A Christmas Present

For Christmas this year, Celeste brightened the upstairs bathroom with a bit of art. A while ago, Evelin mentioned the idea of painting the inside of the bathroom door with a pattern similar to the one she had painted on her phone case; during Christmas break (and with some parent-supplied materials) she took up the challenge.

We refreshed the bathroom a few years ago (and I just replaced the sink hardware), but it's still defined by the original 1940 mint tiles. Despite this, using dark blue paint (Ralph Lauren Seven Seas) and Marimekko Blue Pieni Unikko shower curtain gives the space a nicer look. Celeste drew upon the Pieni Unikko pattern for her painting, working in a few similar flowers and added in a few shades of purple. Since she used acrylic paints, we figured things needed to be sealed, so two coats of varnish were added giving it a nice gloss.

Next up, I just ordered a cabinet bar pull (Hardware Resources Naples 624PC) that will replace the old towel bar that broke a while ago. The bar pull won't project out as far as a typical towel bar (about 1½ inches instead of 2¾ to 3 inches), letting us open the door fully. Mounting it will be a little difficult — I figure I'll have to sink the screws on the outside of the door, putty over them, and then repaint that side of things — but it should work well.

Today's Weather Forecast ...

Not really a change to the house, but I got an Ambient Weather WS-2902C personal weather station for Christmas. One 10-foot pole later and it's up and running in the backyard keeping track of wind and rain and (this time of year) cold. The house, retaining wall, and tree will have an impact on wind speed and direction measurements, but the temperatures, UV, and rain readings should be pretty accurate ... and most importantly, the signal is received strongly in the house. I might try adding an extension pole to get the sensor array up two or three more feet (it's currently about 7.4 feet above ground), but all in all the data looks good.

Not a Plumber

Back in 2011, when we had the upstairs bathroom spruced up we put in a new sink. I wasn't tracking very well the models/fixtures we were installing back then, so I'm not sure exactly what the sink/vanity combo we selected was, but it was an American Standard and had a wide-spread faucet and Evelin was really happy with it. As part of the job, we had new pipes put in but since we only redid the floor tiles and not the walls, the new supply lines came up from the ground and not out of the wall.

When the vanity was installed, the contractor pushed it flush to the corner, which is how the old, much bigger box vanity was placed, but it left it off-center from the mirror. Evelin did not approve.

Once the placement was corrected we were left with two holes in the bottom of the vanity that didn't line up with the supply lines. Not the end of the world; flexible 30-inch braided steel supply lines were used to make the connection and it all worked well for nearly a decade.

However, a little while back the faucet started dripping. Shouldn't be a big deal right? Except things were all corroded inside and I (see the title of this post) am not a plumber so when I couldn't figure out a way to pull and replace the cartridge we moved on to plan B — replace the whole fixture. The original one had some issues with the spout getting wobbly and not being able to keep it tight in addition to the leak, so no big deal, right?

We agreed on the look of the Moen Essie (84716) so a few days later I picked one up and got to work. See again the title of this post.

So it turns out the cartridge (assuming it has one) in the old faucet was not the only thing that was a bit corroded. After wrestling with tight spaces and tools that didn't quite fit, I got all the old hardware off except the faucet stems. They wouldn't go down the hole without removing the chrome ring and they couldn't come up without removing part of the brass fitting. I couldn't figure a way to get either to happen with what I had on hand, so after some text messages to friends and neighbors with more and better tools than me — specifically a Dremel Saw-Max — I was quickly creating a lot of brass dust, making a mess, and cutting the fitting in half.

After cleaning things up, installing the new fixture went fairly smoothly (despite the still cramped space and not all the right tools. It was going relatively well (thanks to some help from Celeste in making sure the stuff up top was lining up while I was positioning things from below) right up until it was time to reconnect the supply hoses. The 30-inch ones that were used to handle the issue with holes being drilled in the wrong place. The ones that Evelin still is bothered by.

The Moen faucet stems are just a wee bit higher up than the old American Standard ones. And 30-inch supply lines are the longest ones Home Depot seems to carry.

So everything is hooked up. The drain is draining without any leaks ... but we're waiting on the 32-inch supply lines I ordered online tonight to arrive before we find out if there are problems anywhere else in the new setup. And the kids have to brush their teeth in the tub until then, too.

Update: Sepetember 26, 2020 — New hoses arrived as expected and the extra two inches made all the difference. No evidence of leaks and teeth brushing can happen at the sink now.