We got off to a bit of a shakey start to our kitchen makeover yesterday. The counter top had been on order for three or four weeks and we had already bought the sink, cooktop and tile. Then, yesterday, the counter top installer people called to tell us they could install today. Excellent! All I had to do was get the old counter top off. That part was easy, but the sink held some problems.
It turned out that the only way to turn off the cold water to the kitchen sink, was to turn off the main water supply to the house. “Not a problem”, I though. I had forgotten, however, that the mains valve was broken, there was just the stub of a stem. At first, I thought we were screwed because I wouldn’t be able to turn the water off..I turned, yanked, banged and twisted at the valve stem with a pair of vicegrips, but I couldn’t get it to move. And worse, in the process, a connector right above the valve had developed a leak. Starting to panic (get the counter top off, leak developing in the basement, need to fix the mains valve), I called the city to have them turn off the water at the curb. Since they would be a couple hours, we sent Dylan to have a quick shower while he could and guess what? No water! I HAD managed to get the valve turned off after all. Do you think I could turn it back on? Not a hope. So I tried and tried until the city showed up and turned off our water. That was 10 o’clock Monday night.
Shelley wants me to point out at this point that I did, indeed, know that the mains valve was broken off. There are two other taps down there that turn off the water to the entire house, because all the water goes through the soft water tank….except the kitchen cold water.
Well, I DID get the counter top off, sink and all. And this morning I replaced the mains valve with a new one AND installed stopper valves under the kitchen sink, so I won’t have to go through that again. I think I spent more time doing plumbing work than I did doing the counter removal that I THOUGHT I was going to be doing. The leak above the mains valve is still dripping, so the city is going to come out Thursday and fix that (I convinced them it was the water meter leaking — which it really is).
The lack of water really DOES get you thinking about how much we DEPEND on it. Not just to drink (psychosomatically, I became VERY thirsty the second the water was turned off), but also for laundry and FLUSHING TOILETS. I was about to go across the street to our neighbours to “borrow” some water, when Shelley pointed out that we have a 1600 litre reservoir downstairs…the hot tub. I brought up a big 26 litre can of water to the main bathroom, and we used that to “flush”. Then you realize how much water actually goes down a toilet! A LOT!
Okay. That said, the new counter top is in, the new sink is in and connected and the new cooktop is in and working. It looks good so far, but the tile will have to wait until this weekend at the earliest. we’ve been taking pictures, so we can all look at the before and after shots.
Wheeee!!!
I laughed so hard that my coffee came out my nose. Way too funny Ian, way too funny!
I’ve always siad that the one of the jobs I hate is plumbing. The only thing missing from your story was some sort of sewage outflow.
Well done on getting the bench top in and sorting the valves. Its a hard hard thing.
S
Great story!! I was impressed that you went beyond the disaster and actually fixed everything again. Good job, neph!
Glad I can supply entertainment! It was actually kind of fun, I just don’t like being FORCED into it.