Friday, November 7, 2008

Frustraged

frustraged (adj): a sense of thwarted purpose causing fits of anger and leading to premature hair loss

I am getting really annoyed with my landlady. My bathroom faucet has been leaking for months so I have been shutting off the water under the sink when I'm not using it. With the really cold weather approaching, I'm getting tired of washing my hands in freezing cold water. I had bought a replacement faucet and was all prepared to phone the plumber. But she wants me to remove the existing faucet and take it to Home Depot to see if they will replace it. The problem is, I can't get it off the sink. I tried today but I can't figure it out. I can barely see anything because the sink is in the way. When I loosened one of the nuts, the pipes started dripping and I started to worry that I had actually made it worse because nothing else would give. I can't afford to have a leak. I'm rarely home and will be leaving for Montreal in a week. I think I will just call her tomorrow and tell her that I broke the pipes and now have a leak under the sink and am going out of town soon. Hopefully that will get her sufficiently alarmed that she will agree to let me just call the plumber and take care of it! Is that terrible? Sigh. I need a bicycle. I hate not being able to do absolutely everything myself and I have no-one to ask for help. The whole thing makes me so frustrated I could cry. Well, I am but I'm pretending not to.

Update: F*ck now I can't use the damn sink at all. I dismantled the drain and now I can't figure out how to get it back on. The pipes are dripping into the cabinet now. I put a bucket under there but I can't go to Montreal next weekend and leave it like that F*ckety f*ck.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't the sink and faucet your landlord's property and problem? Why are you even messing with it?

I'm a veteran of many sink repairs and they are all unpleasant. Toilets are fun. But with sinks, you end up on your back with your head awkwardly positioned, balancing a flashlight, while disgusting liquid pours down your forehead and into your eyes. You bruise your fingers and swear like a marine.

First, you shut off the water supply. Hopefully there are shut-off valves at the supply lines leading to the sink. Otherwise, you have to look for the valves further upstream. Then you disconnect them from the faucet. You can use an adjustable cresent wrench for that. The faucet probably has a pull that raises and lowers the drain stop that you also have to disconnect and remove. Then you have to get way up there, to remove the bolts that hold the faucet to the sink. This is easier if you have a basin wrench which is made for just this job. If you can't borrow one, then you have to use whatever's at hand to remove these bolts. Once they're off, you can remove the old faucet and follow the instructions for installing the new one.

Enjoy.

Ms Behaviour said...

Asshat, will you marry me? You are a gem. I only wish I had read this earlier. The current status of the faucet is this:

Drain stopper is disconnected (sink is currently unusable for that reason).
Valves are disconnected (this is how I have been controlling the water flow to said leaky faucet for several months).
Bolts have been unscrewed and are loose enough to pull out faucet.

The problem is the nut under the sink which holds the stopper thingy. I can't get it off, try as I might. Grey said he would try to come by this weekend. Baby said she would too. And a classmate offered help after I posted my cry for help on my facebook status update.

I'm rooting for Grey because then we can play Joe Plumber/Desperate Housewife but I would accept you as a more-than-adequate replacement.

Anonymous said...

I have to hand it to landlords: they never seem to quite get that calling the plumber is often, in the end, the cheapest option.

I try to stay away from plumbing as much as possible. Electrical I'm okay with, but plumbing is just disgusting. Especially if you've ever snaked a drain. *shudder*

Alexandreena said...

I hope I never, ever have to do this.
Tell the landlady to fuck off and call the plumber! Really!