My
water pressure in my bathroom sink suddenly shit the bed a couple days
ago. It went from a dripping sink with a crap aerator, to normal water
pressure, to little more than the stream from an 80 year old man with
prostate issues trying to take a piss in the span of a week. So, I shot
my landlord an email about it. It’s not a leak, so I can deal with it
for a few days if I have to. Plus, I wanted to ask about the status of a
couple other things I needed to have done around my place anyway.
I
got a reply back a few hours later. He’d been talking to the
maintenance guy about getting to some of the other things I’d brought up
anyway, so he said that it wouldn’t be too hard to look at the sink at
the same time. Though, he mentioned that it was probably something in
the aerator since we’d been working on the pipes in there and might have
jarred some sediment loose. Ok, fair enough. I can see that being the
case. Especially since the repair guy had to beat on the shutoff
valves to get them to turn. So, at the landlord’s urging, I gave the
“simple” task of unscrewing the aerator and washing out any sediment a
try. That was dumb.
The fact of the matter is that water and I have a love/hate relationship. Well, not water, but plumbing. It seems like everything that broke as a homeowner was somehow water related. The spigot in the front yard, the dishwasher, the water heater, the toilet and the sprinklers. Hell, we had to replace the shed in the back yard because the sprinklers were soaking it to the point it rotted out. If it had water in it, it needed attention in a very expensive way. I love indoor plumbing, but I really need to be sleeping with a plumber.
So, anyway, I
had been in the bathroom, putting towels away at the time. I think it
was about 9:00 at night, and I got a wild hair. This should be easy!
I’m already in the bathroom. Let’s give this whole DIY thing a shot.
So, I grabbed the faucet and twisted. Nothing. Hmmm... So, I looked
at it, pondered if my pliers would work, and then decided to give it
another try. I eventually did get the aerator to come loose. I looked
in it, and it seemed clean to me. I knocked it against the sink a
couple times and nothing gross came out. Hmmm. Well, there went that
thought for where the pressure loss is coming from. So, I screwed the
cap back on. Now, being somewhat intelligent, I tested the
installation. Aaaaand, it didn’t work. A jet of water came rushing out
of the front of the aerator’s joint between it and the faucet, hitting
me right at crotch level. I now have bad plumbing AND look like I just
pissed myself. I took the cap off and tried to screw it on a little
tighter the second time. Gooseggs. I still have a broken faucet. I
gave up, took the cap off, put it on the back of the sink, and went back
to watching The Longest Yard, or whatever movie was on the last channel
the TV was on when I left the house that morning. I shot the landlord a
message telling him that the easy task bested me, and I’ll be sure to
eat my crow in front of the repair guy next time I see him. Case
closed, right? Nope.
At
the time this all went down, I didn’t have any plans to see the guy I’m
seeing that night. He works late, and I figured he’d eventually need
more then the 4 hours of sleep he’d get if he comes over to stay with
me. However, between then and midnight, those plans changed and he was
headed over after quitting time. I’d gotten a snooze in while I was
waiting for the drier, I can dig getting 4 hours of sleep before my
alarm goes off.
Well,
I hear him let himself in around 12:30 and head to the bathroom. I was
mostly asleep when he came in, so I didn’t do the math. I hear the
toilet flush, and the squeak of the faucet turning, followed immediately
by a yelp of surprise when the water sprayed out in every direction but down. I’ll admit, I laughed. I did. And then I felt
bad and tried to stifle the giggle. That only made it worse and I ended
up laying there just snorting through my nose, trying to be quiet.
(I’m sorry sweetie. I was mostly asleep, and that yelp was adorable.
And now you know why I had that goofy ass smirk on my face for the next
15 minutes after you came to bed.) I guess I should call the landlord
and find out when I can get that looked at sooner rather than later.
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