Plumbing Princess

No, this isn't a birthday photo. You're lookin' at the Plumbing Princess! Okay, so it's also a birthday photo, but the ring and tiara are for crowning my achievement of installing my birthday kitchen faucet. My parents knew I needed a new one because the old one leaked and there were broken parts on the inside. I won't bore you with the whole story, but I ended up having to take out the old faucet all the way down to the stop valves underneath the sink. And I ended up having to do it a little sooner than I thought thanks to those nasty valves.

I had started in the afternoon to work on the faucet replacement, but ran out of time to really do the job because I was teaching piano. I figured I would just jump into the job full-bore the next morning. Hah. By dinnertime I found out, though, that I was having to do it right then because the stop valves were leaking profusely. They don't like any turning at all. So, three phonecalls to my dad, two trips to the hardware store (one at the last possible minute they were open), three hours, a few cuss words and tears, and help from everyone who was at home (B. holding the flashlight and handing me things, E. offering advice and fastening a couple of nuts, Justin loosening things too tight for me, and L. checking in on the whole process, knocking things around with his blankie) and lots of wet rags later we have a beautiful new non-dripping functional faucet in the kitchen. YAY!!! See...it even works.