I can’t quite put my finger on it but it feels like I have been forgetting to do something…Oh right, I have a house blog I should be adding content to. In fact, I’m about to hit the one year anniversary of said blog and in my absence I managed to miss the one year anniversary of when I moved into the house itself. Shameful and unforgivable I say! Best to ignore the whole subject and move on.
Considering it’s been a year lets start with something that has been hovering at the top of my “to do” list since day one. One of the two sinks in the master bath had some serious leaks. Not just a drip from the faucet, but water seeping directly from the knobs as well. Early on I had taken the knobs off in an attempt to discover the problem, but a lack of part numbers on the internals and an even more disheartening lack of plumbing expertise on my end led me to the simple solution of just shutting off the water.
Day in and day out I was reminded of my failure. Every time I washed my hands I was taunted by the non functioning sink placed so much more conveniently to the towel rack.
Over the holidays, a conversation with family about home projects spurred me to give it one more shot before giving in and just calling a plumber. Which, mind you for an American male is the single greatest sign of weakness.
Fearing the reputation of my virility was on the line I grabbed my trusty tablet and hunkered in for a long night of plumbing based research. At the least, I had a place to start. All the faucets in my house are Kohler and all original so I could date them to 1960ish. It was slow starting at first. Mostly because I just didn't know what I was looking at. Through perseverance and an almost inhuman desire for victory I stumbled my way through digital page after digital page of vintage plumbing material. To my surprise I actually found images of the parts and from there I discovered Kohler even still makes the dang things. One quick order from Amazon and I had the parts I’d need to keep my status of “all that is man.”
The installation was about as easy as it gets. Unscrew the knob, take a bolt off, pull out the old part, and reverse. It just goes to show, do enough research and you will be surprised what you can learn.
For anyone who might need it here at the part numbers to my old Kohler knobs.
For cold, GP30004
For hot, GP30002
