I thought the easiest solution would be to just substitute a second Moen Core Assembly for the one that had broken. I just happened to have one of these, left over from a previous repair in a rental property. It was pretty old, but I thought it would work. In theory you just removed the spout from the faucet and the Core Assembly should just slide out. Sounds easy, but nothing is easy when you are trying to fix something that is fifty years old. The Moen Core Assembly was completely frozen in place. No amount of tugging and wrenching could remove it. Eventually the fixture had to be sawed off with a metal saw.
I still had the custom stainless steel wedge with two holes on six inch centers that I had a machine shop make for me many years ago. Now all I needed was a surface mount faucet that fit these holes and I'd be back in business. Not so fast. The Italian faucet I used many years ago to fix a similar problem had been discontinued years ago. Everything available seemed to be on four inch or eight inch centers.
I took the stainless steel wedge, the other Moen Core Assembly I had, and a laundry list of problems to the city's best plumbing supply store in search of a solution. While I was gone, the plumbers fixed some problems in the bathroom. After a lot of searching, the plumbing supply guys found a commercial restaurant faucet that seemed like it could be adapted for my needs. It was expensive, but not nearly as expensive as paying for a day with two plumbers was going to be.
It took quite a while for the plumbers to connect the new faucet I bought. The space under the sink where they were working was very cramped, and it took a while to convert the supply lines from a faucet with a single rotating handle on top to a more traditional faucet with separate knobs for hot and cold water. It wasn't easy to position the stainless steel wedge that allowed the surface mount faucet to remain vertical between the faucet and the angled stainless steel backsplash either. When the plumbers were finally finished, they both said the never wanted to do a job like this again. I wasn't surprised. That's exactly what the first plumber said when I did something very similar at my old rental property.
Dawn was amazingly good while the plumbers were banging on things and making a lot of noise in the kitchen. She pretty much ignored the whole event. Dawn might be scared of a lot of things, but she's not scared of plumbers. Several times Janet led her outside on a leash and she didn't even bark at the plumbers. Dot would have gone crazy is she had two strangers in the house all day.
I hope I never have to call a plumber again, but I know I probably will. There's still plenty that could go wrong in this old house. Every time something major happens like this, Janet and I renew our resolve to get things fixed around here. It's not going to be easy. I ran into an architect friend the other day and asked him for contractor suggestions. He said it was even hard for him to find good contractors. "Nobody wants to work on small jobs anymore," he told me. I already knew that.
At least life is back to normal for the moment. I'll resume my long walks and start thinking about travel plans again. Bad things happen, but life goes on.
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