The Dripping Faucet

Several months ago, I noticed that our bathtub faucet was leaking. Somehow, Steve never noticed until I pointed it out to him several times.J 

Finally, he made the necessary trip to Lowes and got a replacement part. I was delighted when he took the old part out, put the new one in and declared it a success. No more dripping faucet!

The next morning when I got in the shower and turned the knob, I was puzzled that there was no hot water. After fiddling with the knob for a little bit, I discovered that there was indeed hot water but the knob was on backwards! I have lived with Steve for almost 36 years so I knew that it would be a little while until he got around to correcting the problem so I didn't say anything but got somewhat used to turning the knob the "wrong" way to get hot water. Eventually Steve did change the knob so that the hot water came out when we turned it to the left and the cold water when we turned it to the right, BUT, the faucet leaked again! I was disappointed and Steve was disgusted. 

Several days later (or maybe it was a week) Steve returned to Lowes and got the same new part again (sorry, I am challenged with plumbing so have no idea what it is actually called). This new part sat in our bathroom for quite a few days until finally, when we were expecting some guests the next day and I mentioned it would be nice not to hear that constant drip, Steve installed the new one. You guessed it! It continued to drip. (It is times like these that I really miss my father-in-law. Anytime I had plumbing issues I always called him and he was happy to come and fix it for me.)

Well, Steve had had about enough of this dripping faucet (and his complaining wife) so the next day he stopped at Home Depot and got the same new replacement part. I guess he thought maybe a different store would improve his luck. He took a little more time and cleaned out some rust and dirt from the pipes before installing this one. He put it on and we both held our breaths as he turned the faucet on and off. NO DRIP!!!

As of this writing, there is still no leaking coming from the faucet so I am cautiously optimistic. I'm not sure if Steve is happier about the fact that the faucet no longer drips or that his wife is no longer nagging him to fix it. As the saying goes, "happy wife, happy life!"