Since Katie was at her theology seminar all day, I thought I would surprise her by fixing things around the house that have been on my “Big Fix-It Man” list for months.
What I naively thought would be a simple venture in home repair, as usual, grew to be a near-emergency and took the entire day.
My tasks:
The pantry door problems:
- It was falling off its lower hinges because the lower bracket screws have completely carved out the wood in the door frame
- The door knob was 25 years old and wouldn’t turn right, so the door was constantly banging on the door jamb
The guest bathroom problems (all experienced by Robert, my best-man and now a resident of New York):
- Toilet claims victory after six months and begins leaking water on the floor again
- Shower is horrible, water shoots out painfully hard, shower head is worst ever
- But shower arm attached to pipe in wall has threads on the inside instead of the outside, so no new shower heads fit it
- Bathroom door cannot be locked due to faulty door knob
Master bathroom sink problems:
- Faucet drips unless you torque the knob as hard as you can, so we never use that sink
I claimed a victory over the guest toilet by using plumber’s putty. We will see how long it lasts.
I bought a new shower arm and head and gingerly twisted off the old arm, fearing that after decades it could have gotten so welded to the pipe in the wall that it would break, but thanks be to God, it came off fine; here is the old and new:
I also installed a new door knob with lock in the bathroom, so that was easy to solve.
The master bathroom sink proved near-disastrous. I shut off the valve under the sink so water wouldn’t explode everywhere when I dismantled the faucet and knobs, but the water kept dripping out.
I realized that the valve was another 25 year old original when the house was built, including the metal conduit pipe welded onto the valve itself. I had messed with the same thing in the guest toilet water source, and the conduit had broken as soon as I tried to take off the valve because it was so brittle and rusted with age.
So I got smart and first went back to Home Depot to buy the valves and separate, flexible conduit pipe. I picked up Katie from the seminar and came home. I then took the plunge and turned off the water to the house outside then after much twisting, removed the old valve on the cold water faucet.
The copper pipe coming out of the wall was exposed, and even though the water should have been off, it was still dripping out of the open end. Then I put the new valve on, a compression type valve, since I remembered with some Home Depot help that this was what I needed.
I put the valve on and screwed it hand tight, but it felt way too loose on the copper pipe. It was dripping from the valve connection because of this looseness. “Oh no,” I thought to myself, “the valve isn’t right for this pipe! Shouldn’t the pipe have some threads on it that I can screw into? We’re not going to be able to turn the water back on now, and we’ll have to call a plumber–dang!”
I didn’t know what to do, so I went and complained to Katie and told her stuff was messed up. Then I called my dad and step-grandpa for help. Thanks be to God! They told me that I should first put on the valve nut, then put on the compression cylinder, then put on the valve as far in as it would go on the pipe, and finally start screwing the nut onto the valve and tighten it hard, holding the valve immobile with channel locks.
I did so, using an awesome Craftsman auto-lock tool to grab hold of the nut and turn it, and the compression then made the valve secure on the pipe! Katie turned the water on outside while I watched the valve to see if it would leak, but it worked great and didn’t leak at all!
Whew! I called it a day there. The time was now 6 pm, and now that I understand how to secure the compression valve, I will continue the adventure tomorrow.
St. Joseph came through for me today because I was asking him big-time to pray for me when things were looking bad. I’m beginning to appreciate homes that are either 1) newer, or 2) been updated from 1980s-era fixtures.
Nice work, Mr. Fix-It!