Week 10.1 Last Week: Electrical, This Week: Plumbing.

Handy husband went to snake out the drain in the bathroom sink this evening. It always gives us trouble. In trying to get off a plastic nut which bridged the pipe coming out of the wall (of one old fashioned never-to-be-found-again size) with another bit of pipe (of the ubiquitous black plastic in the "modern" size) which together make up the piece called the "drain extension" (see the above illustration), he snapped it.

It was on very tightly. The plumber who installed it told us to "call him" if we ever wanted to take it off because "it was so d*mn tight." As he'd brought his girlfriend as his plumbing assistant and had had to run to Home Despot because he "had the wrong size" of whatever--while he was installing the taps, I promptly lost his card (if he even had one.)

I want chrome underneath that sink. I want all those bits named in the above diagram, in pretty, shiny, period appropriate chrome. The husband says no. Categorically, foot stance and mouth set in the fighting position: No. He says he'll need "special wrenches" and "they'll get all dinged up" and then...and then (in the manner of that infernal segue married couples make when they're fighting)...the taps I picked out are leaking. Where's the documentation? Who did we buy them from? How do we fix these washerless taps I picked out?

I don't know.
When did plumbing become personal?

By the by, we're talking about this bathroom.

Update #1: I did some on-line research and of the four kinds of faucets (or taps) available, we most likely have the kind called "cartridge" which can leak either because a) the "o" ring needs replacing or b) the whole cartridge needs replacing. If it's (b) and we cannot find the exact same cartridge, we may have to get new taps for the bathroom. (sigh)). They are 12" on centre. Not your standard size.

As far as the drain pipes go, in order to avoid the problems of attaching old sizes to new (see first paragraph above), handy husband and I are discussing replacing the old pipes with new fittings. The basement is totally accessible and he's done the bath tub drain, so we can tackle this. We suspect there's an elbow pipe in the wall though, so we're just trying to figure out how to get the old pipe out with as little damage to the wall as possible. (Still, no chrome.)

Update #2: (12:50am) re: dripping faucet. As I was surfing the web looking for a replacement, I found very similar ones to ours on-line. For some reason, I went and actually looked at the taps...and there on the little plate between the tap and the sink was engraved "Danze LM80906" So, I've e-mailed Danze and asked for their help to identify it.

But, oh my, did I see some drop dead beautiful faucet sets at Restoration Hardware. Maybe I'll post the pics tomorrow. Can an 8" "widespread" faucet set be adapted to 12"? I can't see why not.....Zooza--do you know?

(And do you think I can talk him into a $499.00 faucet set and chrome drains? Of course, it's $499 US....)