No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
or
How I Rocked the Faucet Fix
In an effort to do something nice for my Husband last night, I worked on the dishes while he helped the kiddos with homework (or was it discuss the hacking of an anime costume weapon?--I digress.) After washing out the sink, I gave it a quick rinse and then proceeded to spray myself with the faucet sprayer because it was breaking. A quick flip of the wrist and I accidentally removed the faucet trigger which stopped the spray but also rendered it unusable.
UNTIL...
I fixed it! First I'm to cheap to pay some one and second I get really excited when I can figure out how to fix something on my own. Today's blog will come in handy if your faucet sprayer is broken, but even more, I hope it encourages you to do your next FIY (Fix-it-Yourself) project!
YOU CAN DO IT!
This is the metal piece that should be holding the trigger on, but alas, it isn't. The only way I'm going to figure this out is to start to take it apart.
Removing the trigger was easy, it already popped off. Removing the front of the sprayer wasn't much harder. Just unscrew it. If you can open a jar of pickles, you can tackle this step.
See? Easy Peasy. When you open it there are a bunch of little parts. Don't lose them in the sink! I'm working over one of my cleaner kitchen towels (because my mom reads my blog).
Next step, figure out how this thing works. This metal piece I have my finger on moves in and out because it has a spring around it. This is the part that was sticking out on the other side and was supposed to hold on the trigger.
Now, it's time for a little more dismantling.
Works slowly so you know what order things go back.
Take a photo if you need to.
When I pull out the metal piece all the way, you can see the spring around it (kind of like a ball point pen) and you can see the other end of the metal piece has a notch in it that looks like it will fit perfectly with that little bar across the opening of the trigger that I'm holding in my right hand. So good, I've just figured out what I have to do. I've got to get all the pieces back together and get that bar into that notch.
So we start by putting the metal piece back in.
That piece goes all the way through the handle to the other side.
Here it the piece with the notch. If I push down hard (remember, it's springy) then it pops up enough for the notch to have clearance. The only other difficult thing is making sure the notch is going in the right direction (side to side in my case)--but that's pretty easy to do with a couple of tries.
With the metal piece pushed down as far as I can hold it, it's time to slip in the bar of the trigger. You just tip one side in where the notch is and then wiggle it down into place.
I feel like this really is a ta-da moment. And I plan on having my two teen daughters try this after homework tonight. I remember my mom showing me how to fix a toilet and it gave me the courage to try other projects like this. I can now say I can lay tile, fix a screen door, install a light and a ceiling fan, rewire a lamp, fix a boat dock, and lay my own floor.
Now to finish, you just need to put everything back in the way it came out.
Then twist it back together...
...and now back to the dishes!
Next, I want to try wallpapering a statement wall and upholstering a wing back chair.
Have you ever tackled your own FIY projects? What were they? What would you like to try?
Now go fix something!
