The plumbing saga is finally over. Here's a full run down.
A few months ago:
We started thinking about changing out our kitchen faucet after it became more difficult to work with. We started shopping around.
About a month ago:
After finding a model that we liked I shopped around and found something very similar for $99 on overstock.com . I ordered it and it came in about a week later.
This Past Sunday:
Time to start changing out the faucet! I have the Home Depot Home Improvement 1-2-3 book and all the tools I think I'll need. Time to get started. I closed the water valves under the kitchen sink and got started. It took a little while longer than I expected to take out the old faucet due to some rusty nuts, but I was able to eventually get it done. Then I walked through installing the new faucet, but after a lot of pain and suffering I got it put in and turned on the water. Then I ran into problems. I had leaks both under the sink and on top of it. I could work with the leaks under the sink but the leak in the hose above the sink was a deal breaker. I had to stop at this point and plan on getting another faucet the next day at Lowe's.
Monday:
On Monday I drove down to Gilroy after work to pick up the original faucet that we wanted which was about $200. After I got it I ran home and started working to put it in. I took out the overstock.com faucet and then put in the one from Lowe's. Then the problem was that the hoses for the Lowe's faucet wouldn't work with the valves that I had. So I had to stop at this point and go to the hardware store the next day and get some 3/8 inch compression valves.
Tuesday:
I went to OSH and got the compression valves, but I realized that I would have to change out the master valves under the sink in order to fit the new faucet's hoses. In order to do that I'd have to find and shut off the master water valve. I looked all over the house, upstairs, downstairs, inside, outside, and I just couldn't find it. Finally I ran out of time and had to call it a night.
Wednesday:
I finally found the master shut off valve, but since I live in a condo building with 8 units there were 8 master shut off valves at the end of the building. And unfortunately for me, only 3 of the 8 were labeled, and none of the 3 were for my unit. So after a few educated guesses and accidentally turning off my neighbor's water I finally go the right one. And as it turns out one of the master valves was labeled incorrectly. I also tried to turn off the water valve at the water meter. But after getting rid of the black widows in my way I was not able to turn that valve at all. But the water in the house was stopped, so I went into the house to finish the job. The next problem was that all of the faucets upstairs were out of water but the valves underneath the sink that I needed to change still had water. At this point I had to call it quits and plan to call the plumber the next day.
Thursday:
First thing in the morning I called the plumber and made an appointment for them to come and finish the job later in the day. Two plumbers showed up during the alotted 2 hour window. They checked out the scene and decided that they needed to change the water valve outside to get the water to fully stop, and to finish changing out the valves inside the house and plug the faucet in. It took them roughly 2 hours to do all their work. Finally everything was done and it only cost me lots of hours and a $500 trip from the plumber. Whew!