daverea.com

As frusterating as projects can be sometimes, seeing one through to completion, declaring victory over the inanimate objects that instigate immeasurable frusteration, and saying booya with your most bad-ass Jamie Foxx impersonation brings immense satisfaction.

This particular project started about a year ago, when I noticed that our kitchen sink spray nozzle was dribbling a bit. Hoping it wouldn’t become anything more, I ignored it for a few weeks, until the dribble became a spray. Each time the sink was turned on, a tiny stream of water would jet out of the seam where the two plastic halves of the spray handle were joined (presumably by some not-terribly-strong glue or ultrasonic weld). I replaced the handle – a simple enough affair, with a few gaskets and a retaining snap-ring – but the problem reappeared about a month ago…

We left the spray nozzle in the sink for a few weeks, tolerating the occasional torsal rinsedown when a mixing bowl or cheese grater hoisted the once-again-leaking appliance above the sink’s rim. Unfortunately, attempt #2 at replacing the nozzle didn’t go so well. Replacing the retaining ring a few times had worn away the plastic nib inside the nozzle, and “retention” was no longer its strong suit. For a few days, water just gushed out around the nozzle’s base – but last week, the nozzle finally let go. And it happened to do so while I was washing dishes. The scene was right out of Twister, when Scott Thompson‘s character “Preacher” wrestles a freewheeling compressed air hose to the ground, then looks up with a maniacal grin when he finally gets ahold of it. Except for the minor discrepancy that he ended up thankful that some meteorological phenomenon didn’t kill him, while I just ended up wet from the waist up.

Since then, we’ve been using the sink sparingly – because water only comes out the hose nozzle when there’s nothing holding it back at the end of the hose! Turning on the faucet had to be done gingerly, since a little too much pressure would cause the hose to whip around, applying an unplanned rinse to various parts of the kitchen.

Until today.

Today, I went to Debbie Supply which, to quote RobotFrank, “IS THE BEST STORE”. After scouring their ginormous plumbing section, I finally located a spray nozzle and hose that were a different brand from the two used in prior attempts. It was only the 6th store I visited, so whoever makes those crappy ones is probably rollin’ in the dough. But I digress…

On arriving home, I emptied the cupboard under the sink, and set to work. The kitchen sounded something like this:

“OK, this shouldn’t be that bad. We’ll just get the Palmolive out of there…”

“Booya.” (upon finally testing the whole rig out, and discovering that it *miraculously* works!)

So we now have, once again, a 100% functional kitchen. Tomorrow ought to be an adventure, nonetheless: painters are coming in to do the hot tub room (puhhhhleeeease let a gallon be enough!) and Jamie from Hometek will be here to finish off the quarter-round in the office. He rocks.

It’s a party!

[* Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction ... 'nuff said.]