When Renovations Go Wrong Before They Go Right

We’ve renovated the majority of our home but our downstairs bathroom has the potential to be one of the best looking projects in our portfolio. It has a blend of trendy and traditional that just made sense for our partnership with Pfister.

Do not get me wrong, Mallery does have good taste (look at her choice in husband), but she tends to complicate projects and doesn’t understand what it means to stick to a budget. The original plan for the bathroom revolved around this unique leaf sink. She wanted me to ombre the walls to match said sink and added a $400 sun shaped mirror to the shopping list.

I quickly brought her back to reality, both on cost and feasibility.

I am always up for a home improvement challenge, but my artistic skills do not line up with her extravagant dreams. And all photos from my ombre attempt have conveniently been destroyed.

After some compromising, (She traded ombre walls for a pre-lit Christmas tree.) we did finally finish the bathroom and it looked good. Except for one thing… the faucet.

Since we were still knee deep in diapers, cost was a big factor. Agreeing on a faucet proved to be harder than one would think, so we bandaged the situation with something ‘functional’ so we could wash our hands in the sink she ‘had to have’.

Big mistake.

After a few months, the surface of the faucet started to disintegrate and we were never really sure if our better half was really cleaning the bathroom or taking a nap on the bathroom floor. Hindsight is 20/20.

Fast forward a few years to now, and we had finally agreed on a faucet. We were ready to replace our bandage faucet and round out the bathroom renovation with the Arterra Single Handle Vessel Faucet by Pfister.

To make life easier during this install, we removed the sink to get easier access to the water lines underneath the counter. Depending on your application, this may be difficult, but for us, it made the install a breeze.

I don’t know why but the contractor who built our house in the 60’s did not think it was important to have shutoff valves in the bathrooms, so the water to the house had to be shut off.

Once the water was off, we removed the old faucet and lines and began to test fit the new one. Just positioning our new Tuscan Bronze faucet into the proper place was exciting!

We placed the C ring underneath (bumpy side up) and secured the provided nut.

Installation of the water lines was quite simple. The first step was to connect the line to the pipes coming from the wall. It did not say to apply Teflon tape on the threads, but we like to in most plumbing applications to proactively protect against leaks.

The lines coming off the faucet had two O rings for enhanced protection, so we did not see the need to apply Teflon on those threads.

After securing the hot and cold lines together, it was time to turn on the water and check for leaks. I knew we were good when I didn’t hear her scream through the floorboards! Which is when we realized the trendy leaf sink wasn’t a perfect oval and was installed backwards the first time.

Live and learn.

And then the true test of the faucet began. We turned it on and took turns washing our hands under the new vessel faucet. What an amazing difference! The aerator works marvelously, and we are not able to tell the difference when there is a change in water pressure (e.g. the toilet flushing). No more having to wait for the toilet to stop before washing our hands!

I should have gone with the Pfister Arterra Single Handle Vessel Faucet from the beginning of this bathroom renovation, but luckily this mistake was easily rectified. Years later, but rectified. I’ll never admit it to her, but she was right.