Monday, September 7th, 2009
I have always wanted an under sink water filter. I’m not sure why, especially since we have a whole house filter. I guess it’s because the whole house filter is all the way down in the basement and I keep thinking the water gets all screwed up traveling through the pipes. I like the idea of having a filter close to the tap.
I decided that I had the capabilities to install an under sink water filter myself. I mean, I do have the brains and the patience. It’s not really a hard job, just one that you have to psych yourself into doing because you have to clean out under the sink. You know…all those bottles of who knows what and cans of what the heck it this. Throw in a few old sponges and there you have it – the area below a kitchen sink.
There was one little issue that was in the way of me installing a water filter. The faucet we had installed on the kitchen sink was a bit out dated. It was one of those “one handle” ones that sits right in the middle. Some people prefer that style, but I always liked the two handle ones. In this case, the two handles are preferred because the water filter only runs on the cold line. I like knowing that when I turn on the cold water, only the cold water is running. So, I basically needed a water filter and a new kitchen faucet. Not a problem, I’m really cheap when it comes to kitchen faucets and the filter setup was only $34. It even came with the insert.
Off to Lowe’s I went. When I got there, I strolled down the filter aisle and picked out a “Whirlpool Drop in Filtration System – WHKF-DUF.” This is the $34 jobber I just told you about. I knew what to expect because I already picked it out online. I put the filter in the cart and went over to the next aisle that had all the faucets. There they were, all lined up on the wall. I knew I wanted the chrome Peerless for around $44, but I was forced to get the $68 model because we have a four hole sink. That means that we have that extra little sprayer. You know, the one that you can wrap a rubber band around and sit back in its holder. When someone comes by to turn on the sink, they get sprayed. Yeah, that one.
I picked up the model I needed and put it in my cart. Or what I thought was my cart.
Here’s a funny little story. When I rolled my cart into the faucet aisle, I saw a nice family standing there trying to pick out a kitchen faucet. I noticed that they were kind of just randomly picking things out and didn’t know why. There are differentiating factors in faucets such as the one handle or two that I spoke of above. Also, there is the height of the faucet end. Our old faucet was low, so when I tried to get a large pot filled with water, I had to angle it such a way. Anyway, I broke the ice by saying, “Boy, I feel like I’m part of the family.” They laughed and I laughed. The father just looked at me. There were three of them…the mother, the father and the daughter. Okay, on with the story. I told them about the height issue and why and they were just amazed. As far as I was concerned, they thought I was the cat’s meow. I left the aisle to go out to the garden center.
When I got out to the garden center, I picked out two trees and put them into the cart. I stood back and looked at the faucet. Then, I wondered where the filter was. For the first time in my life, I grabbed the wrong cart. I think it was the faucet aisle family’s cart that I had taken. I left the cart outside in the garden area (because I already had the trees in it) and walked back into the faucet aisle. There it was, my cart with the filter in it. I felt bad for the poor family that had to walk away with no cart, carrying the faucet in their hands. They probably thought I was just fluffing them up earlier so I could steal their cart.
Okay, story time is over. Here are some pictures of the kitchen faucet and under sink water filter installation.
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Under kitchen sink looking up at botton of old faucet
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Under kitchen sink looking at hot and cold plumbing pipes
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Top of sink with old faucet removed
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Under sink with old faucet removed
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New Peerless kitchen faucet installed
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Whirlpool under sink water filter installed
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Peerless kitchen faucet box
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Peerless kitchen faucet model P99587-D
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Whirlpool under sink water model WHKF-DUF
Everything works great and the installation took me about an hour and a half.
I have always wondered why there is such a big price difference between faucets, and doorknobs for that matter. Either I have never used a really high quality faucet or doorknob or I am just missing something. Every time I go shopping for either, I always get the cheapest available and find that they work just great. Maybe I am missing something. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
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Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
The pellets were delivered yesterday, all four tons of them. That’s 8,000 pounds.
What did I do with all 8,000 pounds of pellets? I moved all 8,000 pounds of pellets downstairs, alone. I did that all by myself in about an hour and a half. I don’t mean to brag about my feats of strength, I really don’t.
This feat was really nothing for me, moving all 8,000 pounds of pellets, I mean. It was annoying, because the wheelbarrow had a tire that was half flat and it was dark outside, but otherwise, everything was OK. I also had to navigate through the little doggy land mines, but I mostly made it.
Wood pellets by the ton
I put between 7 and 8 bags of pellets in each wheelbarrow load. At times, things got a little hairy going down the slight hill into the backyard, but again, this was but a minor challenge. When you have as much training in this type of thing as I do, it’s really simple.
Can someone please pat me on the back?
Of course I had to get a fire going in the pellet stove last night. The stove works really great, but I have to seal up the pipes again, just like the old stove. They leak slightly, which kind of stinks. I’ll get it.
The cool part is that when I am standing on the stairs between the basement and the main floor, I can feel a breeze going down, when I put my hand down towards the stairs and a breeze going up, when I put my hand up near the ceiling.
