Out of my comfort zone

Thursday I left the familiar work of data and processes behind and ventured out with a product manager and an engineer from Delta Faucet... into my kitchen. They were looking for someone to video tape for an install of the Allora Single-Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet with Soap Dispenser - someone who is a novice when it comes to home repair, and I certainly fit the bill. Little did they know that I’m also a kitchen novice, as I can barely tell the difference between a kitchenaid and a cuisinart.

Allora by Delta Faucet. With Soap dispenser!

 

After some preliminaries the tape started rolling. Like a good little geek, I read the instructions, counted the parts in the box, got my tools out and got my safety glasses on. I recruited the husband and a son to assist; husband’s first job was to shut off the water, and he shut it down for the whole house. (I found out later there were shutoffs under the sink for just the kitchen plumbing. I guess husband didn’t trust me to have any water in the area.)


Next, I de-installed the old faucet. Which actually required me, the kid, an engineer, and the husband at various points. Fortunately we had an auxiliary engineer. The product manager took the high road and stayed out from under the sink. Whoever installed the previous faucet had tightened down the nuts on the underside of the sink so tightly, that they may have been cross-threaded. (Points to the first post in comments who can explain cross-threading, btw). A few bruised knuckles later, finally we got off the old faucet without having to resort to the gardening shears (my idea, I confess). Elapsed time: 1:20. If I hadn’t been on camera, I probably would have stopped for a celebratory beer at that point. 


Finally I started installation of the faucet - this was the part that was being evaluated, and since I’m not sure if it is public I’ll have to be a little vague here. Suffice it to say that I was really happy I could do the install from the top of the faucet and didn’t have to crawl under the sink again. But, I wish I’d had the right tools - I had to improvise with what I had, and it took longer than I expected that way. Still I was done in under an hour.


I was quite surprised at how easy it was to do the install; I made a few missteps but it was nothing I couldn’t recover from. My 10-year-old was able to some of the work as well. I’d never attempted to do a faucet install because I figured it would be just to hard for me and I’d end up with a leaky mess afterwards which would require a plumber to fix. But that wasn’t the case at all.


Next, I’ll take on installation of the In2ition shower upstairs. Have you seen the new In2ition ad?