Homeownership is weird. When something breaks you have to fix it yourself, or pay someone else to fix it. This weekend we attempted to fix something ourselves and I think we succeeded. It’s weird.
The faucet of our kitchen sink started acting weird a while ago. We would turn it off but the water would dribble out for several seconds before finally shutting off. We called a plumber we trusted to investigate and his response was, “I have no idea why it’s doing this.” He gave us a new aerator which only kinda helped, but didn’t charge us for his visit, which was very generous of him.
Over time the water pressure in the faucet began to fade, it developed an insidiously slow drip unless it was shut off a certain way, and finally it began to leak out of the sprayer. It was definitely time to get a new kitchen sink faucet. Since money is tight right now (as it is for just about everyone), we decided to install it ourselves.
What a project that turned out to be. Beneath our kitchen sink everything is in the way of everything else. If pipes and sink bottoms weren’t obstructing me, there was enough rust and hard water to make everything I needed to twist and turn almost immovable. I shredded the flesh on my hand unscrewing things I could only reach with my fingers. Water and rust fell all over my face. My wife had to get power tools involved to cut through old plastic fasteners. And my back still hurts days later from how I was bent backwards over the lip of my kitchen sink cabinets. It was painful.
Installation went much smoother, thankfully. Brand new equipment made things nice and easy. We turned the water supply lines back on and we had water pressure! With no leaks! We did it! But then we turned the water off and this brand new faucet began to do that same delayed shut-off as the old faucet. And it appeared to have that same insidiously slow drip as the old faucet! After all that work, filth, and injury, it appeared that the only problem we’d fixed was the water pressure. I was, to put it lightly, very grumpy.
My wife and I searched the internet and asked around on social media for insight and solutions. The suggestions varied wildly, some beyond our scope of expertise like disassembling the faucet piece-by-piece to determine the problem. Some folks agreed with our plumber’s original assessment of puzzlement. I didn’t know what to do.
Until my wife discovered an unlikely solution. We had become so accustomed to turning off our old faucet “a certain way,” which was to twist the handles as quickly and firmly as possible, that we didn’t think to try turning them slowly. For whatever reason, that did the trick. The water no longer dribbles out of the faucet after shut-off and that insidiously slow drip is actually just a few lingering droplets.
I have no idea why that worked and frankly I don’t want to question it. Homeownership is weird and I think our house is equally weird.
