Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Back to Basics: Three Weeks Without a Kitchen Faucet

Note:  This is the second in a multi-post series called "Back to Basics."  Click here to read the first entry in this series.

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About a month ago, Alex and I woke to find ourselves with a mysterious puddle on the kitchen floor.  Don't tell Alex, but I'd actually noticed a bit of water on the floor near the kitchen sink a few days earlier, but I always assumed our wet hands or dish-cleaning had somehow resulted in said water and let it go for a few days.  But that particular Sunday morning, the puddle was larger than it had been and finally I realized something wasn't quite right.

We opened the cabinet doors to see where the water was coming from and immediately realized we had a problem.  It wasn't clear the source or cause of the leak, but there was obviously something going on and it had probably been dripping or leaking for at least a few days, if not more.  Through trial-and-error, we eventually figured out the issue was a leaky spray hose.  Once the source was determined, we breathed a sigh of relief - ya'll know plumbers charge an arm and a leg, especially for house calls.  As with all things marriage- and house ownership-related, things are never as simple as they seem. 

Our trip to Lowe's was pretty painless - visit the store, purchase a universal hose, go home and install the hose...not so fast.  Removing the existing hose was downright brutal.  First, we couldn't unscrew the darn thing, and then after that, one of the attachments got stuck when we tried to pull it through.  There was a whole other issue when trying to reverse the action in hopes of finding success with an alternate method.  Once we finally did get the hose removed, we reached another road block - that "universal" hose wasn't universal after all.  You got that right...the darn thing didn't fit!  UGH.

At this point, we were about a week into the process, seeing as how Alex had begun traveling for football, and he was also working 11 hour days when here in town (daily practices), so we tried to not stress over it because using paper plates and a microwave for food preparation really didn't seem so bad for a short period of time.  Once we realized the hose wasn't universal, the search to find a proper replacement part began.  Again, our schedules (well, mostly Alex's schedule) didn't allow a ton of flexibility needed to expedite this process, so we just went with it.  He ended up finding a store here in Monroe that sells products made by the manufacturer of our faucet, so with the help of a store clerk there, he attempted to order a replacement and urged the clerk to emphasize the prudence in making it all happen in a timely manner.  About a week after making the order (then, two weeks after the whole ordeal began), Alex began calling the store to check the status of the order daily.  It took about half a week after that for the piece to finally arrive, which meant we spent nearly three weeks without use of the faucet in our kitchen. 


My lovely husband exploring the leaky sink; little does he know the challenges that lay ahead.
As I said before, the idea of losing access to our kitchen faucet didn't seem like such a big deal at first.  We had some paper products on hand already, and eating sandwiches or preparing microwave meals wasn't a huge issue.  About a week in, however, we got sick of sandwiches and microwave meals, so I started trying to prepare one-dish meals and "allowed" ourselves the "luxury" of having cereal in ceramic bowls a few times a week.  But, then the dishes started to pile up because we were too lazy to wash dishes by hand (or even rinse them out) immediately, which led to some really gross build up and even a few unpleasant odors.  By the start of week three, I was ready to pull my hair out.  I was so frustrated; I admit I threw a few tantrums and probably shed some tears too.  Alex felt bad that he couldn't do anything to fix the issue so we even started to eat out more than usual, just to avoid me being whiny about washing dishes or not wanting to eat my seventeenth (yes, I exaggerate - duh) peanut butter sandwich for the week.

 It's sad, but things were rough, ya'll.  This is where it would be appropriate to say "#firstworldproblems," lol.  Thankfully, we got everything up and running before reaching the milestone of three full weeks without the faucet.  It was a huge sigh of relief, but even though we're about a month out, I still fill like I'm readjusting to having flexibility in preparing meals again.  I feel like we're in a bit of a rut (though maybe on the upswing by now) with meals - making the same basic meals over and over again.  If anyone has some simple recipes they want to share (especially of the crockpot variety - those are so great!), please send them my way. 

I hope everyone's enjoying the first few days of fall, and maybe even a special treat of some cooler weather.  It's been another busy week on my end (I'll be in the office just once this week.), but hopefully things will start to calm down soon.  The start of the month is always busiest as a 4-H agent, and the start of the school year is even worse.  Earlier this week, I went to an overnight livestock training at 4-H Camp, today we did a training for club leaders in our region, tomorrow is our first Jr. Leader meeting of the year, and Friday I'm headed back down to Alexandria for a meeting to develop an evaluation for our shooting sports program.  Next weekend I'll go back to 4-H Camp for a two-night camp with 7th and 8th graders, and then my lovely college roommate will be bringing her little family to Monroe for a visit (wahoo!!!).  Whew!

As always, stay tuned.
-Lauren


3 comments:

Jen said...

I just did this easy crockpot recipe and loved it!

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/567/Italian_Chicken_Potatoes56446.shtml

I also threw in frozen vegetables on top for the last hour or so of cooking and was so glad I did.

Yay! Next weekend! Can't wait :)

Jen said...

I meant to mention that I didn't have any parmesan but it still turned out yummy!

Lauren @ Here We Geaux said...

I need to try that! ...and I need to send you the recipe for crockpot fajitas. We have fajitas a lot at our house, but now that I've done them in the crockpot, we may never go back!