Bling for the Kitchen

I am not good at home maintenance. Most of the time I just tolerate a problem until I am forced to fix. Sometimes I will even have a party to make me solve a problem - such as a deep cleaning of the house. My old faucet probably 20-30+ years old had a stripped out cold water handle. It would spin around but not turn on the cold water. Now most normal people would by a new handle, a new faucet or something to solve that problem. What did I do? Put a small plastic cup over the handle so people would know that that handle didn't work. As the plumber today said "Cold water is overrated anyway." He was joking, of course. How long did I tolerate the no cold water in the kitchen? 5-6 months or more. Really ridiculous, I know.

What made me finally deal with the problem? The downstairs toilet sprung a serious leak so that absolutely had to be fixed especially with my brother and his friends using the downstairs shop to make cabinets for me. In other words, the plumber had to come out so I might as well fix the kitchen faucet as well.

I actually had this replacement Moen faucet for quite a while, but I wasn't confident enough to put it in. And I figured why replace it when you're going to tear out the kitchen anyway? Just for a little overrated cold water.

After the plumber installed the faucet, he said, "It's a little bling for your kitchen." You would not believe how much better it looks. And cold water - it is NOT overrated. It is nice.

The toilet from downstairs was from 1956 - a serious water guzzler. I didn't replace it sooner for exactly the same reason I didn't replace the faucet - that bathroom is going to be gutted. But it is nice to have a new functional low-flow toilet. I searched all over the internet for efficient, reliable toilets and Toto seems to win. This one is a Toto EcoUltramax II ADA with sanagloss, 1.28 gallon per flush. Very exciting. Also not overrated.

Still working on things at the Lenore house, just not with gusto. I am getting re-motivated though.

I actually bought 2 toilets last week, one is for the Lenore house that Kathy and I are working on. The only problem - it has a 10" rough-in vs. a 12" rough-in. I've bought a total of 4 Toto toilets without paying any attention to measurements so I figured my luck would hold. Nope. Just a little too cocky this last time. The plumber taught me how to measure rough-in in case I have to buy any more toilets - (measure from the wall to the middle of the bolt on the floor). Now you know.