Monday, April 18, 2016

Finally!

We finally got the bath tub faucets on! Finally! Yay! I think this the most exciting thing since the toilet got installed!





Ok. Lesson learned. Unless absolutely necessary, we will never change our bathtub fixtures again.

We had taken off the bathtub fixtures back when we redid the bathtub--also, we thought since they were gold that it would be better to have chrome to match the vanity.

Also, Henry ended up breaking the knob (he found it laying around) so we couldn't reuse it even if we wanted to.

Our faucetless bathtub.


I wasn't worried about it; I had been looking both online and at Home Depot and found a lot of possibilities for replacements. But then, Dennis reminded me that I needed to look for two handle bathtub fixtures. I had been looking at single knob without even realizing it.

That brought my choices way down.

Apparently, everyone loves single handle bathtubs out there, because there were very few to choose from. Home Depot only had two. Two!

We went to Menards and other stores. They only had two as well.

One of those two were the old "crystal" knob faucets. I don't want to insult anyone, but those faucets throw you back in the 80's. The whole point of redoing the bathroom was to update it.

But still, we were going on three months of no bathtub now and everyone was getting pretty sick of the downstairs shower with the spiders in it.

I looked online and every time I found a two handle bathtub faucet, I would excitedly forward it to Dennis for him to check the logistics. And every time, he would write back a simple "no" (he is not big on words) because I accidentally would choose deckplate mounted faucets (meaning they install on top of the tub.) But our faucets had to be "on the wall" faucets.

So my choices were cut down even more.

And then there is always price. We won't even go into that.

Beware of trim kits! Before this whole bathtub faucet adventure, I had no idea what a trim kit even was. Never even heard of it.

I had found what I thought was the answer to our problems and fallen in love with a shiny chrome bathtub/shower head combo--that was off the wall and inexpensive! I showed Dennis the picture and he burst my bubble with two words: "Trim kit."

"What's that?" I asked.

"It means there's nothing inside of it."

No piping, nothing. Just a pretty little cap to go over pre-existing pipes. Which would work just fine, except our piping was so out of date that it would not work with these update faucets. Like round pegs going into square holes. We would have to spend a fortune just redoing all the plumbing.

Ugh, like another stab to the heart. Ok, that's a little dramatic but I was seriously beginning to wonder if we were ever going to be able to use the bathtub again!

I finally gave in and told Dennis we should just get the old 80's crystal faucets. Who knows, maybe in the future we could update with a trim kit, ha!

So we went to Home Depot and just as we were about to pick up the faucets that I hated, we saw another model that we had overlooked. It wasn't fancy, but it was chrome like we wanted, and it was two handle and off the wall mounting. Plus, fairly cheap (a little over $100 but that's including piping inside.)  Just as I was about to explode with excitement, we found out that it was sold out! Ugh!!

There was another customer there who was in the same predicament as we were. He too, made the mistake of updating his bathroom and now was just looking for a faucet that would work. He also added, "I just don't want those old ugly 80's faucets." I couldn't help throwing Dennis a smug look.

We decided to go to another Home Depot to see if they had the faucets we wanted. It turned out that they did, and funny enough, that same customer was there! He beat us to it! I wondered if we were going to have to fight him for them, but he picked up a box for himself and then one for us and joked, "There! Plenty for both of us!"

It took three days and seventy more dollars just to get the faucets installed. Dennis told me that out of the entire bathroom project, the faucets were the worst.


Who knew that it would be faucets that would cause so much trouble??

Never, never, never, update your faucets! Keep the ones you have! Trust me, they're worth it!

The next and final stage to the bathroom remodel is the shower doors!





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