60+ year old thread.

We did our own kitchen remodel (acted as general contractor) - and my wife "just had to have" a KRAUS sink (came with hosed fixture). While the pieces were high quality - the hose was NOT. Three hoses failed with the above described mess - each, lasted just short of a year. Pin holes caused "unfindable" leaks - my body does not conform to the space allowed. Kraus keeps all of their (German) parts in a warehouse in NY. Removed said fixture and switched to Delta (sadly their hose won't fit the Kraus parts). No more leaks - three more years have passed.

Best thing about the hosed fixture - easy to fill the coffee pot, which I keep near the sink so it will reach.

 

Good Morning Porch Peoples! Supposed to get a little warmer (65*) today, and I'll take it. Got some stuff I'd rather do while it's NOT COLD and DAMP! The sink install gift was sort of a cheat, as the wife still had to get under there for a bit where I could not reach the stuck one. But, I bought a matching second soap/lotion dispenser so I made up for that. The old deck was plastic, but had two shafts at each end with nuts. Once I got the old faucet out of the center, I realized I could pry from the top, and win over the rust. Water (of course) had rusted the hole, welding the sink to the shaft and nut. I put silicone caulk on the inside of the hole to seal it up some. Just get a stainless sink, and you won't ever have that problem. We had a real chintzy one, so when we redid the kitchen, wife would not tolerate a good replacement. Had to have cast iron "like I grew up with."

Faucet is fancy though. Pull out head, spray and stream, and POWER BOOST!

 

I was hoping our warmer temps and sunny skies would "get" up the Atlantic Coast a bit more quickly, as the Vitamin D from the sun has felt good when I've gotten out and taken advantage of the warmer weather. Although our overnight temps were in the mid-20's, today's high is projected to be 55-degrees, even warmer than yesterday when I was easily inspired to get out so some work in the yard. So, I definitely feel that hike or bike ride coming today.

In chatting with my mother up in PA yesterday, we did learn my Aunt picked-up a very mid-case of Covid while she was in rehab after a recent hospital visit out in Lebanon County and shared it with my Uncle. Both are in their late 70's and not the best of health... so good they were nearly asympomatic with just cold-like symptoms. I believe both had been vaccinated given how often my Aunt has been in and out of medical care facilties, so they were breakthrough cases, which at least in Georgia, make-up about 15% of the recent positive test cases: 14% fully-vax'd and another 1.3% full-vax'd and with a booster as of last Tuesday's GaDPH report. I'm waiting to see what it looks in today's report. On the bright side, when I took a look at the National and several different state's case numbers, it does look like a few have peaked during the past day or two, which would be a good thing. And, it's also probably not a bad thing that so many additional folks have gotten a "dose" of natural antibodies and T-cells during a surge when the symptoms/outcomes were not nearly as severe as they were in previous surges. But, I digress....

I see where the temp is now 37F, so the road and trail beckons... and I need to thaw some shrimp for dinner tonight since we went out for Fish & Chips last night at the pub.

Y'all stay healthy, happy and busy out there!

 

Morning all:
Who thinks this stuff up!

 

When it comes to faucet selection -my wife makes those picks- WITHIN MY RULES- ONLY Moen or Kohler. My preferred - Moen.
Delta is working their way back to the quality they had years ago (40-50 years back), They may be there. My Daughter and SIL are both architects, went with some foreign European faucets, and within 5 years they went back to Moen. If anything goes bad on a Moen or a Kohler, just call them and they will send you the parts for free. they both request you be the original buyer.

 

This is a Moen, replacing a Delta about 20 or more years old. I don't know exactly how many of those ball cartridges I put in that thing. The last one ended up dripping 2 weeks after replacement. Christmas present was she picked what she wanted (I got cull rights), as long as it had ceramic cartridge or disk. She didn't go for one with "the app"!, but I did make her stop looking at $69 stuff.

 

I've been doing plumbing stuff for a friends remodeling business for years. I always take a sigh of relief when the homeowner supplied me with a Moen shower valve. The Delta ones are a PITA to install and are so much more complicated than they need go be. One tidbit of advice with Moen: If the valve cartridge does go bad (maybe in 15 years) replace it with a real OEM Moen brand one. Especially the 1225 model with the Positemp. The HD Danco ones are cheap. I've disassembled many of the OEM and knock-off ones. Only Moen has stainless steel milled parts. The others have plastic with stamped steel inserts. They will fail in <5 years.

 

Just a note about cheap stainless steel sinks... One reason they are cheap is the lack of sound buffers on the underside. You can do a better job yourself with MLV (mass loaded vinyl). Same stuff you put in walls for soundproofing. Makes a big difference.

 

I'll find out firsthand in a year.

 

... and the lovely Miss Debbie was "feeling the call" today as well and joined me for a brisk-paced walk up Kennesaw Mountain Road. It never quite got to 55F, more like 50F, and it wasn't our best time, but good enough for Debbie's first time up the mountain since Dec 5th. We're quite fortunate to have the National Battlefield Park a mere 5-miles / 11-minutes away which gives us ready access to the 36-miles of trails, even though it's the walks, hikes and my occasional bike rides up the mountain road we tend to make the most of.

 

Do you all have any kind of water filtration system on your water supplies? I have a shower control that failed so often I started keeping a spare cartridge on hand. Then we put in a whole house water filter (+ acid neutralizer but not everyone needs that) and my spare cartridge has gone unused for over 10 years.

Tomorrow is my last Thursday! By which I mean that after tomorrow all of my days will be Fridays.

 

Evening all:

X2, hope you enjoy every minute of retirement Dave.

 

Congrats, Dave!!! Enjoy your retirement!!

...and good morning fellow Porchatonians!! Not much new from here above the tree line. Bridge replacement is almost done - all the concrete work is complete, they started the final backfill and began removing materials and forms yesterday. Hopefully the road will be open within a week.

Stay safe and warm!

 

Noticed this as I got home from work yesterday. Time for a LOF, maf and throttle body cleaning to celebrate. AC Prerunner runs like a top after 15 years. Shooting for 300K.

 

Help your Taco celebrate by pumping up those squishy tires, Swabby.

 

Don't need the TPMS.

 

I'm so accustomed to ignoring that stupid TPMS light - I don't even notice it any more...........

 

Morning all:
Looks like some of us will get to use the snowblowers this weekend, maybe I should have used it with the 2-3" of snow we got, the driveway is now solid ice!

Now I feel better, when I had the oil tank filled it was $2.99 a Gal ., shortly after it dropped to $2.84 , it's now $3.05 and the and are now a , the full tank should last until next fall then I hope the next fill isn't a !!!!

Interesting, twice I saw it mentioned where milk prices were over $8.00 a gal., so far in our area milk price has remained stable and nowhere near that price, same for eggs, bread, and most other staples.

 

Working is so overrated!

I am a Moen guy too. I have only had to replace a Moen faucet once, because it is no longer in production, and they have none of the exterior parts left in stock. The faucet was close to 30 years old. The Moen shower fixtures are built to last. I have two of them that are in the 30-year-old range. Moen does take care of their customers with quality customer service. I have discovered that polished brass bathroom fixtures are no longer in style, but I will suffer on with mine.

I looked at a whole house water filtration system, but decided against one, opting for an In-Sink filtered hot and cold-water dispenser with the sink. The system has a 2 quart storage tank for hot water which works for my needs. The filter is a little pricy at around $55 on Amazon. Congrats on retiring!!!

Another warm day here in the DC area. Going to finish disassembling the pop-up canopy for future parts.