And Yet Again

If you remember from my last post, I was just finishing up with the shower project - replacing a couple of floor tiles, and reworking piping and fittings for the shower head itself.

Just yesterday, Dianna put the last coat of grout sealer on. It needed twenty-four hours to dry before we used it, so this morning, I got to take the first shower in the newly rehabbed space.

Even so, there was still one thing that needed attention before we could call the job done. That was to replace the cartridges in both shower faucets. Piece-of-cake, I thought.

How wrong I was. This turned out to be another of those quickie projects that took all day. There seems to be more of those types than any other. What's going on?

I spent some time this morning surfing the intertubes looking for the definitive video or written instructions on how to change a faucet cartridge. I did manage to find a couple reasonable sites that gave me a good primer, filling me with confidence that this was a doable project and something that could be completed in a couple of hours.

First, I found the brochure that came with the faucets. Unfortunately, the drawings in the brochure left out several important (to me, at least) details of the various parts and how they related to each other and especially, how they all fit together.

After gathering some tools, I started to disassemble the faucets. I removed the 'H' and 'C' bezels on each handle, which gave me access to a long screw that appeared to go all the way to the cartridge. The drawing was labeled such that several of the parts almost looked like they were optional or alternate pieces that may not be part of the assembly I was faced with. Best proceed with caution.

Next, I saw a hex head on the end of a metal piece that had a nylon piece sticking out of the end. I wasn't real sure exactly how that was supposed to come out so I gingerly applied my adjustable wrench to it. Finally I was able to get that bit loose, but I couldn't get it to slide out from the wall.

The drawing showed a fitting that looked considerably different than what I was seeing. The drawing had a flange on the inside end, but no indication of a hex head on the other, whereas mine definitely had the hex head, but I was unsure if there was a flange on the other.

It did seem like there might be a flange, since I could pull on it and hit something that gave resistance, but without being able to see what I had hit, I was reluctant to proceed very aggressively. In fact, after Dianna and I both had piddled around with it for a bit, she suggested maybe calling David over since he had recent experience with his faucets. I called, and a few minutes later he arrived and took a look at our situation. He felt as well that there was a flange and recommended chipping carefully around the faucet shaft to make the hole in the tile large enough to slip the metal bit out. If I could do it without cracking the tiles that would be a good thing.

Unfortunately, his encouragement ended there. As far as replacement cartridges, he had made the grand tour in Corozal and found that no one sold them. That was not what I was hoping to hear at all.

David also recommended that I find some way to grind off some of the glazing in the vicinity of the hole in the tile. That way, when I began chipping with the chisel, I would be less likely to crack the tile. I thought that was a good idea and the notion of using my old Dremel tool came to me. I have an assortment of grinding wheels and cones for it, so there might be something that will work exactly as needed.

After David left, I brought up the Dremel, my chisel and my rubber mallet. Then I proceeded to grind a small radius around the faucet with the Dremel. This worked better than I hoped for. I used the cone as it allowed me to get right close to the metal bit of the faucet.

Dremel Tool Comes In Handy

Then, I started going around with the chisel. This really took some time, as I not only had to chip the tile away, but the Thinset adhesive under that, and the Ply-Cem cement board under that before I had a decent sized hole to allow me to remove the metal bit.

Ready to Chip All Around

Altogether, there was about a half-inch or so of material to get through, and I needed to keep the hole I was making within about an eighth-inch from the metal bit of the faucet. Some finely tuned chiseling if there ever was any.

Once I got the hole to a decent size, I was able to easily prize the metal bit out along with the two nylon bushings or spaces. And yes, Virginia, there is a flange after all. All that was left to remove was the cartridge itself.

Yes, Virginia. There is A Flange

Things would have been so much easier if the construction guy doing the original work here had left the hole larger instead of the close tolerances he seemed to think were necessary for the faucets. Oh well. Like I always say, 'If it was easy, it wouldn't be any fun'.

Original Holes Fit Too Tight

Thankfully, I only had two holes to work on. Eventually, both got done as you can see below.

