Maintenance work

We have lived in our present home here in Japan since Christmas 2001, and it's long enough that we are starting to need to do maintenance work.

When we returned from the trip to the States, the kitchen faucet had a leak starting a day or two before we got back.  It apparently was leaking out of the faucet valves under the sink and had gotten the floor of the cabinet quite wet.  Fortunately, David had cleared everything out and dried it before too much damage was done.

Turns out the washer in the faucet was broken and the option was to either replace  the unit entirely or try to get a new washer to fit.  Trouble is that American and Japanese plumbing fittings are not quite the same, naturally.  Henry tried to buy some washers that were close in size and put them on.  It worked the first time for about a day.  The second time about half a day.  Finally, Henry just bought a new Japanese faucet which has a sprayer you can pull out.  Monster of a thing.  The Japanese unit fit the American pipes or fixtures, or whatever else it's called.  Henry spent about two days working on this.


The old American faucet with soap dispenser and spray.
This is the new "Monster" faucet.  We can select filter water for drinking or unfiltered water for cooking.  The handle is easy to turn and the hot water comes on quickly.  Henry got a couple of silver disks to cover the holes from the old unit.