You may be wondering what’s up with the random picture of my sink. Well, this post is celebrating newness, and so I just had to share our shiny new kitchen faucet with you. I never really imagined myself buying a fancy new faucet, and it wasn’t really in the budget. Then again, the $400 water bill caused by our old leaky faucet wasn’t in the budget either!!!
That’s right. No, don’t blame the water company, I already tried that. Our normally $60-70 water bill was a whopping $400, and I literally fell off the stool I was sitting on when my husband came and told me. I immediately called the city (where I also happen to work) and threw a very nice and polite fit.
They sent someone out to check the meter, said it wasn’t spinning so we didn’t have a leak, and reminded us that yes we still owed them $400. We paid up, but we weren’t happy about it. We thought it may have been from watering the garden at the end of the growing season or something, so we assumed the bill would be cheaper the next time.
But our next bill, two months later, was almost as high! I threw another internal fit, wanting to find someone, somewhere to place the blame. Again the utilities department said it must be something in the house like a toilet that kept running causing the problem.
That’s when we took a look at our kitchen faucet. We had noticed a slow drip from it a while ago, but didn’t think that it was enough to cause that big an increase in our water bill. But one day, when Eric was taking a shower, I had water running in the kitchen. I ran to investigate and saw that even though the faucet was turned off, water was running out of it at full speed! When Eric turned off the shower, the water in the kitchen stopped.
We’d never noticed it before because the boys (our Chinese exchange students) shower while we’re at work, and we typically shower together (hey, we’re still newlyweds okay!).
Eric tried to see if it was just a matter of replacing parts, but some of the parts were so old that we finally decided to just replace the whole faucet. We considered getting another cheap one, but then realized that this was probably the most used item in our home. We wash hands there before meals, I use it regularly while cooking, we fill water glasses and pet bowls with it, we wash our dishes with it, basically it’s used at least twenty times a day.
Once we recognized what a important part of our daily life the kitchen faucet was, we decided to put a little less into savings that month to splurge for a $100 $190 (sorry, sleepy posting, didn’t double check. Still worth it!) faucet.
Eric and I both pretty much hate plumbing, but it’s better than paying someone else to do it. Plus, I always find him incredibly sexy when he’s fixing something in the house!
He wasn’t quite small enough to get underneath the sink to remove the old faucet, so I lent a hand.
I had to crawl all the way into the cupboard! It took a few hours but we now have a brand new faucet that makes me smile every time I use it. I never knew something so simple could bring me so much satisfaction!
Yep, there it is again. Just have to revel in its awesomeness for a moment.
Okay, moment over. That’s not the only exciting newness in our life. We’re enjoying lots of firsts with our puppy. Soon I’ll share his first day at the beach with you. We also just finished our first time in charge of a family reunion. It was amazing, though we’re now taking a couple days to recuperate. Lastly, we’ve got some new things in store for the website. Exciting times!!!
Addition: I’m amazed how many emails I’ve gotten in less than 24 hours asking what faucet I got. It’s the Delta Savile Stainless 1-Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet, and you can get it on Amazon although we bought ours at Lowes. Yes, we absolutely love it. We haven’t had any issues and the sprayer is fantastic.
Boy, I feel your pain. I just had to replace mine. Luckily I didn’t have that high of a bill! Mine corrided through on the spout part!?!? I “wanted” that one that you guys bought, but settled for a less expensive one that works just fine for me. When I remodel in a few years, though, you can bet I am getting one similar!
Oh no Tonja! I think we had the same problem, it was corroded in several places. Glad your bill didn’t get too high!
I am curious if you like it immensely after using a few days, and what brand/model you got. Our sprayer doesn’t work worth anything, and we’ve considered getting a faucet/sprayer combo, but not sure which kind to get.
Cindy we absolutely like it immensely! I was half asleep typing the post last night and meant to say $200 instead of $100. I added a link to the faucet in the post. We really like having the sprayer in the faucet instead of a separate one that hardly works.
Wow, that is a beautiful faucet! Use it in good health 🙂
Love the new faucet, very stylish. I think the kitchen is the most important room in the house, so spending some money here and there to deck it out isn’t a bad thing 🙂
We have the same faucet! I love it!! We put it in about a year ago and I just love having the sprayer built-in. Although I drive my husband crazy b/c I like to move it around to rinse the sink out so I usually end up accidentally leaving it hanging about an inch out of the faucet! 🙂
I’m a bit confused. I am reading reviews on Amazon, and it says that has a magnetic thing so that it cannot be left “out”, the sprayer part. Is Tara’s truly the same faucet?
It does have a magnet but you have to get it close enough to the top for the magnet to engage. We haven’t had any issues with it hanging loose or anything like that.
Hey as far as I’m concerned the faucet costing $100 to get something EPIC is soo much better than $800 you’ve already spent on something that broke ewww on the bills.
Diana, I am actually looking at new faucets for my kitchen at the moment! Ours is definitely past its prime. Yours is lovely!
I just ordered one from Amazon (we don’t have a Lowe’s within 35 miles). My mom has the same thing (just got in the last 2 months), and she says the hot/cold/on/off are “not normal”. She said off is left, on is right, hot is back, cold is forward.
Was that just how her husband installed it, or is that just how it works?
Those directions are correct. I’ve used similar handles in industrial kitchens so I think it’s normal, maybe just not the usual for home kitchens. The on and off are really easy, no getting used to. It took a few days to remember without looking which way was hot or cold. We’ve had lots of other people use it with no issue. But it might take a few days for it to feel normal if you’ve never used that kind of handle before.
Thanks for the info. I never knew industrial kitchens were different than home kitchens (besides higher end appliances, more space etc). Learn something new every day!