Behold the Mighty Plumber!

Lllth. Plumbing is one of the most frustrating things I've done around my house. But it's nice when it's done. I finally replaced the kitchen faucet. While I was at it, I put in a water filter. The faucet was easy, much easier than the bathroom, largely because there's a lot more room to get under the kitchen sink. Then came the water filter. There were two major problems, one of which would have been a problem regardless. First, the cold water connection had stripped threads on the inner part. Second, the adaptor to connect the tubing from the filter to said cold water connection was an insane leak-fest.

Thus began the quest. Finding a replacement cold water connector hose was easy. At Lowe's I got a metal compression-connector. It was the wrong size. The 1/2" cold water connection for some reason wouldn't thread onto the 5/8" compression-connector. So I went to Fred Meyer, since it was closer. No luck. Then Home Depot. There I found some plastic connectors much resembling one that had come with the filter to attach the tubing to the faucet itself. I wasn't exactly sure what size I needed, so I bought two, hoping to avoid going back. The first one worked. The big question is why couldn't the water filter have come with a simple, leak-free connector, hmmm?

So the plumbing's done. Before I put everything back under the sink, I really ought to put some sealant around the edges and the drains, though. As for the old faucet, it was a dying relic. The threads where one might attach an aerator to smooth water flow were stripped, so water sort of sprayed out of it everywhere, especially if you turned it up very high. This also resulted in water running back down the spigot, making it look like the faucet itself leaked. Gone now. And its replacement switches from smooth-flow to spray, and has a sprayer hose built into it. I'm sure there's some fancy name for such a faucet, but I have no clue what it might be.