New Bathroom Faucet

Let me preface this post by saying that basically everything in this condo that can break is starting to break. I knew that it was going to be like this before I bought and I have always planned to slowly do upgrades to this unit to increase the value (I bought it for a really good price because of the state it was in!). The bathroom faucet is no exception to this rule- it was pretty rusted and gross. My plan was to eventually rip out the whole vanity and granite shelf and put in a larger vanity (one with a deeper base for more storage), and a glass shelf to brighten the space up. The faucet was 100% not salvageable in my opinion, and I prefer single handle faucets anyway. This grossness needed to be GONE.

Geeeee-ross

Well the faucet started dripped a few months ago, and I wasn't feeling ready for a whole bathroom reno with so many other projects going on, so I simply ordered myself a new faucet- the Delta Trinsic bathroom faucet that matched my new kitchen faucet. FYI- I had to order the faucet from Delta on Amazon and it actually was cheaper to order from amazon.com vs amazon.ca, even with exchange rates and shipping. I got a bunch of other bathroom accessories from the Trinsic line as well (haven't installed those yet).

The faucet came months ago but I put off installing it because I was too afraid of screwing up! 

I had seen a few faucets installed in my day and I felt confident that this was a simple and straightforward task that I could accomplish, but I was just so worried about screwing it up. I've never directly done any plumbing before and I had no help on hand. I was worried I would break the old plumbing further and create a huge issue and have no faucet at all.

Then one day last week I said enough was enough and I went to go rip out the old plumbing system and...I couldn't get it out. And I broke the old drain. Now I had a leaky faucet AND a leaky drain!! I called my family for advice but they really couldn't help long distance. So I sheepishly called a couple plumbers to come in and Cam and I washed our hands and brushed our teeth in the kitchen sink for a couple days.

The first plumber came in while I was at work and quoted Cam $600 to do the job. SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS. Never in all my wildest plumbing googling had I seen a quote like that to replace a faucet and drain when the person already owned the new faucet and drain! Then in the evening the second plumber came (I found him through my neighborhood facebook page) and he did the job for $140 ($70 for faucet and $70 for drain)!

Now, you may be thinking I gave up too easily and should have tried harder to do the replacement myself. However- this plumber literally had to BREAK the old pipes and drain to get them out. He had to put all his weight into getting some of the rusted and corroded clips and fittings apart. He was sweating, bleeding, and covered in gross water when he finished. He said my old system was really antiquated and he had never seen it in a condo. So I 100% think professional help was the right choice! I only wish I had called him in from the start.

And I did get to do some plumbing myself! The plumber had forgotten his plumbers putty so he couldn't do the drain install (he didn't charge me for the drain, but I paid him anyway because of what a rough job it was to rip everything out). So he taught me how to do it and I went out and bought my own putty and installed the new drain and pop up all by myself!! It took me probably over an hour and a lot of cussing and leaky test runs, but I am proud to say the new drain is holding up well!!! #yayme

As for the sink, there are still holes where the old handles came out. I scrubbed and scrubbed to get the rust stains off and installed a couple of sink hole covers to plug them. Eventually the whole vanity will get replaced so I wasn't too concerned. I actually don't think they look too bad! I had to get stainless steel because white ones need to be custom ordered and are expensive. These were just a few bucks each. And I cover them with the soap anyway :)

Oh- should also mention as part of this tale of plumbing- my hot water valve under this sink doesn't work. So every time I needed to turn the water on or off I had to go an get this gold key tool from the concierge and fit it into a random looking pipe under the sink. Very odd. When I replace the vanity I am going to get that valve replaced!

weird random hot water shut off pipe

PS- when I was working under the sink, I found this very weird post-it note up in the "roof" of the vanity (it's a little NSFW). This is the 2nd weird post-it I have found in a seldom seen area, with the other being on the far side of the fridge. I also have a small weird message written on a vertical blind in the livingroom. I have now taken to looking in odd little spots for more!