The Best of Intentions Gone Awry

Sometimes even the best of intentions can cause you to make a mess. I might have had this experience on Friday afternoon.

While I was intending on mopping my floors, I got distracted by a couple other projects. Then, it was finally time to do the floors. But, first I needed to make a quick stop in the bathroom. As I was washing my hands I thought, "wow, this faucet needs the aerator cleaned out or something." So, I figured I might as well handle that while I was there. If it was bothering me, it would be bothering my hunny in no time too. So being the good wife that I am, I intended to take care of the little problem. I tried to twist off the cap on the bottom of the faucet, but it wouldn't come off for anything. Hmmm, maybe I wasn't getting a strong enough grip; off to the hallway closet to get the toolbox. Vice grips-perfect!

Now, I should probably stop here and make a quick confession: every time Eric picks up a screwdriver, wrench, or anything else that he intends to use to tighten something I always remind him that he isn't working on an army tank and DO NOT over tighten. He does really nice things for me, like rotate the tires on my car. But after one particularly bad experience with a flat tire and a factory supplied lug nut wrench that was all of about 6" long, I always insist on tightening my own lug nuts when anyone else touches my tires-that way I know I can get it off if need be. Well, that's never good enough for my husband. He thinks that until he uses 2000 lb-ft of torque (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating here) on my lug nuts, they aren't tight. Uggghhhh... anyway, the point is I am always lecturing Eric that you can cause a lot of damage or just create a problem for someone else if you use too much force!

So, back to my faucet in need of cleaning. After a very gentle turn attempt with the vice grips, it still wouldn't budge. Hmmm, maybe I am doing something wrong. I go to try the faucet in the other bathroom. It comes right out no problem and I happily clean the inside parts of it. But now back to the original bathroom. I try again, and it won't turn. Then I wondered what kind of condition the aerators in the other sinks were in. I went around the house and cleaned all the other faucet. Okay, now I HAD to get this one cleaned. It probably is just corroded on or something and I need to use a little more force. Oops!

Apparently somebody used some J.B. Weld or something of the sort up in my faucet prior to it being my faucet. I got the bottom part of the faucet off, but I left behind the threaded portion of the little cap. Uggghhh! I just did exactly the thing I am always reminding the ol' hubby not to do. This will be fun to explain! Well, it was fun-for him. And let's just say he didn't take me real seriously last night when we were putting together a new computer chair. He started tightening down screws and I said, "Be careful! Don't over tighten those!!!"

It wouldn't be quite such a big problem except that a faucet (as we have learned while trying to find a replacement) is not a cheap fix here. Meanwhile, we have a sink out of commission (unless you want your pants and the bathroom floor to all end up soaked; yes that was a bad lesson to learn too but luckily I learned it in time to warn my other half before he tried it out.) And I guess my ability to get sidetracked is an issue to address some other day. But hopefully, this afternoon, these dirty floors are really going to get mopped!