Bathroom Renovations

Last July I moved into my current apartment.  Two days before I started moving my possessions in I had a conversation with my landlady about the bathroom.  It seems there had been a leak in the bathroom sink and the plumber had come to fix it.  I thought this was good until I realized that the cold water would barely come out when I turned on the sink.  Simple tasks like washing my hands and face became challenging as burning hot water would start coming out of the sink after a couple of minutes.

Last December the plumber came again because there was a leak in my landlady's bathroom which apparently came from my shower.  It seems that the shower needs to be caulked (actually ALOT more needs to be done with it, but that'll be another story I'm sure).  While the plumber was there I asked if he could take a look at the sink.  His suggestion was to get a new faucet.  Now I haven't seen the plumber since, but my landlady did buy a new faucet, which she kept in her house until I asked on June 30th if she'd allow Ray to install it.  By this time Ray and I were both very tired of getting our hands burnt.

Beginning the process.  The bolts on the sink were so rusted over that Ray had to cut them off.  The sink stayed this way for a day or two.   

The workspace that Ray had.  Now, to give you some perspective, the door opens inwards and Ray is over 6 feet tall.  He had to crawl under the sink cabinets and the floor space is probably only 3-4 feet long.  This was definitely an act of love.

Finally the bolts are off!   Guess what....when Ray was cleaning a bunch of gunk out of the cold water pipe it turned out that a screw (probably from the plumber that came to fix the sink last year) fell into the pipe and was keeping the cold water from coming out.

Yay for a new faucet and drain! 

Oh, did I mention that the pipe underneath the sink was so old that when Ray went to remove the sink the pipe actually started crumbling in his hand?!?  Yep, so he ended up replacing the piping too....with the help of some very good friends who have lots of plumbing experience.