time. We both figured that the puppy had wet the rug, until my wife went to pick it up and saw water running out from under the sink! Well, at this point I figured it was the disposal. So, I start cursing and go change into old shorts that I don’t mind getting wet. Then, I start pulling things out from under the sink.
Well, I check around the disposal and, wonder of wonders, it’s not that. But, there is a good amount of water under the sink and I can see water dripping from the sink. I start feeling around and find that the in-sink water filter the previous owner installed has sprung a leak. So, I try to tighten it by hand, but since that only makes it worse I try to turn off the cold-water valve. By this point, the valve has gotten wet and I can’t get a good enough grip on the handle to get it shut off, so I try to tighten the water filter again. Now, I’ve got water spraying at me under the sink and I don’t know where my wife is in the house!
I freak and head out the front door at a run to try and shut off the water main only to find that I need a special wrench, which I don’t have. Now, I’m really freaking out. So, I go back to the water filter to try and tighten it yet again. This time the plastic nut breaks off in my hand and I have water spraying under pressure at me! So, I put a kink in the plastic hose and cut off the water completely. Only, now I’m stuck holding it. What to do….
I send my wife looking for a clamp of some kind, any kind, to hold the hose while I got the shut off closed. Well, the binder clip that I was sure was in my desk, wasn’t, so I had to have her hold the hose, while I went to find something. Finally, in our kitchen “junk” drawer, I find a screw-clamp left over from a craft project. Hooray! And, about 15 frustrating minutes later, I get the damn thing on the hose.
After a brief rest to try and get feeling back into my hands, I try to get the shut off valve closed and, this time, I can finally do it. Now, I have an opportunity to look at what was wrong, and how to temporarily by-pass it. A few seconds later, I’ve removed the filter and have the nozzle connected directly to the cold water. After getting my hand un-cramped, I start to turn the cold water back on. My luck held and nothing started leaking again.
Later, after I calmed down, I remembered that we had a replacement filter that I can put into place, which I’ll get to Monday night.
Also, when I ran outside, one of the cats followed me and I had to go find “Mr. Adventure”. From the look of it, he’d wandered all of three feet from the front door before getting scared and hunkering down in a bush. When I opened the door, he ran to get inside. So much for Mr. Adventure!
And, I’m left with the horrible fear that I’ll replace every last plumbing fixture in this house before we move out. Ah, the joys of home ownership!
