I wake up this morning. Groggy. Go to the kitchen. Turn on the water. Nothing comes out. I go ask my wife about it and she said she had to go under the sink and turn off the water because one of the small copper pipes was streaming out water this morning... Oh great, plumbing.

I look under the sink, turn on the water and I see, drip, drip, drip under the cold water piping. I play with the pipes. Nothing I can do. There looks like a hole in the copper. I start looking at the hot water piping and at the valve I see another drip. Oh great, I have two problems to fix. The cold water piping was soldered on the faucet above, so I quickly realize that I am going to have to get a new faucet and a new valve.

I go to the hardware store about 4pm. I wander around and find a new faucet, new plastic bendable piping and a handy dandy wrench tool that is supposed to be good for getting in tight spaces (Total for all items $200+). I get home and the piping I buy looks to be about 10 inches too long even for a bendy plastic piping, so I am already peeved that I know I have to go back to the hardware store for an exchange.

I start trying to get the nuts off that are keeping the faucet attached to the sink. I get the left one off easy with the new tool. The right one is just rusted in there. I spend about an hour working on it with no luck. Crap. If I am going to get it off I need something with a lot more torque, but the only thing that would fit on there is a deep socket. The two deep sockets I have don't fit, but the 5/8" is really close. So instead of doing something smart and measuring the left nut that I got off, I just immediately assume that I need a 1/2" inch deep socket. Back to the hardware store.

I get back to the hardware store, exchange the piping for something smaller and head over to the tools department and find a deep socket. Crap, I need a driver or an adapter because the only deep socket that is 1/2" needs a 1/2" driver. The problem is I can't remember what my drivers are at home so I say the heck with it and get a 1/2" driver (Total for all items $40+).

I make it home get the driver on the new socket put it up there. You guessed it. It is too big. By this time I am cussing. I think to use the left nut... Measure it against my sockets and it needs a 9/16". The hardware store doesn't take exchanges on tools. Back to the hardware store.

I get the right deep socket (another $8), head home think I am all dandy. Get the socket up there. At first it doesn't go on the nut! The bolt that the nut was on was bended. I straighten the bolt and the socket goes on.. Whew false alarm. So I start trying to turn. Great torque. It feels like it is starting to move. To make a long story short(er), with both my wife and her mom's help (at different times) I get the faucet off in about an hour. I started at 4pm. Now it is a little after 9pm.

I do a little cleanup, break out the directions and start putting the new faucet together. The instructions of course are all diagrams and no words. Items are not marked on the diagram correctly. An item marked J is really K. It is like a big 20 step Lego with messed up instructions. All I can think of to say is "Who did your QA, faucet company?"

11pm comes around and the faucet is plugged in. It is running great. Even the hot water is running OK based on where you turn the valve to. Tomorrow I still need to replace the hot water valve. I am hoping that it is only a 1 hour job, but we will see.

Plumbing really bites.