The vanity faucet in the powder room was starting to show me it was time to replace it. The brushed nickel finish on the bottom edges were pitted and it was getting worse. The drain finish was also looking bad. There was really nothing I could do to repair it, so it was time to replace it.
I let Efiwym, my wife, know that I was thinking of replacing it. With a nonchalant “okay,” I tried to blame her for the deteriorated finish on the faucet. “It must be from you using hair spray,” I said. She snapped back, “I don’t use hairspray!” I was sure it was something she was using since she does her hair and makeup in that room. I did not think I needed to challenge her, that battle was unnecessary at this time.
I proceeded to tell her I was considering changing the color of the faucet to an oil rubbed bronze finish. We have been converting a few of our lights and hardware to that finish and we really liked the way it looks. However, as I talked about it to her, I convinced myself to stick with the brushed nickel finish.
To change to an oil rubbed bronze finish, I would need to switch out the vanity hardware, which was brushed nickel, the vanity door hinges, which were brushed nickel, and the light, which was also brushed nickel. I know you can have different metal finishes now. It is the trend! Nonetheless, I am more of a consistency guy. So, brushed nickel it was going to be.
About two weeks later, I decided to go shopping online for an inexpensive brushed nickel vanity faucet. After checking all the big box home improvement stores and hardware stores, I found one at the 11% rebate store. Yes, it was the cheapest and I believe it was the same brand we had before. I guess I never learned from the past.
The next they Efiwym and I went out to purchase the faucet. After hunting back and forth by the faucet aisle, I found it. I grabbed it from the shelf and Efiwym examined the box. She had that look when she was ready to ask me one of those perplexing questions. She asked, “I thought we were going with the oil rubbed bronze faucet?” I proceeded to tell her the “brushed nickel dilemma” story again. Her only comment was that she never heard me say that. Time to check out.
The faucet sat on our hall bench for about two weeks. I was working on some other projects and life just got in the way. After week 2, I moved the faucet to the shelf above the bench. I was getting annoyed looking at it. However, I planned on working on it this weekend.
My biggest reason for the delay was I needed to shut off the water supply to the house to change out the faucet. There were no shutoffs in the bathrooms. So, one weekend after we finished grocery shopping and Efiwym was going out for more shopping, I decided to tackle the project. I was not expecting the project to be too difficult, as I have changed out faucets before. But, with a just-okay DIYer, self-afflicted issues are often the norm.
Before I shut off the water, I did my due diligence. I pulled everything out of the vanity and took a look under the sink. Access to the bottom of the faucet was not obstructed and the removal of the faucet should be straight forward.
Secondly, I gathered all the tools I thought I would need, and I took a look at the instructions. I discovered that the drain stopper was the spring-loaded pop-up variety. I disliked the ones with the lever on the back of the faucet that raised and lowered the drain stopper. The mechanism was usually cheap and easily bent. I was now ready to shut off the water and proceed.
I opened up the kitchen sink faucet to release the water pressure. I then got under the vanity and disconnected the hot and cold water lines. I grabbed a variety of open-ended wrenches to make sure I had the right one for the hoses. These wrenches are far better than the adjustable type that never seem to hold their adjustment. I was also smart enough to get 2 pails to catch the water as it spilled out of the pipes. And there was a lot of water.
I reached up under the faucet and I was able to loosen the middle holding nut by hand. I got up from the inside of the vanity and pulled the faucet out. Now that was too easy. I proceeded to scrape off the excess plumber;s putty from under the faucet. (By the way, why I used plumber’s putty for this purpose, I would never know. With some detergent and some rags, the vanity was clean.
Now it was time to install the new faucet. I grabbed the faucet from the box, removed the water hoses from the old faucet and put them on the new one. I put some silicone on the bottom edges of the gasket and I was prepared to install the new faucet. So, I thought…
For some reason, I could not get both hoses to go through the middle opening of the vanity. The hoses came out when I removed the old faucet. I tried a couple of unsuccessful scenarios to get the hoses through, but to no avail. At the same time, I was getting silicone all over the sink, my hands and faucet. Here was one of those self-inflicted issues.
After pondering the problem and cleaning up the silicone with paper towels, I decided to remove one hose and re-attach it once the faucet was in place. I re-applied the silicone, and I got the faucet installed after multiple attempts to keep it straight. I went under the vanity to attach the one hose. One pail was full of water. So, I moved the pail that was under the hot water pipe and quickly ran with the other pail to empty it into the kitchen sink. (I could have just used the toilet, but it was occupied with stuff from below the vanity.) I put the empty pail back under the cold water pipe, since it seemed to be dripping the most and I went back to work.
I had not removed the old drain pipe yet. The pipe was in my way of trying to re-connect the hose. Okay, I will now remove the drain pipe. But the drain pipe had other ideas. I could not completely remove the nut holding the drain pipe to the vanity. The p-trap was in the way too. Off came the p-trap. That did not help. So, I took my wire cutters and cut out the drain from the top until it dropped out of the hole. DONE! I connected the hose. Then attached both hoses to the respective water lines. I went downstairs to turn the water back on and I came back upstairs to check for leaks. One hose was leaking slightly, so I torqued on the connection a little bit more and it was fine. I accidently hit the faucet lever, and water went down the drainless vanity. Oh well, time to clean up the spill.
It was time to install the drain pipe. First, I needed to clean up the opening. Once the opening was clean, I proceeded to drop the drain pipe into the opening. In years past, I would get plumber’s putty and wrap it around the flange of the drain pipe. There was nothing in the instructions to add plumber’s putty or silicone. The drain pipe had a rubber gasket and that was what I was going to (only) use. I reattached the p-trap and I was done. A couple of tests to check for leaks. I ran my hand around the pipes and hoses and everything was dry. I would keep from putting back the items under the vanity until I checked for leaks later. (I removed the items from the top of the toilet seat, so it could be accessible.
I used Goof-off® to remove the silicone on the faucet and sink and it worked well. I stepped back and admired my work. I really liked the clean look of the new faucet and pop-up drain cover. The Goof-off® gave the sink a nice sheen. Efiwym got home just in time so I could share my DIY adventure with her. She made no attempt to look at my accomplishment, which disappointed me, but I will enjoy it while I can.