Both Holes Have Been Chipped and Re-sized

The holes do allow the flanged bit to fit in much easier, still without too much slop which would tend to allow water from the shower to penetrate into the wall interior. Something I've already had enough of with the shower head.

Cartridge Assembly Fits Much Better Now

Now we come to the meat of the project - the cartridge. The reason for this whole thing was that the cold water faucet was much harder to turn than the hot water one. We both assumed that the cartridge itself was to blame. I'm not sure now that it was, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

This is a Faucet Cartridge

Based on my online research, each of the instructions about repairing shower faucets said to 1) replace both cartridges at the same time, and 2) take a cartridge with you when you go to shop for a replacement cartridge.

I took one of the cartridges and, right after lunch, went to Lano's Supply to get a couple replacements. I showed Kim (the cashier) the cartridge and he said, "What's that"? That was my first clue that all was not going to go well. David's words began to echo in my head. Not a good sign.

Kim called the same girl over that I had had the discussion with about pumps. I explained what I was looking for, even showing her the cartridge. She took me to see their selection of cartridges. I knew we were totally lost as she showed me the water filter cartridges. I explained that wasn't what I had in mind and as gracefully as I could, made my exit.

We (the doggies and I. I had brought them along for a ride) next tried Villa's Imports. I talked to the young man who does most if not all of their paint mixing. He seems very knowledgeable in most areas of hardware. He said they had some cartridges for sale but none of them were a match for what I had. He asked if this was a shower cartridge. That really impressed me.

He had a sudden inspiration and headed toward the back of the store. Under the stairs is a sort of storage area. They have a huge box where they keep all sorts of used and mismatched plumbing items. He proceeded to root through the box and lo and behold, came up with two identical cartridges - used, but identical to the one I had in my hand. As I took them from his hand, I figured then that, if nothing else, I'd have a couple of back-ups if the original ones I had ever totally died. I asked him what I owed. He replied, "Nothing. They're used".

With profuse expressions of thanks, I made my way back to the Isuzu and headed home. After parking under the palapa, I made a detour to the pool pump house and retrieved a spray bottle of silicone lubricant for 'O'-rings. I dosed each of the cartridge's 'O'-rings and then put the newly acquired used cartridges in my small parts storage bin, and then hot-footed it upstairs to begin reassembly of the two faucets.

Dianna made sure that all the parts for the faucets were clean as she handed them to me. I began to reassemble everything. Soon, I made my way down stairs to turn the water back on so we could see if the faucet rebuild was water-tight or not.

Immediately, Dianna hollered that she couldn't turn the water off. Right away, I knew what the problem was. We had talked about positioning of the cartridge in relation to the outfall port of the faucet. I knew it simply was a matter of turning the cartridges 180-degrees and all would be fine. After doing all that once again and getting the water back on, I heard her shout "That's perfect!"

Here's the Finished Faucets

So, as usual, a little one-hour project becomes a day-long career. Ah, well, It really was fun. Everything works and I have a couple of spare cartridges for the future.

Say What?

I had to go into Corozal this morning and I had to look for a grout saw (used to gnaw the grout out between tiles before trying to remove them) and the usual assortment of pharmaceuticals, and a whole slew of groceries.

I thought I'd be a nice guy and ask Denis or Vivien if they wanted to ride along since their vehicle is in the shop up at Rick's getting some new shocks. I picked up Vivien and we tootled off into town.

Our first stop was at Lano's Hardware Store. I needed to get that grout saw I had mentioned. While I was waiting for the crowd to diminish, I got into a conversation with one of the girls who works there about water pumps. I mentioned to her that I didn't see any 1/4-horsepower pumps in their selection. She said "quarter inch"?. I said no, "horsepower'. This prompted her to say "No, we don't have that size. We only have half-inch, one-and-a-half-inch, and two-inch pumps, no quarter-inch pumps".

This led me into a discussion with her about horsepower, what it was, what it meant and that it had nothing to do with 'inches'. It was plain that the further we got into the discussion, the less impact I was having on that stone wall, if you get my drift.

