20 Jan 2012 No Comments
RV Renovation – Part II
Remember when you fell in love with your RV and decided to buy it? There it was…sitting on the lot with the sun shining on it, spotlighting it just for you. You couldn’t turn away. You just had to have it.
So you gave yourself time to adjust to it to find out what worked and what didn’t work for your lifestyle. This is exactly what we’ve been going through. Now, at last, some of our renovations are done and we are more than pleased with the results.
The first thing that I knew I wanted replaced was the kitchen faucet. There really wasn’t anything wrong with the old one except that it sat so low to the sink that I had to constantly push it to the side so that I could wash the dishes without chipping or breaking them.
I missed my high standing faucet from our sticks and bricks. So, off to Home Depot we went to find one that would fit the requirements that we had.
We found the Pfister Avanti, which was just like the one we had in our sticks and bricks.
My wonderful son in-law, Tim, came to install the new one. I could hardly wait. I was excited. After all this time I wouldn’t have to battle the faucet when doing dishes.
Let me stop right here with this wonderful tale of updating and renovating. I would like to tell you that the installation went smoothly and that I was able to wash dishes without one single dish hitting the new faucet.
That’s what I’d like to tell you but the gospel truth was that Murphy’s Law had accompanied the new boxed faucet. It was the box from hell. There were a couple of parts and some of the instructions missing in that box. Someone had obviously returned the box to the store…minus some parts.
Not to be put off by this hurdle, Tim started to tackle the job. He worked at getting the old faucet out and began working with what he had with the new faucet.
If you RV, then I don’t have to tell you that the area you are working is in verytightquarters. I mean you begin to question whether you really need to revise your New Year’s resolutions and add “Lose Weight”. Working in smalltightplaces isn’t good for your ego.
May I introduce you to my daughter pictured above? Tim needed another set of hands to get a grip on the nut that appeared to be glued into place on the old faucet.
He tried his level best to get the new faucet in but we knew defeat when the nut wouldn’t screw on the new facet. We all decided to take a break and go out to eat.
The next day we went back to Home Depot and exchange the faucet for one that had all of the components in it. It makes the job easier, she said tongue-in-cheek!
We felt we found a treasure map when we opened the new box and saw the sheet that told you what pieces were included in the box. How refreshing to know what we were working with.
The above piece is what could have saved Tim & Steph from a nervous breakdown. This black plastic cylinder is what is used to screw on the nut that is positioned past the length of your arm.
The Pilot took over the installation at this point because Tim needed to be back at his job. He decided that while he was at it he would also change out some of the plumbing.
So, out came some of the stiff pipes and in went flexible hose which freed up some of the cabinet for storage and made the installation much easier.
Cue the drumroll please….here is the new faucet! Isn’t it a beauty? I can’t begin to tell you how pleased we are with it and I haven’t once hit a dish on it or had to move it out of the way.
This is our third Pfister product and I can’t say enough good things about their customer service. When we called, they were extremely helpful in telling us…in understandable American English… what parts we were missing and offered to overnight them to us. That’s what I call great customer service.
We finally sold the house and are living fulltime in our RV...with the dog. Follow us as we travel and explore the country. I'll be interviewing people along the way that I think will be of interest to others.