Installing A New Kitchen Faucet…

This resort life in Arizona has been tough! Between happy hours, dips in the pool, playing pickleball and good soaks in the hot tub it’s hard to find time for much of anything else. However, since we do live in our RV sometimes there are things to fix and sometimes there are items needing upgrading.

The upgrade this time around was to replace our kitchen faucet.  I am the type of guy who hates to replace something which works perfectly well such our our old kitchen faucet. Sharon, on the other hand has no problem with such triviality. Thus, we have a new Peerless faucet to put into our kitchen sink.

The nice thing about replacing the faucet is that any residential faucet will work in the RV but anyone who does plumbing knows it isn’t a fun task. Add in the fact that there is hardly any space in an RV to do any type of work I fully expected this to be a not-so-fun job. My first task was to turn the water off to get ready to remove the sink.

You may wonder why I decided to remove the sink. Well there are two reasons. One is that the caulk seal around the sink was is a bit dicey. There were a few spots which let water through to drip below the sink. Also with the sink out of the cabinet it would be relatively easy to install the new faucet.

Once I turned off the water I opened the faucets to let out all of the remaining water and water pressure.. Then I used a sharp knife to cut along the top of the sink between the sink and the countertop thus cutting through the old caulk. Next I had to remove everything from the cabinet beneath the sink to gain access to the brackets holding the sink to the countertop.

To get to some of the screws I had to remove all of the kitchen drawers in the adjacent cabinet. With all screws removed I took out the brackets holding the sink up. Then I unscrewed the PVC retaining ring just above the sink trap to free it from the pipes below and then unscrewed the hot and cold water pipes from the faucet.. Then the sink was lifted out (with a lot of wiggling around) to be cleaned up.

I then unscrewed the clamp under the sink that held the faucet in place. Next I unscrewed the retaining ring and the faucet was freed from the sink. With the old faucet removed I then removed all the caulk from the sink and the countertop with a plastic caulk scraper. Tedious but necessary and afterward I cleaned all the surfaces with rubbing alcohol.

Now I was ready to install our new faucet. Tightening up all the screws after installing the retaining ring and the faucet was on the sink. After a lot of jiggling I finally got the sink back in the countertop. The sink sat a few inches lower than the countertop allowing me to put a line of 100% waterproof caulk around the lip of the countertop hole.

Now to get the sink to adhere to the countertop I inserted two 2 foot wood clamps through the sink drain by taking them apart and inserting one end through the drain. I put the clamps back together and after laying a 2x3 across the top of the sink I was able to ratchet the wood clamps up to tighten them against the 2x3 thus pulling the sink upward. This secured the sink to the underside of the countertop and then I simply cleaned up the excess caulk wetting my finger to wipe up the excess and wiped it on a paper towel.

I let the sink sit 24 hours to ensure the caulk had dried them reattached the sink brackets from below (they probably aren’t really needed but I put them back in anyhow). With the sink secured I took off the wood clamps and reinstalled the hot and cold water pipes using some Teflon Tape. Lastly I attached the drain pipes by tightening the retaining rings.

I ran the water to test for leaks and viola! We have a new faucet installed… now back to the hot tub to soak my body from all the contortions I had to do to get this thing installed…

NOTE: We are currently in Mesa Arizona until March 11th 2020, then over to Tucson for a few days.

Cave Creek Hike and Just Chillin’…

One great thing about Mesa Regal RV Resort is there is live music happening somewhere inside the park every single day. While all the bands aren’t great they are for the most part pretty good and play a wide assortment of music. The music line up does not include Zydeco music but that is okay as we have already booked a month in late spring at Betty’s RV Park in Louisiana to get our Zydeco “fix.”

Just about every evening we head over to one of the two pools to enjoy happy hour and listen to whomever is playing. There are times when there is one band playing at each pool and we can decide on which one is best to listen to. Sharon loves to get up and dance then before we know it it is dinner time. While here we have also been trying new recipes periodically and one night I made some fabulous Mexican Shrimp Cocktail… YUM!

Another reason we like to stay here in the winter is to have some appointments with the Mayo Clinic. I had one appointment there recently to get a second opinion on my ailing right knee. I learned after the imaging and consultation that knee surgery will definitely be in my future. How soon only my knee knows. I have had a few cortisone injections which offer two to three months of pain relief allowing me to hike more than a mile or two and play some pickleball. I had my last one in December when we were in San Diego.

Since the Mayo is in far north Phoenix near Scottsdale we took the opportunity to hike in Cave Creek, AZ at the Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area. We parked and donned our hiking boots to hit the trail.  A short way up the trail is a booth where $3.00 per person is collected to hike there. Man, it bothers me to have to pay to hike on lands bought by tax dollars but what is a person to do…

This 3 plus mile hike was through the typical vegetation found in the Sonoran desert with a varied assortment of cacti with few trees and sparse underbrush. However, for those of you that haven’t visited the Sonoran Desert it has a unique beauty all to its own. With the towering Saguaro Cactus and other indicator species the vistas in all directions are delightful.

Our hike took us up down a small canyon and we even crossed  small wooden slat bridge across Cave Creek. While we didn’t see an wildlife on our hike we were treated to various desert birds during our stroll. I love the sounds made by both the Cactus Wren and the Curve Billed Thrasher as it tells me I am in the Sonoran Desert just as the Saguaros do.

NOTE: We are currently in Mesa Arizona until March 11th 2020, then over to Tucson for a few days.