Plumbing

Jennifer continues to maintain the flower bed in front of the house (where the sun don't shine). Unfortunately the faucet conveniently located right next to it has been out of service for the last couple of years. The water is there, but the axle was completely stripped so you couldn't use the handle - instead you'd have to use a vice clamp or pliers to open/close the water.

I bough a new valve a couple of years ago, but never successfully installed it. Partly because the old one was impossible to get off (it's all corroded and crusty and there is no easy access with a wrench) and partly because I really had no need for the faucet. I let the grass fend for itself (the weeds are winning) and take my car to a car wash.

Well, now there was a reason to use it and I tackled the problem, again. I still couldn't unscrew the old valve - the nut on the pipe was to far in the wall to grip with my adjustable wrench (I didn't have an exact fit). So I unscrewed the internals of the valve and took them to Home Depot. After we found the section where they have faucets I quickly discovered that they don't have the internal part I wanted to replace. They didn't have a matching valve that I could strip for the internal part, either, and the valve handles they had would not fit on my old valve :-(

We decided on one more try to replace the entire valve (and thus bought two large wrenches to make sure one would fit) and if that wouldn't work, to permanently use a vise clamp instead (so we bought a mini vise clamp).

When we got home, I discovered that both wrenches were too large (so now I have two shiny Husky wrenches 3/4" and 7/8", if anyone is interested). But, I suddenly remembered the hole in the wall in my garage through which I could access the pipe. So I removed some blocking, applied brute force, and finally successfully removed the old valve. The new one went on without a problem and now we have a working faucet next to Jennifer's flower bed.

It only took a couple of years and $30 of tools that I didn't need.