I gave up, just in time to have Mr. Lan's nephew, Kim come to my rescue and asked me about the grout saw. He knew what it was and told me they didn't have any, but suggested I try Villa's Imports - "They have strange stuff like that there".

By now, my head was reeling from the inches vs. horsepower incident. Vivien was done with her purchases, and I with mine, so we beat a rapid retreat to the sanity of the Isuzu. As we headed off to go look at grout saws at Villa's Imports, I tried to tell Vivien about my discussion. She had heard part of it and couldn't make heads or tails out of what we were talking about. Just as well. I couldn't either.

We got to Villa's a few minutes later. After talking to Mr. Villa's son, he found a smaller version of of the saw than I wanted, but I went ahead and purchased it anyway, just in case.

The Grout Saws

After Villa's, we went over to National Hardware and inquired as to grout saws. They had one, more in the line of what I was looking for, with a blade about 2-inches (not horsepower) long, so, long story short, I bought it as well.

Our next stop was at Caribbean Chicken, where I needed to get some boneless chicken breasts and three-dozen eggs. I also had three empty styrofoam egg cartons to trade back in. Something I had done previously several times with no problem. You trade in an empty and they knock a shilling ($0.25 BZD) off the price of a full carton. So, $3.35 down to $3.10 a carton.

Remember I mentioned "long story short"? Forget that.

Of course, it was crowded in Caribbean Chicken. And, as it got to be my turn I passed over my two packs of chicken breasts and the three full cartons of eggs that I had picked up off the table. I also started to hand over the three empty cartons to justify my shilling discount on the full ones.

Whoa right there partner! You'd have thought I was trying to wreck the Belize economy or something. The three folks behind the counter all started telling me they couldn't do that, that I had to be charged the full price of the cartons. Of course two or three shoppers on this side of the counter, chimed in and seconded the storekeepers. I was flummoxed at this point, not sure what to do.

The lady who ran the cash register (and ergo, who I would assume was in charge) jumped up and said they would gladly fill my empty's and give me the discount, but there was no way they could discount already-filled cartons and take the empties.

"Ok", I said. Let's do it that way. I handed the young man behind the counter my three empty cartons. He authoritatively took them and went over to another counter where there was a stack of trays filled with eggs and proceeded to fill each of my empty cartons. Remember I said the place was crowded? Didn't matter. He was out of the flow of customers and cashiers while he filled my cartons. Vivien could attest to this as she was behind me in line.

While he finished filling the cartons, I settled up with the cashier, including the discount. Oh, yes. I also put the previously filled cartons back on the table so there would be no confusion about how many cartons I wanted.

Where Did I Go Wrong?

Once he was done filling them, he re-bagged the now filled cartons in the same plastic bag I had brought them into the store with, and rather insistently offered to carry them out to my car. Obviously, he felt since I was such a dunderhead about empty egg cartons, I couldn't be trusted to accomplish something as complex as carrying them ten feet to the car.

By now, I was becoming embarrassed by the whole thing. I thanked him for his trouble and took control of the egg cartons and the chicken breasts and promptly made my own way, safely, to the Isuzu. I even managed to unlock the doors and sit down, where I waited for Vivien to come out and join me.

As we left Caribbean Chicken to go to our last stop of the morning over at New World Supermarket, we shook our heads and had a chuckle about the cultural differences inherent in speaking English and getting a grip on inches, horsepower, and discounts.

After an uneventful visit to New World where we completed all of the items on our respective shopping lists, we beat a retreat for our homes. It's lucky we're allowed to roam free. It must be the sun or something. Nelson has the right idea.

I Need A Nap!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Wouldn't you just know it... We (well, Dianna actually) spent a good part of the day yesterday reorganizing the bathroom after we completed the installation of our new bathroom medicine cabinets and shelving.

Bathroom Cabinet From the Doorway

Today, was supposed to be easy. We were going to do up the dishes (that is a team effort) and sweep and put all the remaining debris away - like the old and rusty over-the-toilet shelf, and our little three drawer thing that we've had for ages, stuff like that. Then, we were planning on relaxing for the rest of the day. Maybe spend some time in the pool and just kick back and take it easy.

