Full Bath August, 2003: I fixed the toilet that was making a noise like a banshee ripping through the house. It was as easy as buying a ballcock and reading the directions. Plumbing isn’t that hard when you have directions! 01/07/04: My shower had been flirting with me for quite a while. When I turned on the water, it would whistle at me. It’s quite flattering, actually, to have someone (in this case something) whistle at me as I stand there in my birthday suit, but it was getting a little annoying after a few months. I decided to do something about it. "Hire a plumber!" you say? HA! I can do this! I went to Home Depot and purchased a relatively inexpensive chrome shower kit. Shower head, faucets, spout, and the “piece behind wall" (heretofore called "The Piece"). I got together everything I needed, shut off the water, and began "my project". It was pretty easy to disassemble the shower fixtures. I didn't realize that the spout just unscrews from the pipe. I took everything off, and found that I also needed to replace "The Piece". Seems the faucets wouldn't work with the old one. This brings me to a point: Just because you can take it apart, doesn't mean you can put it together. I took off the old one, removing some shims to help reach it. This went easily, and with the enclosed instructions, I figured what could go wrong? Wrapping the old pipes with plumber's tape, I put on the new "Piece", tightened everything down, and went down to turn on the water. I sprinted upstairs to see water, beautiful water flowing from the very spout I had installed with my own hands. I turned it off, and heard water, vicious, cold water shooting from behind the tub. Oh, God. I ran around to see it cascading down through the wall, and sprinted down to turn off the water, skipping three or four stairs at a time. I went up and found one of the fittings wasn't sealing, and replaced it with one from the box. Let's try this again... This time everything worked. The pipes stayed dry, and water was flowing where it was supposed to flow. I do feel somewhat neglected, however. There's no whistling at me anymore. 01/20/04: "STEVE! I CAN'T SHUT OFF THE WATER!!!" I was downstairs cleaning the computer room when my wife called to me. She was bathing the girls when she tried to turn off the cold water, but the handle wouldn't budge. I ran down to the basement and turned off the water, then headed up to "put on my plumber's hat", as my wife said. Sure enough, the handle wouldn't move. I took it apart to find out what was wrong but the answer wasn't as obvious as I had hoped. (I was hoping for a little man inside with a sign that said "Just clean it and put it back" but he wasn't there. Dang!) Time to call Dad. I try not to bother him too much, but even a handyman like myself (don't snicker) had to learn somewhere - ok, ok. You can snicker. Hell, I just did. Dad came over and pulled the "little white cartridge thingy" out (see photo) and little pieces fell out. Seemed some debris was lodged in there and stripped the thingy. I took it up to Home Depot and the nicest guy there, Steve in plumbing, opened up a brand-new shower fixture box, took out my part and gave it to me - FREE. Wow. I'm calling the manager to tell him THAT was service. Now all I have to do is put it in! 01/26/04: I had to deal with far too many leaks this weekend. A fitting had to be replaced (it was old. Go figure.), my step-father came over and replace two valves in the basement and they leaked, so he had to come back and do it again. At the time of this writing, however, the house is dry. Pray with me now.........Thanks. Progress Photos

This is the piece that ruined my evening (and my morning). Those are the chunks of it that fell off right next to it.

These are the new faucet handles. They screwed in differently than the others, so "The Piece" had to be changed.

This is "The Piece." I don't know what it's called, but it looks like a "T". Oh, that wood just laying there across the pipes? That's what was holding the piping away from the tub, so I just put it back. Makes sense to me.