I think it’s going to work out just fine.
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Friday, August 1st, 2008
When we first moved in, there was a slight chill in the air. I guess it was early May or something, when it still gets chilly at night. I am not too good with the cold, so I got a fire going in the fireplace.
As the fire was burning in the fireplace, I thought to myself, “Hmmm, I wonder when the last time this chimney was cleaned out.” Now, if I was my father, I would be up in the roof looking down it with a flashlight. Since I am me, I let the fire burn and thought about it again a few months later.
It has been a few months. A while back, I got a postcard in the mail from Safeside Chimney out of East Hartford. It included a $20 a chimney cleaning coupon. I decided to call them for a chimney cleaning.
As a side note, if you are thinking about buying a house and keeping it nice, it can cost a fortune. Ok, I said it.
Anyway, yesterday, the chimney guys came. They were scheduled to clean both the chimney flue as well as the boiler flue. I thought this was a pretty good idea to get done in the Summer, since we are not using them all too much. I will admit that we almost overlooked this chore. If this company didn’t send me the coupon, I am not sure I would’ve called. It is quite important to keep these things clean, as they can cause big problems if you don’t.
Man sweeping chimney.
Now, when I told my father that I had a company come over to sweep the chimney, he said, “So, you don’t want to get a sweeper and a few pipes and do it yourself?” That’s the house I (thankfully) grew up in. We did it ourselves and learned the entire time. This time is a little different. First of all, I keep thinking that I am not as limber as I used to be. Second of all, I am probably not as strong as I used to be and third of all, there ain’t no way I am going up on this steep roof to clean out this chimney. You tell me if you would do it…
Tall chimney on colonial house.
Looking up the side of the chimney from the outside.
No %$^& way I am going up there. You should’ve seen the guy trying to get down. It would’ve been easier for him to jump into one of the big air things the cops use when someone is getting ready to jump off a building.
The good news is that the chimney was cleaned. The bad news is that he found a crack in the chimney crown while he was up there. To prove this, he brought up the company digital camera. When he got down, he showed me. I believed him, but I still went inside to get the binoculars, just to make sure he wasn’t pulling a fast one. I didn’t know if he was showing me the same photo he shows everyone. Well, come to find out, there is a crack in the chimney crown. Luckily, it is an easy, but expensive repair.
He wrote me up an estimate to repair the chimney crown as well as to install a stainless steel chimney cap. There wasn’t a chimney cap installed. He said that by doing this, water wouldn’t make the crack worse and eventually lead to popping the bricks out of the chimney and doing more extensive damage to the house. Whatever…I just signed the estimate and told them to call me to set up a time to fix it. I will tell you that repairing the top of a chimney was not on my list of priorities.
Here are some photos of the cleaned chimney, from the inside.
Looking inside the cleaned fireplace.
Looking up past the fireplace damper.
Looking up the chimney flue.
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Sunday, November 4th, 2007
I thought I should take a few pictures to show you what I was talking about in the last post when I mentioned that I was having difficulties with moving the vanity, due to the water feed pipes.
From my previous post…
Well, then I hit a snag. I opened the doors to get under the sink. I removed all the stuff under there and noticed that there was a drain pipe (PVC) and two copper water feed pipes. Well, the two copper pipes were poking up through two holes drilled in the thick wood base of under the sink. I started to think how the heck I was going to get the sink pulled out, when there was no way to do that with those pipes the way they were. I had to drill, grind and cut a chunk of the wood base away. I must say, the first time this vanity was installed probably was a snap. Removing it wasn’t. That took a few hours, I’m sure.
Do you see what I am talking about? I had to cut away that big chunk. I have to admit that I sat there for a few moments scratching my head, wondering how I was going to do that. I began by using my new Dremel, but later moved on to my reciprocal saw. The really hard part was getting to that board in the back, going down the wall. After I cut that, things were a little loose. I had to ask Tim next door for some wood. He gave me a chunk, which I cut and screwed in underneath as a brace. It’s good now.
Also, the drain pipe was leaking a little. Let me ask you a question…but first, take a look at this picture –
Who is the genious who thought up the idea of having 15 different pieces of PVC for about 12 inches of pipe? I mean, cars, buses, trucks and airplanes use nice, flexible pieces of hose all throughout their engines. They are under all different types of stress…temperature, movement and wear and tear. Those hoses last for years. Now, we move over to under a sink. The distance is less and the stress is much less. Yet, we need all different pieces to go one foot with a bend. WHOAAAA. A whole bend. Couldn’t we just use a flexible piece of hose with a bend in it with two hose clamps? I guess not. I went down to the hardware store this morning with this idea in mind. Nope, I came back with two packages and six different pieces. Oh yeah, by the way…can you think of a sink drain pipe that has ever leaked? Yeah, that’s a hard one. They leak too.
Sooo, I put that back together and we can use the sink again. Now, just waiting for the flooring guy to get here.
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