Bathroom Cabinet From the Shower

Nope. Not us. Nosiree! We had something else to do. For some unknown reason we were both looking in the under-sink cabinet and I mentioned to Dianna that I thought we should put something under our 'Tupperware' containers (actually, our collection of margarine and yogurt containers) as it seemed kind of oily and wet.

Well, one thing led to another, as it does in these situations and before we knew what had hit us we had everything hauled out of the under-sink cabinets and found that we had a bona fide leak from the hot water line and sink shut-off valve.

Kitchen Blown Apart

The very next thing, I was rooting around found myself enroute to Lano's Hardware (trip #1, for those who count such things) to buy a new valve. Got that installed and, sumbeach, the press fitting of the line was leaking too. Back to Lano's (trip #2). This time, I bought two replacement lines, figuring that if I didn't also change out the cold water side... Well, you can guess.

Kitchen's A Wreck

Anyway, I got back and Dianna and I began scraping all the putty tape off the sink and the countertop. Now it was time to get some putty tape (Trip #3). And, I thought, brilliantly, that when we originally installed the sink, there were no sink clips, which actually hold the sink in place to the counter top and draw the sink down close to the counter, thus minimizing opportunities for leakage from the counter top.

Since by now, it was almost lunch time, I thought I'd stop at Mario's and pick up a couple orders of rice and beans and stew chicken for lunch. That part was fine. The part that didn't work out too well was the sink clips and the putty tape.

I stopped at Lano's again and asked Kim if he had any sink clips and putty tape. He immediately dove under the counter and came up with a plastic bag full of metal bits. We managed to untie the bag and examined the contents. I asked him if he knew how the pieces were supposed to work. His answer was a giggled "No." As far as the putty tape (I know I've bought it there before, but that doesn't mean anything) there as a "No" for that as well.

I continued playing with the clips for a couple more minutes and decided something must be missing. So, I didn't buy them. I figured I'd scoot over to Villa's Imports and see if they had my sink clips.

Mysterious Sink Clip

Villa's, short and sweet, no on both counts. Ok, what now? Still a couple minutes till twelve noon. Shoot for it, go over to National Hardware and see if Andy knows what's what.

Well, I get over to National and manage to talk to Andy. He didn't have any putty tape either. I asked him what everyone used to secure their sinks to the counter top. They use adhesive acrylic caulk. This was the same answer I'd gotten from each of the other stores as well. Ok, I'd buy a couple of tubes of that. Now for the clips. Andy went back to one of his shelves and also came up with a tied plastic bag. By the time I'd gotten it opened, Andy had slipped out onto his motorcycle and left for lunch. I asked the other sales folks if they knew how the clips were supposed to be used. Again "No". Well, by this time, I figured they were probably the correct clips. I was just too dumb to figure them out, so I bought the bag (it held eight clips).

On to Mario's. I was getting hungry. Rice and beans - true fast food. I had the two meals bagged and on the road in about three minutes. Dianna and I took a well-deserved break for lunch.

She looked at the clips and couldn't figure them out either. By then, it was time for her to take a nap. So, I got on the computer and searched for the clips on the Intertubes. They have all sorts, just not the ones I was looking for.

Shortly thereafter, Denis called, saying he needed a ride home from Rick Magana's, our mechanic. While ferrying Denis back, I had him look at a set of the clips as well. He couldn't make sense of them either. He did look under his kitchen sink after we got back home. No dice. His sink doesn't have clips either. Apparently his installers couldn't figure it out either.

Ok. That meant I was going to use the caulk to  hold everything together and screw the clips. Reassembly of everything went quite well. We only had one minor leak that was easily solved. The caulking went down equally easy, and then we were done. Not bad. Four O'clock in the afternoon and we were at exactly the place we'd been at eight in the morning. A whole day shot. Oh, well, we actually did stop a potentially bad leak, and the sink got re-caulked - something I'd been wanting to do, just really not right now.

I do plan to make it back down to National (would that trip count?) and see if Andy knows how the clips are supposed to work. Just not today. It's time for a beer.